ANT-MAN Teaser Trailer Did Exactly What it was Supposed to Do: Inform, Show Emotion and Motivations, Plus Make Fun of Itself
It's been the Marvel Studios movie that's been in development longer than anything else the studio has done. The final theatrical cut of Marvel's Ant-Man will be an amalgam of different writer and director visions.
In the early 2000s, writer/director Edgar Wright had been working on Ant-Man with writer Joe Cornish. By now, you should know the story on how Wright and Marvel parted ways last spring only weeks before filming and production began. Parting ways due to 'creative differences,' Wright reportedly wanted a more standalone film while the studio wanted it to be connected to the much larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Out went Wright and Cornish — although they both have 'story by' credits for Ant-Man — and in came writer/director Adam McKay (Anchorman) to team up with leading actor Paul Rudd to re-write the script while Marvel searched for a director to take on the project. McKay said he was too busy to commit to directing it.
While Rudd and McKay — both have official screenplay credits for Ant-Man — locked themselves into a room for multiple weeks to re-write the Wright/Cornish script, Marvel landed director Peyton Reed. Reed had been in the running for past Marvel films and is a known comic book fanatic. Filming and production began about two months later than it was supposed to start and Reed, Rudd and the rest of the Ant-Man production crew hit their deadlines and are on schedule for a July 17, 2015 release.
Now with its first teaser trailer released, the marketing campaign for Ant-Man has officially begun. But the first teaser isn't receiving as much buzz as past Marvel Studios trailers. This could be due to all of the Edgar Wright fans still being hurt when the studio and director parted ways, or it could be due to the fact the character isn't that well known and has what the general audience could perceive as a cheesy name. Having an unknown character shouldn't be a problem for the studio who has built a solid brand awareness with their movies, see Guardians of the Galaxy and its success. The name shouldn't be a big factor either since the teaser already acknowledges the silly name and Rudd's character Scott Lang asks Michael Douglas' character Hank Pym if the name can be changed.
It should produce solid box office numbers following in the footsteps of Avengers: Age of Ultron and all its hype. But some Marvel fans and some movie critics took to their respective social media accounts to say they were unimpressed by the Ant-Man teaser. But remember... this is a teaser (not a full trailer) and it was put together to raise character awareness, to make fun of itself, to tell some brief back story and show some emotion behind Lang's motivation for his daughter's sake.
There's definitely not enough information available to judge this film based on a minute and a half teaser. And add the fact that the Ant-Man teaser is being a bit overshadowed by the marketing juggernaut for Age of Ultron.
Check out the new teaser below and after it are some screenshots of the Ant-Man suit.
Related Posts: Marvel's ANT-MAN Releases New Images and Concept Art
Stealing is Bad: First ANT-MAN Plot Details Revealed in New Issue of Entertainment Weekly
ANT-MAN Villain, YELLOWJACKET, Teased by Actor Corey Stoll; Plus New Concept Art
To read more about Ant-Man, click right here.