Ant-Man Meeting Captain America in 'Civil War' Clip Is The Best of Marvel
It's not the fights or explosions that gets Marvel fans buying tickets. It's who's doing the fighting and exploding.
The superheroes of the Marvel universe will smash and bash each other in the name of personal freedom in May’s Captain America: Civil War, the kick-off to Marvel’s “Phase Three” of cinematic releases. Among the heroes is Scott Lang, better known as Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd in last summer’s Ant-Man.
In a new clip from the film, Lang meets Captain America (Chris Evans) for the first time and acts just like a fanboy would meeting Evans at Comic-Con. While it’s just a minute long, the clip encapsulates much of why the MCU works: these movies are about characters, and how these characters interact.
Seeing them fight is fun. But seeing them talk and be — despite being Norse gods, black ops killers, and popsicle soldiers from World War II — totally human with one another makes this franchise gold. The fights are okay (I’m with Jackie Chan: Too much CGI) and the big spectacles are pleasing, but the little moments like eating shawarma or having a party make the whole MCU worthwhile.
And that’s what’s happening here, when Ant-Man meets Captain America. Or more correctly, Scott Lang meets Steve Rogers. It’s a great touch the film has these characters meet in their civilian identities and not wearing their superhero threads. It emphasizes these superheroes are characters first, people with wants and quirks like in any good drama. It’s just: these guys can fly and shrink and stuff.
Scott Lang is every sports fan meeting his idol, a feeling everyone who will watch Civil War can understand. That’s how you get people to see these movies. Not overloading them with mythology.
