Marvel’s Ant-Man is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). There, I’ve said it. And I’m saying it ‘cause Marvel really, really wants you to know that Marvel’s Ant-Man is part of the MCU.
Related: 5 Things You Need to Know About Ant-Man
From the posters to the second trailer, Ant-Man’s marketing has been all about connecting the movie to the rest of the Avengers’s franchise. While this may have been motivated by a fear of audience not responding positively to Ant-Man, it did give us some of the best marketing any movie has had.
Concluding the MCU’s Phase 2, Ant-Man doesn’t exactly have an easy job following Avengers: Age of Ultron, but not only lives up admirably, it also marks itself as the single most fun experience since 2008’s Iron Man.
The strongest suit of Ant-Man remains its appreciation of being in a shared universe without getting distracted by the many other heroes as was seen in Iron Man 2.
While the movie was initially surrounded by some controversy due to the departure of Edgar Wright after more than a decade of development by him and partner, Joe Cornish. Having left due to creative differences (rumoured to be the insistence of Marvel Studios for the movie to conform to MCU’s continuity), Wright was replaced by Peyton Reed with Adam McKay entering as a secondary writer. McKay was joined by Paul Rudd on finishing the script.
While this slightly bloated line-up of creative talent can be sometimes felt in oddly placed scenes that tend to play out a tad too long, Rudd’s comedic timing and tone pulls the narrative together.
With a combination of fantastic humour, action and superhero mythology, Ant-Man lives up to its promise of being a superhero heist film.
Marvel’s Ant-Man hits cinemas on the 15th of July!