Ant-Man is going to be a very important movie for Marvel Studios. Funny enough you could say that about every Marvel movie, but Ant-Man is different.

Ant-Man has had a long history for Marvel Studios. Back in 2003, this was one of the EARLIEST Marvel movie announcements. Being developed by Edgar Wright, this film has been in the works through out Wrights professional feature length movie career.

It was an 11 year development with the film, as Wright was working on the movie on and off between other projects and as Marvel Studios was starting to form it’s identity. But it was a movie we all assumed was going to happen. Wright showed up at San Diego Comic Con when there was new developments, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige kept talking about how exciting it was to have a talent like Wright working the film.

Then May of 2014 when the bomb was dropped. Citing creative differences, Wright left the film and Marvel scrambled to get a replacement.

Our reaction….was not pleasant. 

I’ve had my say concerning the Ant-Man film as well, but to reiterate my feelings on the film, I kinda wish they dropped it. The films production was in a scrambled, and no matter how talented a replacement director they ended up getting, that director was always going to be just a fill-in artist. This was gonna feel like a lesser product.

Marvel eventually went with Peyton Reed, who’s done solid studio comedies in his career. No, he hasn’t made the amazing movie classics that Edgar Wright has, and Wright has made classic movies not once, not twice, not trice, but FOUR times (and yes, I think The Worlds End is another classic.)

But, none of this history will matter in the end if the movie is good. So, let’s look at the trailer and lets come back and discuss…

I’m not gonna lie…this left me underwhelmed.

Even in terms of Marvel Studio trailers, this is feeling too traditional. It feels like a standard superhero movie trailer, and the small twinge of humor just comes from Paul Rudd doing his Paul Rudd thing.

Now, I like Paul Rudd quiet a bit, so that’s not a problem, but this trailer is kinda confirming some of my fears on this movie.

See, with Edgar leaving over creative differences, it made me worry that Marvel Studios is starting to feel like they want a consistent style that they could manage a bit more.

Think back on the Guardians of the Galaxy teaser. It pushed a huge BOLD style and promised to be unlike the other Marvel movies.

This Ant-Man teaser is showing off a traditional superhero movie, but for a company like Marvel…that seems a bit too safe.

I was pumped after seeing the GOTG teaser. After the Ant-Man teaser my feelings where more along the lines of “well…lets hope for the best.”

Clearly, Marvel wanted this film to have a huge sense of humor (why else go after comedy directors for replacements?) but you would think they would promote that side of it first.

Why not have the trailer have us focus on the character of Scott Lang? Introduce our new hero? Have us see Paul Rudd do his thing (be funny and charming) but also see him in some action scenes, be rough, be a criminal so that we know we’re not getting the usual role that he plays? To me, this trailer isn’t selling what Marvel Studio movies do best, which is sell their great characters. I don’t get a lot Paul’s character in this, and that’s a tad worrisome.

Not that it all looks terrible. What little (heh) we get of the shrinking action is cool looking. I do have to say, one of my favorite details on the costume is that we can see Paul’s eyes in the mask, a detail that I think will be important to help us humanize him even when he’s in costume.

But sadly, it all feels too pedestrian  right now. Most people keep saying that Ant-Man will be Marvel’s first bomb, and that’s still possible. I mean, yes, it’s just a trailer. Maybe they’ll cut a stronger one the next time. So while the trailer isn’t getting  me psyched yet I have to hope for it to still be good. I’ve gotten used to seeing that Marvel Studios logo and having a good time when the movie’s over. It will have to happen to Marvel Studios one day, but that will still be a bummer when it happens. Here’s wishing this turns out better then what I’m seeing.

Ant-Man comes to theaters July  17, 2015.