Final Judgement: Peyton Reed

[SyntaxError]

After Edgar Wright exited the project, Peyton Reed was brought on to bring Ant-Man to the big screen. His time in the directors seat (and before) has evidently been subject to controversy.

Now that we've all seen the final product, whats the final judgement on Peyton Reed? Was his work on Ant-Man good?

Has he done enough to stake a claim for another Marvel film? If so, which one?

 

[TheVision]

Yes it was very good and I also think if he had been on the project for a longer time and didnt have to jump in as a last minute replacement (and lets be honest, it WAS last minute) it couldve been even better in some minor ways. But for what he had to work with it was a nicely directed/visualized film.

Based on his work I think he could easily do a sequel down the road. Maybe get some different writers for another take on Ant Man (see Cap 2) and adapt it even more to his own style/sensibilities so its 100% Peyton Reed.

80% on RT at the moment which means it was seen as a successful movie. Not Avengers numbers BO wise but for one of the lesser known characters they have (for the general public) its great.

 

[YJ1]

After everything I've read and after hearing him talk about what he added, he deserves massive credit and a huge "thank you" from Marvel fans.

Honestly, I truly believe this film turned out far better than it would have had Wright stayed on the project.

Peyton Reed more than deserves another film in the MCU. If not Ant-Man 2 then why not Captain Marvel?

 

[Flint Marko]

He and Fiege have had a good working relationship for years, so I think it could happen. I'm not sure what property would be best suited for him, but I'd like to see him behind the camera again at some point.

 

[Quasimod0]

He did a fantastic job. Whatever problems they had along the way did not stop the film from turning out to be excellent.

 

[Dyson]

Edgar Wright worked with Marvel Studios on "Ant-Man" for 8 long years. Peyton Reed had 9 - 10 weeks. For a film with a $130 million budget and a 5 month shooting schedule, typically a director will need 6 to 7 months of full prep.

Yet "Ant-Man" turned out GREAT! To think that the film we got was prepared by a director who literally had just weeks to work on it before filming began. Seeing how well "Ant-Man" turned out with Reed at the helm, I say that Marvel fans should give the guy a lot credit and praise and Reed should direct another Marvel film with full prep. "Ant-Man" was clearly made by a Marvel fan. Anyone who says Reed just phoned on this film for Marvel Studios has no idea what he or she is talking about.

I think Peyton Reed would be a great pick for "Captain Marvel", if "Ant-Man 2" is a no go. Even if Reed isn't given another feature to direct, then I think Marvel Studios should allow him directing gigs on their various TV series.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

While I still think Wright had a big hand in this, and I would have liked to see him direct the movie as I love his movies. Reed deserves a LOT of credit for coming so late and still making not only a very fun and entertaining movie, but one with a lot of heart as well.

I will say this has some of the best and most inventive action of all the solo movies as well.

 

[First Avenger]

Peyton Reed for Marvel's THE FANTASTIC FOUR. 'Nuff said!

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Y'know, I'm still trying to figure out what prompted Wright to take his ball and go home. The finished film doesn't come across as the product of ham-handed studio intervention. The links to the greater MCU, which was supposedly a problem for Wright, are pretty limited: there's the Shield bit in the intro, the throwaway gag line about calling the Avengers, the bad guys are attributed to Hydra, and the fight with Falcon. Only the last item feels the least bit forced, but it's tied in (if loosely) to the plot, which is more than can be said for the five-minute Ragnarok teaser trailer stuffed into the middle of Ultron.

Reed did a fine job IMO.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

The movie was very entertaining as well as a critical and financial success so yes, I say credit where credit is due (and that includes Edgar W, whom I would consider a collaborator rather than "the guy that got fired"). But Reed got the job done so good for him. I'd be fine with him helming another picture.

Peyton Reed for Marvel's THE FANTASTIC FOUR. 'Nuff said!

Right on.

 

[Raiden]

Kudos to Reed, who was hired late and got a lot of flak from Edgar fanboys but nevertheless delivered a quality movie that received 80% RT and good box office, based on a C list superhero named Ant-Man. Marvel needs to green light Ant-Man 2 ASAP, and if Marvel gets FF back I think he would be a good candidate to direct it.

 

[Vincanws]

Kudos to Reed, who was hired late and got a lot of flak from Edgar fanboys but nevertheless delivered a quality movie that received 80% RT and good box office, based on a C list superhero named Ant-Man. Marvel needs to green light Ant-Man 2 ASAP, and if Marvel gets FF back I think he would be a good candidate to direct it.

