Quantumania Writer Defends Ant-Man Threequel Amid Backlash
Phase Five could have definitely been off to a better start.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a new chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, premiered on February 17, 2023. The movie continues the adventures of Scott Lang, who is drawn into the Quantum Realm.
Accompanied by his daughter Cassie, his girlfriend Hope, as well as Hope's parents, Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, he encounters Kang the Conqueror, a new major villain in the MCU to replace Thanos.
Unfortunately, despite the grand scope of the movie's events, the critical response seems to be less than stellar. It has a 48% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 48 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Such underwhelming reviews took the film's screenwriter, Jeff Loveness, by surprise. As he said in a interview to The Daily Beast:
"To be honest, those reviews took me by surprise. [...] I was in a pretty low spot… Those were not good reviews, and I was like, 'What the …?'".
The film is currently one of two MCU movies to earn a Rotten status on Rotten Tomatoes, along with Eternals (2021).
Despite praising Jonathan Majors ' portrayal of Kang, which brings nuance and subtlety to the character, critics point out that the movie itself has little to offer beyond the drab-looking action.
They say it lacks the spark of fun that elevated earlier adventures, and express concern about future phases of the cinematic universe.
Nevertheless, the author remains proud of his work.
"I'm really proud of what I wrote for Jonathan [Majors] and Michelle Pfeiffer, [...] I thought that was good stuff, you know? And so I was just despondent, and I was really sad about it," Loveness said.
But mediocre reviews are not the end of the world. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score was much higher than the critics' score, standing at 83%.
For this fact, Jeff expressed his gratitude to the fans:
"I went to [a showing] of the movie after the reviews were in and the movie was out [...] And an audience was laughing, and it was one of those Sullivan's Travels, 'watching the movie with the prisoners' moments…"
Jeff also said that he actually tried to make Quantumania feel more like a throwback '90s adventure comedy and wanted it to feel like the way Men in Black — funny and goofy, but with real stakes and consequences.