Ant-Man (2015) [Blu-ray]

Posted on December 29, 2015 Updated on January 10, 2016

Contains plot details.

I am hopelessly behind with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I haven’t even got to the end of ‘Phase One’ yet, as I have yet to watch Captain America: The First Avenger and Marvel’s The Avengers, and as a result a lot of the later films in the franchise are just far too intricately interconnected and convoluted to jump straight in to. As a result, when I do feel in the mood to sample a recent superhero I tend to go for ones outside the core MCU continuity.

Last year that spot was taken by Guardians of the Galaxy, which was almost totally disconnected from the main series. This year the best I could find was Ant-Man which can be best described as ‘semi-detached’ from the main MCU storyline for most of its 117 minute running time even though it starts with a scene featuring Howard Stark and Peggy Carter (John Slattery and Hayley Atwell) and has a key role for S.H.I.E.L.D. nemesis Hydra. Happily I’m much more up to date with MCU’s TV offerings so these elements didn’t give me any trouble at all. The few bits that were entirely new to me – such as a cameo from Anthony Mackie as the Falcon – took little explanation to make perfect sense.

Ant-Man is in many ways the answer to the question ‘Where do you go after beating demigods and sentient supercomputers, travelled the galaxy and crossed into alternate dimensions?’ Based on this evidence, the idea is to go back to basics and bring everything down to a much smaller and more intimate nature. And by that I don’t just mean the eponymous hero’s reduced stature. Read the rest of this entry »