Ant-Man is gunning for the first Cap's numbers. There's every likelihood we'll hear talk of an Ant-Man project somewhere down the line. Though there's only so much they can do at once without expanding out their studio big time. I think the studio will consider priorities once the key equivalent new stuff is out including Doctor Strange & Black Panther to get some context on box office performance.

 

[TeeKay]

Yep he deserves credit after everything that happened with Wright and getting booed at Comic Con. He missed out on GotG and glad Marvel went to him for Ant-Man. Here's hoping he'll direct the FF for Marvel when they get the rights back. He deserves it.

 

[Squaremaster316]

Edgar's version would have been vastly superior in every single possible measurable aspect, that is an undeniable FACT!

Peyton's resume is a maggot infested piece of rotten produce compared to Wright's

 

[See Cap Run]

Edgar's version would have been vastly superior in every single possible measurable aspect, that is an undeniable FACT!

Peyton's resume is a maggot infested piece of rotten produce compared to Wright's

Wait, you're on the troll list? Are you above or below angry bees?

Peyton Reed made one of the best solo origin films of the MCU so far, just behind Iron Man, Doctor Strange, CA:TFA and Thor for me, which puts it in very good company.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

I had little to no interest in Ant-Man going in but it turned out to be one of my very favourite MCU films. All credit to Reed for doing a damn fine job at very short notice!

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

So, I'll just say I do think it would've been better if Edgar Wright had stuck around. But that's not to say that's entirely because Wright > Reed. Reed came in late, he likely didn't have much hand in scripting or casting and Wright probably did.

When all was said and done, Reed did a good job. And while I wish Wright had done it, I'm a little peeved that he didn't tough it out.

 

[Vincanws]

So, I'll just say I do think it would've been better if Edgar Wright had stuck around. But that's not to say that's entirely because Wright > Reed. Reed came in late, he likely didn't have much hand in scripting or casting and Wright probably did.

When all was said and done, Reed did a good job. And while I wish Wright had done it, I'm a little peeved that he didn't tough it out.

Ah well, there's Edgar's new one out in a few months. It's called 'Baby Driver'. Maybe that will show some of the style you're looking for that got lost in Ant-Man. Or maybe it won't be all that, time will tell ..

 

[Starcat]

Reed had a difficult task coming in the way he did. And he surpassed all my expectations. I'm very glad he is helming the sequel.

 

[-JKR-]

Surprisingly, this ended up becoming one of my favorite Marvel Studios movies. Despite being upset about not getting to see Edgar Wright's version, I must admit that Peyton Reed did a very good job on it.

BUT... he had a strong script by Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish to work with. They pretty much broke the story, and provided the backbone, characters, much of the tone and setpieces for this movie. It'll be interesting to see if he can keep that momentum going in the sequel, where he's starting from scratch.

 

[chamber-music]

Reed's tone was different from Edgar's tone. Reed said Edgar's ant-man had a more British irreverent tone which he changed. Reed also had a lot of comedic improve dialogue which is a popular tend in the American comedy movie genre in recent years. Edgar's movies are very intricate so don't have a lot of improvised comedy.

 

[Dark Raven]

Which scenes are attributed to Reed and which ones are distinctly Wright's?

 

[chamber-music]

Which scenes are attributed to Reed and which ones are distinctly Wright's?

Peyton Reed

"I came on about the same time as Adam McKay and Paul Rudd were beginning to write the script," he says. "I had gone back and read all of Edgar and Joe's scripts, which were terrific, and it was Edgar and Joe's idea to make it a heist film in terms of its structure and its tone. It was also their idea to create a mentor/pupil dynamic between Hank Pym and Scott Lang, just to tee off [Marvel comic it's based on] number 47, To Steal An Ant-man. That was all Edgar and Joe."

The final battle bedroom train set fight and the prologue Hank assault on South American compound which was cut from the movie were Edgar Wright's stuff.

Reed said

"Yes! It was [Wright and Cornish's] notion to have a movie that drove towards a third act battle all taking place in a little girl's bedroom, which I thought was amazing."

The Microverse/Quantum Realm was Reed and McKay's ideas

"Adam McKay and I were both fascinated by the microverse in the comics, which in the movie is called the quantum realm. We liked the idea that in a movie where you have a lot of shrinking, we could get to a third act where we could take it even further."

