The Astonishing Ant-Man

The first in a trilogy of projects from this March, that’s actually the 50th on my list from the last two years of video projects – the complete, the unfinished or potential ideas, and the multiple versions of projects that have gradually improved over time alongside my skills as an editor.

Honestly, it’s still a coin-flip between the titles “The Astonishing Ant-Man” and “Ant-Man – The Astonishing Cut”, because I really do like them both. But ultimately, the former works best as a group title, especially with the second film sharing the name with a new subtitle added to differentiate it as the sequel.
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The edit of the first film from 2015 is quite straightforward. Mostly the addition of deleted scenes that add good things for one reason or another, though this meant I didn’t include all of them for that same reason.
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The first change is adding the extended opening scene from 1989. After Hank Pym resigns from SHIELD when discovering Howard Stark and Mitch Carson’s work behind his back, he storms out and leaves the original Ant-Man suit in the vault in his basement, literally and figuratively closing the door on that part of his life.
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The second change is replacing the “Present Day” annotation when Scott Lang gets out of San Quentin Penitentiary – he gets released in July 2015, so that’s what the new PNG overlay states.
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The third change is around 11 minutes in, when another deleted/extended scene plays out when Darren Cross shows investors the ‘Futures Lab’, which I colour graded to match the theatrical scene as best I could. The new scene goes into more detail explaining the other uses of the Pym Particle if it were used properly: global freight shipping, biomedical surgery and waste disposal – all valid points. Another main reason for including this, is you get a lot of good shots of one of the Yellowjacket buyers from later in the film: man in a blue shirt and pinstripe suit with a Ten Rings tattoo visible on is neck. It’s a good way of tying things together universally and move it past just HYDRA wanting the tech in Phase 2 (allegedy A.I.M. was there too to buy the Yellowjacket tech, but that was never confirmed.
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At nearly 19 minutes in, another deleted scene plays at Cassie’s birthday party, where Scott talks to her properly and she says she misses him and wants to see her more. It’s a good moment that adds more weight to the father side of Scott’s character, not just the thief. Colour graded to the theatrical release best I could again.
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Another deleted scene plays at 44 minutes in – where Bill Paxton and his partner Nile start narrowing down who Scott’s “Lawyer” was before he disappeared and how there’s no record of this man. It better sets up the breakfast scene about 2 minutes later when Cassie says she hopes [Bill] doesn’t find [Scott].

Speaking of the breakfast scene, I put another deleted scene after it, where Hank and Hope talk about Scott and teaching him how to use the Ant-Man suit (and how he might be an idiot savant – or just an idiot). This is after Hank shows Scott the basement and explains the Pym Particle research, Darren Cross’ relation to him, how Hank got ousted from his own company, and where Scott agrees to help Hank. I put it here because it seemed to be the only place where it could realistically belong, as there’s no clear indicator of its position in the film, but they’re just talking about Scott learning the suit and he needs Hope’s help, so having it before he gets started with the keyhole jump sequence makes sense. Luckily I didn’t need to colour grade anything for this scene.
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Shortly afterwards, once Cross successfully shrinks a lamb without killing it, there’s an extended and colour graded scene in Hank’s basement. In the original release, Hank talks about Mitch Carson and how unless they swipe the Yellowjacket suit and erase all the data on it, Darren Cross will unleash chaos on the world – this new scene is much more detailed. Hank goes deeper into his tenure as the original Ant-Man working for SHIELD for decades around the world, and how Darren Cross succeeded where Howard Stark and Mitch Carson failed in replicating the Pym Particle work. It adds more to tie it to the wider universe again, and makes the character of Hank deeper with details of his original work, and makes Cross seem smarter and more dangerous with managing to succeed in reproducing and weaponising Hank’s buried work.
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The rest of the film plays out as normal until around 1hr 50 where there’s a new title card for the film, reflecting my work.
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The sequel has been nearly finished for almost a month, but I haven’t been into uploading much lately because I’ve been busy chipping away at another project, which has been much larger and more complex than a cinematic trilogy recut. That’s hence why I completed this over a month ago but I’m only just getting to publishing it now also.
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The only real things stopping me from uploading “The Astonishing Ant-Man: Ghosts of The Past” are some issue with one deleted scene that seems a little tricky in its precise placement, whether or not I might cut out a different (kind of sidequesty) sequence to accommodate it, and the custom title card at the end. The final point is especially tricky since the original title is hard-layered onto the background, and is obviously different from the title I’ve chosen.
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I’ve got ‘Quantumania’ plans on the go in my head too – but it’s finding the time to do it, taking the time to properly plan and execute the things I want to, and how it’s going to stand on its own next to a different version of the film that belongs to a different collection of films I’m planning.
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Specifically: I’m thinking about a “Kang Dynasty” Saga of films, to the point of already having names for the instalments thought up – but it’s all is still very much in the planning stage and I haven’t committed to it properly on any level, since it will require cinematic recuts of the Loki series’, and I just don’t know if I have that in me. Sounds like an F-ton of work.
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Footnote: I am merely a self-taught video editor and VFX artist here, so some areas may be visibly mostly good, as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.