Ant-Man: The Smallest MCU Movie With the Biggest Heart

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. This is your host Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest. It has been on my watch right here. 1:15, 2026. It's been five years to the day that I launched this very podcast out of a pit of depression and yearning for something creative to do something new. I thought maybe I will put my heart into a podcast about mar. At the time I had One podcast called Mr. Honest. Scraped it off the Internet during a hard time in my life, so you can't really find much of that. It was kind of a good warm up for what we're doing here and a magic Muggle of Harry Potter after show. I just want to say these five years wouldn't have happened if it weren't for you. And no, it has not been a direct five years. I've been recording every week for five years. That would be a complete lie. I'd say a total. We've been like two and a half straight together combined years of weekly episodes. This run we're on now went back to Deadpool and Wolverine. So we're in the longest stretch. I've gone through some things, went through it. You can listen to episode 200 and I tell you about how I became my own hero and decided to overcome my problems and come back to being a podcaster and a creator again. It's a powerful episode. I recommend it. But you're here today seeing the title and yes, we're talking about Ant man. And not as gap filler, not as an oddball postscript, but Marvel's intentional breath between two massive films. This came out a couple of months after Age of Ultron, which we just talked about last week. So I'm kind of like reliving a bit of Phase two and three, and I might go down the list from here. I'm going to place Guardians of the Galaxy in a machete order because I think there's a really great opportunity to place those two movies a little bit closer to Infinity War. So it feels like we're right in Infinity War with the backstory and the sisters and there's a lot to it. But avengers hit theaters May 1st. Ant man came in July 17th, so this was a good palette cleanser. It was closing Phase two of the MCU as well. I was very impressed by this movie. And let's just go over this again. Before Ant man, we just watched Iron Man 3, which was a lot of PTSD fallout. Still good. Great movie. Captain America, Winter Soldier, huge movie. Thor, Dark World, lots of implications, not Loved by the fans as much as they could and should love it a little bit more now in retrospect. And Guardians of the Galaxy, huge movie, followed by Age of Ultron, another huge movie. All of those have this weight to them. Political drama, godlike stakes, cosmic peril, giant alien battles. And I'll be honest, after Ultron's near apocalyptic tone, I didn't know what to expect next from Marvel. But what we got was funny, weird, grounded, and surprisingly emotional. This movie, along with Guardians of the Galaxy is where Marvel decides to start taking some chances on some brand new heroes, new franchises. And it's honestly a great time for Marvel. When Ant man came out and it really implemented itself really well into the overall story of the mcu. So we got this great movie with Paul Rudd. And I mean, in my opinion, that was a casting risk at the time. Even I did question, how is Paul Rudd, comedian, going to make a Marvel MCU movie that also maintains the story of the MCU and keeps in tone, not like any other Paul Rudd movie. People genuinely asked Paul Rudd, superhero. And that question is at the core of what makes Ant man work. Rudd didn't come in as some metaphorical archetype. He came in as a real person, believable, charming, goofy, lovable. The kind of guy you think could actually try this kind of insane thing. And yes, that helps the audience root for him from the first frame. Let's talk about the heists and Scott Lang's humanity. Scott Lang isn't some noble origin story where tragedy forges steel. He's a thief. Yeah, but he's the kind of thief who stole from people who had already stolen from others. A little Robin Hoodish, with a moral compass that doesn't point perfectly north. And that's human. We see him struggle to be a dad, struggle to contribute, struggle to matter even before he gets into the shrinking suit. And like I said, the placement of this movie, after all these big franchise, you know, action, outer space, world destruction level movies, that Ant man comes into the picture at the perfect time. I don't know how many doubted it. I don't know if anyone else is on the line like I was. I went in, fingers crossed, praying that this could be real. Because I love Paul Rudd. I think he's hilarious, always have. And if they could pull this off and bring Paul Rudd into the mcu, just imagining him at the time without knowing where the whole MCU was going all at once, just imagining him in an Avengers movie along with the other Avengers, it sounded pretty, pretty cool. If you ask Me. Then there's Hank Pym. Michael Douglas. Such a great job of being Hank, making us believe in Hank. He's the emotional backbone to this story. Watch him from the opening prologue in the 80s rejecting SHIELD Howard Stark and to the loss of Janet to his deeper fear that came from that loss. He doesn't want anyone else to get lost. That fear makes him almost cruel toward the idea of passing the mantle. But in choosing Scott, there's this fragile thread of hope that maybe his legacy doesn't have to be regret. I remember the advertisements for this. They like, I think they worried about getting people in seats just to give this movie a chance, which is understandable. You know, he's a little man and he's a superhero. How do they make that work? Well, the movie clearly shows you and it does exceed expectations. But going into it, how are they going to bring people in? So they have this one trailer that goes. They're like Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas are doing this thing with their hands and they keep saying ants, Ant man. Like I gotta, I gotta link it or something like that. Look up. Funny. Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Ant man advertising. I mean, oh my goodness, it was so funny. And to see that as the preview for Ant man, it makes. It's just them saying the name of the movie in a funny way. But that's what I loved about Paul Rudd being in the mcu. You know, it's such a serious tone, the MCU for such a kind of, you know, comic booky thing, a superhero movies, you know, to be so dramatic, it's not bad. But for have every single movie be really dramatic, like Lord of the Rings level, like, I mean there needs to be a little bit of light hearted humor in the mix. And that's exactly what Rudd brings to the part following Ultron. A movie where the world literally nearly ends and Ant man coming in feels like Marvel saying, let's remember why we started this. It's fun without being silly for the sake of silliness. It's small scale, but emotionally big. And in terms of pacing, the MCU moving from cosmic to cozy worked. It wasn't redirection, it was balanced. Think about the tone. Yes, it's a heist movie. Yes, it's in inventive, but it's funny because it's human. The bag, the, the bag with the iPhone moment. The visuals that are absurd on paper but feel earned on screen. And the comedy never undercuts the characters real stakes, that's rare. It was a perfect balance. I like the bad guy, Darren he's kind of a typical villain, but in a sense he's someone who is very betrayed by Hank. And he believed the Ant man was real and Hank called it a myth. So Darren takes over Hank Pym's job at Pim Labs, which he's trying to name after himself. He's a very scary villain because he kills like innocent animals and just for test trials. And he literally made a guy into goop on the floor of the bathroom who didn't believe believe in him. So he's kind of a under the table, really bad guy. And when he loses everything, he just cracks into full on super villain pretty fast with that yellow jacket suit. This movie also gave us the first real glimpse into the quantum realm. Mysterious, unknowable and endlessly fascinating. It's not fully explained here, and that's the point. You fill in the wonder. There's this, you know, Easter egg apparently, that you could see a castle in there and people think that was King the Conqueror's castle. I could never see that while watching it. I. I always am so into the movie that I'm just kind of watching the visuals on screen go crazy. Almost like Doctor Strange level while he's falling into the quantum realm, hearing Hank, Hank Pim's voice about going subatomic. The mystery of the quantum quantum realm is a seed that later grows into endgame level seriousness. But Ant man was smart enough not to use it up here. It rests lightly in the background. Now, looking forward, Quantumania had this challenge where a lot of side characters. I'm thinking about how much joy someone like Lewis brings to this original first movie didn't travel with Scott and hope in the quantum realm. That absence softened some of the fun. If you ask me later on, some of what made this movie what it is. And compared to Quantumania, I mean, this episode isn't about it, but we want to look at the full stories and see where they line up. Where does Quantumanium fit fit in that perspective? Well, it's Paul Rudd's big superhero movie. It's not ironically he's the little guy, but it's a big movie. We're definitely anticipating to be huge because Kane the Conqueror at the time supposed to be the main bad of the mcu and it was our first real time seeing him as Kane the Conqueror and not just Loki as he who remains. It's just a reminder that part of what made the first Ant man work was the tone, the people, and not just physics. So what makes Ant man special is how little it tries to Be it doesn't need to redefine the mcu. It just is heartwarming, funny, clever, surprisingly affecting if you let it. The father daughter moments, the friendship, the mentorship. These are quiet Marvel beats. They don't explode, they settle and stick. And I have to say the chemistry between the characters are spot on. Scott Lang and Hope, I love them together. I think they're the perfect couple. And the fact that I just love that. That scene towards the end of the movie where they're making out and then hang, Pim sees them and Scotland blames Hope for kissing him. And little light hearted moments like that can make a movie really good and really special if it pays off right. Yeah, it does give you the trope of superhero wins girl at the end of movie. Except Girl is not your average girl. She's a badass. She knows how to fight. At the end of the movie, the teasers we get to see that she is going to become the Wasp. And I'd say her role as a mini Wasp in this movie really works because she is essential to getting the job done to stop Yellowjacket and Darren. Pretty much expose Ant man to the world and the power of Ant man, which could cause all sorts of war and just bring in a whole new rare revolution of destruction if you put in the wrong hands. That's the whole reason Hank gives Scott a chance at the suit. He needs to break in to a place and steal some. Just. Just as it said in the movie. So when we look at Ant Man's place in the mcu, after chaos, after alien war, after giant robots dropping cities from the sky, after, in this movie, we see Ant man fight the Falcon. What a fun scene. These are the scenes that we live for in the mcu, the crossovers. This, this meeting of the Falcon at this point is what gets him into civil war later because he beat the crap out of Anthony Mackie as Falcon, our future Captain America. He really proved himself. Paul Russell sh. Ant man as a hero in that scene especially. And it's just not really a detour this movie. It's intentional, a reminder of even a universe of gods and giants exist. But the small stories still matter here. Thank you for spending this time with me today. And before we wrap up, if you enjoyed this episode, I'd really appreciate it if you rated and reviewed Marvel Maniac, wherever you're listening. I mean it. It genuinely helps the show reach more Marvel fans. Yes, I'm talking to you. You will help make Marvel Maniac what I want it to be. A bigger show. What podcaster doesn't want that? And it tells the algorithm, hey, this one is worth sticking around for. So go rate the show. Don't hesitate. Don't feel obligated as well. But also I want you to feel a little bit obligated. It means the world that you're here. If you're listening at least a week at a time. I know some of you are. I get. I see the numbers and there's people out there and you're quiet. And that's okay. I would like to ask some of you, if not any of you, to break your silence and please put out a decent review. And if you want to keep the conversation going, we got a brand new Marvel Maniac Discord. It's a relaxed, spoiler friendly place to talk MCU episodes and whatever Marvel has you thinking about this week. The link is in the description. I'd love to see you there. I'm also streaming on Twitch Spider man from 2017 or 18, the game that came out on PS4. Now it's remastered for PC. I will be streaming through three nights a week, maybe more. There might be a Fortnite night in there somewhere soon and it be a great way to for you to come in, talk some superhero stuff. Hey, bond over Spider Man. Give me ideas of what what you want to see in real time in the podcast. We could talk the podcast on there too, you know. Time and place. Yeah, the Twitch channel will probably be the best place for that. Honestly, if you like this episode again, a quick rating or review goes a long way. I just got to remind you. Thank you for that. And if you want to hang out and talk Marvel with us, the Discord is link is in the description. Come say hi. Don't be shy. We'd love to have you and we'd love to see you there. This has been Marvel Maniac and MCU after show. Until next time, Avengers disassembled.