"We also really wanted to embrace the psychedelic era of Marvel comics that was late 60s, early 70s, and really have that represented in a movie. But we wanted to make it organic to the story so it led to this sort of notion that Scott would have to make this sacrifice to save his daughter's life and it required setting up the ideas of quantum realm, the fact that no one could ever make it back. And of course Scott succeeds."

The Luis Tip montages were from Reed and McKay

"When Adam and I came on, we had a series of conversations about things we had loved in the comics and had not found their way into the movie, and some certain ideas that we wanted to strengthen. I also wanted to increase the heist movie language, in terms of the visuals and stuff. For example, there's a handful of things we brought to the table - there's the tip montages that we do with Michael Pena, where Scott Lang - needs to know about a solid tip. And the idea is that Pena got to tell this story about the tip, make sure that it's solid, but he's a little ADD and he goes on walking rambles. That's something new that was never in those drafts that we brought to it."

How the suit is stolen was changed by Reed and McKay

"In all the drafts, Scott Lang was always going to steal the suit from Hank. Adam McKay and I met with this security guy and we're all sort of in the suite working on the script. And we were talking to the guy and we were like 'what would you do? How would you actually break into a safe or whatever?' and this guy was the one who introduced the idea of freezing the metal and doing all that stuff. We also wanted to add another layer of this laser activated fingerprint lock that he had to then sort of MacGuyver his way out of."

Making Hank Pym a deeper character

"Michael Douglas was cast in the movie before I came aboard, and Hank Pym in the comics is a really rich and complicated character and knowing that we had Michael playing it, I wanted to really deepen that character."

"I liked the idea that Pym could be a character in this movie motivated in the large part by guilt and tragedy and an obsession in his past, and the idea that he created this incredible technology but had mixed feelings about it in the way that I think Oppenheimer had, you know, about the use of his technology with the bomb, or even Nobel who created dynamite and when it started being a weapon, felt so guilty about it that he created the Nobel Peace Prize. We liked that idea of someone who creates this technology for positive means and how it gets co-opted and weaponised, and that was something that we added as well."

Falcon inclusion and sequence was McKay and Reed

"I have to say that there were no requirements [from Marvel] about slotting in anybody else. The Falcon was something Adam McKay pitched early on, purely because the comic book nerd in both of us was like, ‘it would be great to see these two guys come up against each other.’ And it felt organic to the heist structure of the movie that before this big heist there’s this trial by fire where you got to send Scott in [to Avengers HQ], relatively untrained, to get this device."

"But there was no mandate about this ever. In fact, when we decided to do that - and when we decided to get into the post-credits ending of ‘hey, the Falcon is looking for him' - it was late in the game. As [directors] the Russos and [co-writer] Stephen McFeely were developing Captain America: Civil War, there were a lot of question marks about all the pertinent issues of 'who’s in it? who would be on what side? could Ant-Man be a part of that?' as we were shooting this movie. That stuff only happened later on and by that time Falcon was an organic part of our movie."

Janet's Wasp being alive and referenced more in the movie came from Reed

"The other thing that was not really in any of those early drafts was that there was a mention of Hope's mother, Janet, but it was important to me that she be a presence in the movie because - in the comics I grew up reading - Ant Man and Wasp were inseparable. I really liked the idea that since we had Hope (who was always in the movie), doing something with Janet and [amplifying] the loss of her mother. And then, by the end of the movie, you have the potential that she's not dead, that she's just lost, and maybe she could be found again."

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015...ins-the-differences-from-edgar-wright-version

 

[Dyson]

Peyton Reed


The final battle bedroom train set fight and the prologue Hank assault on South American compound which was cut from the movie were Edgar Wright's stuff.

Reed said


The Microverse/Quantum Realm was Reed and McKay's ideas


The Luis Tip montages were from Reed and McKay


How the suit is stolen was changed by Reed and McKay


Making Hank Pym a deeper character


Falcon inclusion and sequence was McKay and Reed


Janet's Wasp being alive and referenced more in the movie came from Reed


http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015...ins-the-differences-from-edgar-wright-version

Peyton Reed also added "Disintegration" by The Cure in the briefcase battle while other people just assumed Edgar Wright wanted that song.

Reed really proved himself as a wonderful director with the first film. I'm glad he is making the next film.

 

[Nathaniell]

I loved this film. Glad he's doing the sequel.