Marvel's Ant-Man (Earth-113599)

Marvel's Ant-Man is a 2015 live-action superhero film based on the character by the same name. It is the sixteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe produced by Touchstone Pictures and Marvel Studios, as well as the final movie of Phase 2. It was released worldwide July 17th 2015.

Production
Ant-Man has a long history of complicated film rights and production trouble. The first talks of a film centered around the character came out during the 1980s when Warner Bros. Pictures, inspired by the success of Richard Donner's Superman and Honey I Shrunk the Kids approached Marvel with a bid to purchase the film rights for the character. However, they were unable to sort through the legality of purchasing the rights due to the studio already owning DC Comics. In the year 2000 Ant-Man became one of the last franchises that Marvel sold off being officially bought out by Lionsgate Entertainment. In 2001 they had hired Director Edgar Wright to produce a film on the character originally slated for a 2004 release date. The film ended up having budgetary issues involved with the making the shrinking CGI the way Wright wanted and the movie was delayed for years before the rights reverted to Marvel Studios in 2007. Kevin Feige and Avi Arad however approached Edgar Wright claiming they would be willing to adapt the experimental CGI and wanted to hire him to develop Ant-Man under Touchstone Pictures instead. He agreed to it and for the majority of Phase 1 it was believed that Ant-Man would be part of the Avengers before getting a solo movie sometime in autumn of 2012.

Unfortunately, more production problems occurred as Wright showed little desire for his film to tie into The Avengers which Marvel was heavily prompting him to. In 2010 Wright walked from the project and Disney quietly pulled the Ant-Man film from it's release date in 2012. At comic con 2013 Kevin Feige released the Phase 2 slate which revealed that the Ant-Man film was still planned, but simply delayed to summer of of 2015 off the heels of Avengers: The Ultron Imperative with Peyton Reed directing. By the end of that year Paul Rudd was cast for the titular role of Scott Lang as opposed to Hank Pym. Reed explaining that he wanted to focus on Scott to make the movie a "redemption story of sorts" and that the original Ant-Man was toyed with but decided his story was too similar to many other heroes already seen in the MCU. Nontheless, Pym was confirmed to play a major role in the film casted as Michael Douglas, who was soon followed in 2014 up by Evangeline Lilly playing Janet Van Dyne and Corey Stoll playing Elihas Starr.

It was later announced that Robert Downey Jr. would be reprising his role as Tony Stark in the film to better connect to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, which Peyton Reed expressed great enjoyment out of. Principle filming commenced in mid 2014 and the film was released worldwide on July 17th 2015.

Cast

 * Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man


 * Corey Stoll as Elihas "Eli" Starr/Yellow Jacket


 * Ken Jeong as Michael Tan/Swarm


 * Evangeline Lilly as Janet Van Dyne


 * Michael Douglas as Hank Pym


 * Michael Peña as Pedro Ortiz


 * Bobby Cannavale as Blake Burdick


 * Judy Greer as Magaret "Maggie" Burdick


 * Abby Ryder Fortson as Cassandra "Cassie" Lang


 * Martin Donovan as Sonny Burch


 * Robert Downey Jr. as Anthony "Tony" Stark/Iron Man


 * T.I. Harris as Charlie Buchanan


 * David Dastmalchian as Valentine Shatalov

Plot
The film starts with an establishing shot of the Cross Technologies headquarters in San Francisco where Hank Pym is aggressively walking through the hallway into the main lab where he confronts Eli Starr for trying to make a cheap imitation of his work. Starr claims that he has every right to try and recreate what he won't share, the Pym Particle is one of the most revolutionary pieces of science in human history. They could make billions off of this, see to breakthroughs in our understanding of reality, change the entire world. Sonny comments that his stubbornness is unnecessary, asking if he knows how many men in his position would take this in a heartbeat. Hank Pym insists he didn’t share the Pym Particles with Howard Stark or S.H.I.E.L.D., and he won’t share with any of them, he’s here to work like another other scientist. Eli Starr asks what about Ant-Man claiming he's seen old the footage in Kazakhstan, there's no way that any of that would be possible without his formula. Hank in anger proceeds to punch Eli in the face telling him what he does or doesn't do with the Pym Particles is none of his business, he then walks out in a huff.

