Review: Ant-Man Bonus Features — Small But Mighty

For those of us who are not Marveled out, Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man is a great film to add to our arsenal of movie night selections. You get all the greatness of a Marvel film with the added heist aspects of Ocean’s Eleven and shrinking comedy of Honey I Shrunk the Kids with a bonus shirtless-chiseled Paul Rudd.

While the movie is a typical origin Marvel film with three courses including the backstory, training montage, and then the final fight, it doesn’t disappoint in my opinion (though that’s an opinion that I know others on GeekMom do not share).

For me, I love how Marvel took a chance on making a movie about a hero that some walked into the theater thinking they made up (my husband was one of those). Then again, think back to Iron Man. Really…how big was he until after the film hit theaters?

The ending of Ant-Man sets it up for not only a sequel but an eventual team-up with the Avengers. Scott Lang’s skills are unique and his power makes him an asset when needing to say, break into Stark Industries for Captain America in the case that Tony Stark is no longer on the same side as his other teammates (Hypothetically speaking of course…).

When it comes to purchasing a movie for my collection, one of the key decision-making points in my purchase via Blu-Ray or iTunes digital are the special features. In the case of Ant-Man, the bonus features are small but mighty.

The extended scenes and commentary offer up several interesting additions to the film experience but I could see why they all made it on the cutting room floor. Not to say these scenes are bad, but most of them would have slowed down the pace of the film. After all, this is a shrinking heist movie. Let’s skip the dilly-dallying and get to the shrinking and the heisting.

Two of the featurettes showcase the cast and crew and you can see the passion and excitement they have for the movie in their interviews.

One featurette titled “Let’s Go To The Macroverse”, gives viewers a short, but detailed look into how they brought the smaller worlds in Ant-Man to life. I was amazed at how many practical effects they used for the shrinking scenes versus just doing 100% of it on a computer. The times when Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is miniature in the grass and on the record player, feel so real and it turns out that it because they were real, minus him shrinking down to the size of an ant that is.

Another special feature takes the form of new reports on a few things in the movie, including an interview with Scott Lang as he’s about to be released from prison and a look into his heist that had him thrown in jail to begin with. They don’t offer much in terms of adding to the movie watching experience, but they are funny and don’t take up to much of your time to watch. This is where we get a behind the scenes look at Ant-Man’s fight with Falcon and the connection it has to Captain America 3: Civil War.

I’m a little disappointed that the gag reel was only 3-1/2 minutes long and most of it was just everyone goofing off on set and no real flubbing of the lines. I’m sure they could have squeezed in a few more laughs for the audience in this area.

If you haven’t seen the movie and were waiting to get it on Blu-ray, now’s your chance. Ant-Man delivers in action, humor, and yes, at times it will hit you right in the heart.