Moviemaking in general has had a challenge ever since the rise of television, which has only gotten more extreme with the development of tablets and smartphones. If your movie can be viewed on a screen of any size, how "big" should you make it? Some directors have resorted to making films that look as similar as possible on all screens, with emphasis on close-ups and simple, high-contrast shots. But Ant-Man is definitely a movie that looks and feels very different on the big screen, and especially on the big-big screen that is an IMAX theater. Naturally, that's connected to the size-changing abilities of its hero and villain. The bit with Thomas the Tank Engine is funny in the second trailer and you can understand what's happening, but there are a couple of telling details that are easy to miss when it's not a more immersive experience. Of all the Marvel movies so far, even Avengers 2, this might be the big-screen-iest. And ironically enough, that may mean it suffers the most when it comes time to shrink it for lucrative home video. Did you catch the trailer in cinemas?
T Campbell has written quite a few online comics series and selected work for Marvel, Archie and Tokyopop. His longest-running works are Fans, Penny and Aggie-- and his current project with co-writer Phil Kahn, Guilded Age.
