Bana’s Hulk wasn’t Marvel Studios. The later Ed Norton movie more-or-less was (although it was in production before Marvel had really committed to the shared universe idea). The Norton movie wasn’t amazing, but I just watched it for the first time and was surprised how decent it is – much better than it’s reputation, I think. The last act has way too much boring, dated CGI-on-CGI punching, but otherwise it’s a decent movie that moves at a decent clip and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
This is actually the same complaint I had, viewing the trailer. Too many of the movies do this: superhero vs. very similar villain. The Incredible Hulk was Hulk vs. Crappy Pointy Hulk, as well. And one could easily argue that The Winter Soldier was a bit like Evil Cap.
I think it’s more fun when the matchups are more asymetric.
I think Ant-Man will make it work, though. From what I glean of the plot, the premise is something like, “Hank Pym created the Ant-Man tech and is angered to see that it’s becoming weaponized, so he hires Scott Lang to steal the core technology secrets back from the government.” So it makes sense that Lang would face off against a government tool using the tech already.
I have a feeling that this will tie back into the bigger Marvel universe because Pym taking his secrets / powers away from the government will be a trigger for the events of Civil War.
So, I had understood that in the comics, Pym himself was Ant-Man. What’s the backstory on this Lang fellow?
Pym is the original Ant-Man in the comics, and was eventually replaced by Scott Lang. Lang is a reformed thief. In the comics, he steals the Ant-Man suit in order to help somebody, and Pym decides to let him keep it as long as he keeps using it for good.
In the movie, I think it sounds like he’s found by Pym somehow and pressed into service for Pym. It’s not clear whether Pym ever was Ant-Man himself in the movie, but I saw Michael Douglas (out of character) say something like, “Hank Pym’s superhero days are behind him” in an interview, so it’s possible they’ll establish that he was doing some Ant-Man hijinks in the past.
From memory- Lang was a petty criminal whose daughter was kidnapped by other criminals. He thought the best way to rescue her was to steal the Ant-man tech from
Pym and use it. He did so. Pym was impressed and said “keep it, but use it to be a hero.” He did so. He played more into the “single dad trying to make it” trope rather than the" reformed criminal trying to make it" trope.
He was a fill-in Fantastic Four member and an Avenger. Also dead for awhile, but now he’s back… I think. Marvel is kill happy right now because they are just rebooting everything anyway.
I’ll admit I only took like five seconds to check Wiki before posting – but for what it’s worth, I did take all five of those seconds making sure Marvel Enterprises was listed under “Production Company” and Avi Arad was listed under “Producer”.
So, yeah, granted, it’s a horse of a different color, but (a) I was at least half-assing it, and (b) how much ass did the makers of that movie give?
Actually, I think too much ass was given. First, it spent a while in development hell which is rarely a good sign. Then, Ang Lee, by accounts, took it way too seriously in production, running an overly arty and serious set, ignoring most of the “fun” of the character, and deciding he wanted to tell a serious, heartfelt father-and-son story (despite that not really being the Hulk’s thing).
He tried too hard and didn’t pay attention to what makes people interested in the Hulk. He spent 138 minutes(!) apologizing for making a comic book movie, and yet drew as much attention as possible to that fact by animating page turns and comic panels into the film.
Man, what a mess. The Edward Norton reboot pretty much worked by just giving in and having fun with what Hulk stories do best: “Hulk Smash,” sad piano music, ridiculous pants, Lou Ferrigno, and lots of punching. Not a masterpiece, but it set up the MCU version of the character decently.
Scott has a series now, and I think it’s either a quick miniseries, or one that’s supposed to survive the “EVERYTHING ENDS” nonsense over in Avengers, because it’s new.