Roll credits and title ANT-MAN It then reveals a montage of raw footage showing Ant-Man fighting during the Cold War.

In present, the camera pans out showing Eli Starr (now bald) using the clips as part of his presentation to the Cross Technologies executives in order to convince them to start funding research into Pym Particles again. Chairman Sonny Burch claims their latest experiment with them nearly broke the Golden Gate Bridge in half. Cross Technologies has spent years trying to figure them out and it never went anywhere. Starr begs for one more chance, saying that he and his team are so close to getting it, they just need to streamline it into some sort of suit, like what the Ant-Man had! In today's world with giant rage monsters and floating cities, this could be a game changer. The executives claim unless Eli has something new to offer them it's going to be a no. In the parking lot, Starr is getting into his car until he's approached by Janet Van Dyne. He recognizes her from the meeting claiming he knew her father, Vernon. She says after he passed she took his seat on the board and agrees with him on the potential of Pym Particles. Janet suggests they have dinner that night to talk about it. At San Quentin State Prison, a man named Scott Lang is playing solitaire until he's confronted by a bunch of inmates for stealing a pack of cigarettes. He tells them he has no idea what they're talking about and they eventually grab him by his shirt causing the Cigarettes to fall out of his pocket. The inmate and his gang all start surrounding him threaten to break every bone in Scott's body until a guard comes in and tells Lang his hearing when through, and to get ready for his release.

Outside, Scott is picked up by his best friend, Pedro Ortiz. Once he gets into his car Pedro asks him how prison life served him, Scott points out third time's a charm and Ortiz says it feels like only yesterday they were roomies there. Speaking of which he can crash at his place as long as he wants. Scott thanks him and says he could really use that. Pedro also mentions it'll give them time to get back into theft again, but Scott claims he's not interested. Pedro asks why and Scott tells him he spent over a year at San Quentin and it was a wake up call, he wants to turn his life around. Pedro makes sure he understands there's not much work for ex-cons but Scott says he'll just have to work that much harder. He respects his friend's decision and Lang tells him before they go his house if they can stop somewhere first.

Pedro drops him off at his old house where Scott lets himself in and reunites with his daughter, Cassie. After hugging each other he gets confronted by his ex-wife Maggie and her new husband, Blake Burdick, who tells Scott he doesn't have visitation rights. Scott is insulted he went through his records but Blake says it's was his job to investigate criminals, especially the ones who are going to be around his family. Scott gets insulted claiming it's his daughter until Maggie tells Blake she'll handle this and take him outside. She tells him that he can't just show up whenever he wants, especially when her husband is literally a cop. Scott tells her that he just got out of San Quentin today and wants to be there for Cassie, and Maggie explains she knows that and Cassie wants her father too. But he has to pay child support and prove that it's going to be different this time around, not breaking the law, she won't go through that again. Scott asks her what if he can find a job and Maggie confirms then they'll be able to discuss joint custody.

At a restaurant that night, Eli and Janet are sitting together with drinks until being joined by Michael Tan. Who Van Dyne introduces as an animal biologist specializing in Apiculture. Tan says he's heard about Starr's work with Pym Particles and is intrigued by the concept. Eli asks what this has to do with anything, respectfully size manipulation would be something that could be achieved through theoretical physics, not biology. Michael tells him he's being a big "dummy" who's missing the point. Insects have shrunken tremendously in their evolution, nothing else is like it on Earth. If you need an example of Pym Particles in nature, look no further than them. Starr realizes if they look into the evolution of these bugs they can find the key to shrinking tech. Janet tells him exactly and they have an idea of which bug to narrow down on, she tells Tan to show him and he pulls a picture of a literal yellow jacket on his phone. Eli says it looks nice but he doesn't see how it answers the question, Tan realizes he made a mistake and shows a Yellow Jacket Bee instead. Janet explains they make a suit just and with Michael Tan's help base it's design off of a Yellow Jacket.