Pete Fenzel and Matt Wrather join in one of their epic, storied two-handers to overthink Marvel’s Ant Man, starring Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.
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Pete’s Pick: Hyperion by Dan Simmons
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The Hyperion Cantos is easily one of my favorite series of all time.
Hyperion is the first quarter of a 4 part story. The story is continued in:
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
Rise of Endymion
These 4 novels comprise the Hyperion Cantos and they are all amazing.
Making this into a miniseries will require sacrifice. The story is too big and too thick to properly fit into a TV show. The story as written will need adaptation to fit the new medium.
Hopefully this adaptation will not lose to much of the depth and flavor of the original books.
I’m looking forward to the show and to the Overthinkers tackling the show.
Agreed. This material needs a full TV season or three.
Watching Evangeline Lilly train Paul Rudd to be Ant-Man did definitely remind me of Armageddon, and the inefficient use of resources that is training drillers to be astronauts rather than teaching astronauts how to drill.
Anyone else think it was odd how the movie just skipped past Michael Douglas’s reasoning for not being the one to put on the suit? “I’ve done it too many times, it’s taken a toll.” I would expect Paul Rudd to have some follow up questions to that, like whether the size-changing process causes leukemia or something.
These two things taken together kind of highlight how the movie had to contort itself to make the Scott Lang character be the guy in the suit, as opposed to the numerous other more qualified people. A very fun movie though, definitely. And Avon Barksdale was in it!
One thing I couldn’t really stop thinking about after it happened: kind of a missed opportunity to play a Cure song while the characters are trapped in a briefcase that falls out of a helicopter, and not play Close To Me, which has multiple music videos, one of which featuring the band trapped in a wardrobe that is falling off a cliff.
In fairness to the storytelling, and without really objecting to your point, I think the “toll” Michael Douglas was referring to is the psychological toll of losing his wife; it’s not that he’s unable, it’s that he’s demoralized.
Ah, I hadn’t considered that! It’s entirely possible that I don’t quite “get” emotions.
I also don’t really object to your point – it wasn’t clear what the “toll” was that Hank Pym was talking about. The toll of losing his wife makes sense. There’s a bit of an allusion perhaps to some sort of side effect.
But the thing I didn’t really think was a stretch was Michael Douglas not going in the suit. He’s old. It involves a lot of running around and jumping. There’s no reason to believe he is preternaturally limber or fast – at least not anymore. I was surprised anyone even suggested it – it reminded me of the old episode of the Adam West Batman show where Alfred wears the Batsuit to deflect suspicion that Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person. Alfred’s a trooper and all, but it’s very obviously not the same.
But yeah, if the ant suit gives you leukemia, that would be good to know.
Do Superheroes unionize? Is there a superhero OSHA?
I’m with Adrian here – I thought that Pym was alluding to some kind of dark cummulative side effect of the suit. Aren’t there numerous references to the bad guy (what’s his name) having his brain chemistry actually altered by the technology? Like, he’s actually being driven crazy by it? Which seems like something that really should be explored more, especially by Paul Rudd. Also, it seems unlikely, since there is no evidence whatsoever that the bad guy has used the suit at all until a few days before the finale (the technology isn’t even working until the last minute).
I’m with Pete – Pym could have easily explained he’s too damn old to be Ant-Man.
JLA probably has some kind of benefits but to unionize there needs to be a type registration and Superhero registration acts never go well.
Haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but my first impression of Ant-Man is that it’s a great example of why secure OFF-SITE data backup is so important.
I dropped the Hyperion series when the author kept hinting that a little girl sidekick was going to f**k the protagonist after being isolated together for a couple years – in a later book. ‘It won’t be weird, she’ll be an adult by then! And she’s also mature for her age!’ I don’t need lolita sexual tension in my scifi stories.
The series was average.