After the senses-pummeling, prediction-confounding, record-smashing Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and The Wasp almost feels like an afterthought. Though its trailers are entertaining enough, a couple of car chases and a villain who can walk through walls seems a teeny bit tame after what we’ve just been through with Thanos. But perhaps some light-hearted MCU action with considerably smaller (pun intended) stakes is exactly the kind of palette cleanser we need right now?
With its release now under a month away, promotional material is swarming in from all corners of the internet and today we have the French poster for the movie – there titled Ant-Man Et La Guepe. It boasts an attractive honeycomb motif, rightly gives equal billing to Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly and offers us a slightly different look at Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne than what we saw the other day. As far as giant floating heads on posters go, this is actually pretty good and only slightly spoiled by the bizarre decision to have a picture of the San Francisco skyline and Golden Gate bridge in either corner.
Marvel Studios have actually been on a mini-graphic design winning streak ever since Thor: Ragnarok, with that film’s posters embracing a symmetrical, maximalist aesthetic that carried forward into the designs for Black Panther and Infinity War. They’re certainly a cut above the often bland promotional art for the Phase 1 and 2 movies.
At the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic about Ant-Man and The Wasp, even if I am feeling a tiny bit superhero’ed out. After its torturous production, the original was surprisingly great, and any film featuring Michael Douglas, Michael Pena, Michelle Pfeiffer and Laurence Fishburne can’t be all bad, right? Let’s just hope this promo campaign gives the film a bit of buzz (geddit?)