I really liked how the character of the step-dad was treated in Ant-Man

A trope that I find kind of annoying in many movies is their portrayal of step-dads. This trope usually finds the biological father divorced, without custody of his kids and his ex-wife has gotten remarried. By the end of the movie the step-dad is usually either revealed to be an asshole or is killed off, thus allowing the biological father to reconnect with his ex and his children.

I don't really like this trope because it really casts a bad light on step-dads. When I saw Ant-Man it started out with all of the classic elements there for the same thing to happen. Scott Lang is down on his luck and divorced from his wife. He loves his kid but there's a new fiance in the way. But by the end of the movie Bobby Canavale's character, Paxton, doesn't get totally shit on. During the movie, he does act as a sort of secondary antagonist as he is trying to arrest Scott, but we see that he is totally justified in his actions. Scott has broken the law on multiple occasions and really is not that good a father. He just got out of jail at the beginning of the movie. We see during the film that Paxton really does care for and loves his wife's daughter and he only wants what's best for her, even after he sees how much she prefers her original father over him. In the climax, Paxton does what he can to protect Cassie against Yellow Jacket. Finally in the end of the film, Scott never gets back together with his ex-wife. Instead, he and Paxton have a new respect for each other and Paxton continues to be there for his new family, while Scott goes his own way. It would have been so easy for the writers to have done the "First Father Wins" trope completely and I respect them for not having done so.

Submitted May 30, 2016 at 09:58PM by DamionMauville http://ift.tt/1VqmckE