Welcome to Weekend Watch, a recurring feature where we highlight some of the best geek-related videos around the web. Whether it’s short films, behind the scenes videos, video essays, or top 10 countdowns, the only requirement is that they are about–in some shape or form–our favorite geeky topics!
Now that the film has recently hit store shelves, it’s the perfect time to take a look at all things Ant-Man and The Wasp. Regardless of how you might feel about Ant-Man and the Wasp, the effects laiden film plays with scale in an interesting and inventive way. Although the film features state of the art effects, there’s naturally thousands of man hours that go into completing a single shot in a film like Ant-Man and the Wasp–let alone an entire sequence. What’s really special about Peyton Reed’s approach to the film is not only his tactile approach to making the Ant-Man movies, but also the homages that he leaves in terms of inspirations for the film.
In this giant sized-edition of Weekend Watch, we’ll take a look at some of those inspirations with Reed’s notes on a scene, some behind the scenes footage, along with a bunch of easter eggs in the film. We’ll also take a deeper look at the quantum realm from the film, asking the question on everyone’s mind–is something like this even possible. So without further adieu lets jump right into Weekend Watch!
Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Director Breaks Down the Kitchen Fight Scene
In this fun and informative look at the making of the film’s first act climax, director Peyton Reed provides his “notes on a scene”. In Vanity Fair‘s recurring series, Reed gives viewers some insight into not only how he approached the 2018 MCU sequel differently, but also his creative process in general. What is so impressive about this scene in particular is how well it blends multiple elements to complete the final scene. Using a great mixture of practical effects, visual effects and motion capture, the scene demonstrates how much work goes into such a seemingly small scene.
Ant-Man and The Wasp Bloopers, B-Roll, & Behind the Scenes
The first video is great compilation from FIlmArtsy takes the most of the special features form the aforementioned blu-ray release and puts them all in one place. Although this compilation is entertaining enough, it also certainly leaves you wanting more. Given that the film used a variety of tricks and techniques to play with scale like it does, it’s easy to see how nearly every shrinking/growing sequence required a different approach. Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp is also a focus in these featurettes, along with how the kinetic nature of the character’s movement.
The second video is a Marvel-approved featurette that focuses in on the shrinking car chases in the film. Lilly described the film as about “being on the run” and this all-too-short featurette also leaves you wanting to learn more. Neither of these featurettes truly give a fly on the wall experience of making the movie, but they’re entertaining enough to help you give you an appreciation for the love and care that went into making Ant-Man and The Wasp.
Every Easter Egg and Marvel Reference in Ant-man and The Wasp
The next video by ScreenCrush takes a look at all of the easter eggs, along with every Marvel reference that appears in Ant-Man and the Wasp. There are lots of subtle references in every MCU movie, this film in particular seems to have a bunch of great easter eggs. While some references are more overt than others, it’s fun to be able to re-watch the movie with all of this stuff in mind. It’s interesting to see how Hank is essentially powering the entire lab off of Duracell batteries. This is a very subtle detail, but it also provides limitless potential for the use micro-technology in future movies. Another interesting observation to note how the film continues the tradition of heroes having some sort of dysfunction with their powers. Overall, this video provides a great summarization of all the callbacks and references in Ant-Man and The Wasp.
Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Quantum Realm Explained
This cool video from IGN offers a brief look at the history of the quantum realm from the comics and how it has mad it’s way into the MCU proper. The quantum realm, known as the microverse in the comics, has been around since the 1940’s but wasn’t fully taken advantage of until the 1960’s. The video also astutely notes that the quantum realm will have a major impact on the cinematic universe moving forward and will surely be crucial to both Captain Marvel and Avengers 4.
Ant-Man And The Wasp’s Quantum Universe: Is The Film’s Science Possible?
Delving into extremely light spoiler territory, our next video from NBC News takes a look the real life science behind Ant-Man and The Wasp, trying to determine if the film’s fictional science could actually be possible. Spyridon Michalakis, a quantum physicist and science adviser in the film explains how this fictional science is rooted in some cutting edge ideas that are a part of real-life physics. The MCU movies have always taken certain liberties with the pseudo-science in the universe, but it’s good to know that there is attention paid to rooting these films in reality as much as possible.
What did you think about Weekend Watch’s Ant-Man and the Wasp videos? Let us know in the comment section below!
