Marvel held the first public screenings of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” on Monday – the film’s gala premiere in Los Angeles, alongside the first screenings for journalists – and the social media embargo has lifted. You know what that means: Reactions!
Do people like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (which by the way is the film that finally kicks off Marvel’s Phase 5)? It’s actually pretty mixed. Some people loved it — the usual Marvel humor remains — and others thought that as fun as it was, it was a bit thin. Others still liked that it seems to have given the MCU focus and a clear direction after the lack of a clear myth arc following “Avengers: Endgame,” while still managing to tell a standalone “Ant-Man” story. But still more people said as much as they enjoyed it, the multiverse-heavy plot felt a bit impenetrable.
But universally, people who saw it agree that Jonathan Majors as new Marvel main villain Kang the Conqueror was a blast. And if you’re looking for a pithy sum-up, no one seems to have disliked it.
“#AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania should have sparked Phase 5 with a bang, but it misses the mark. The story is plagued with filler, while sufficient, lacks depth. However, Majors does give an outstanding performance as the cunning and ruthless #Kang. I wish it had left an impression,” Anthony of “The Movie Podcast” said.
#AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania has way too much going on — it’s tough to connect emotionally to any of it. Jonathan Majors’ Kang is a charismatic, intense baddy and visually awesome, but the threat he represents is too abstract,” Sean Keane of CNET said.
There’s a lot more than that — see it below.
Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily return as Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne, respectively. Also appearing is Kathryn Newton, making her debut as the older version of Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie, and Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer.
But this time, in contrast to the first two “Ant-Man” movies, the action takes place largely in the Quantum Realm. We see full cities and civilizations as Scott, Hope, Cassie, Hank and Janet are all sucked into the microverse, where they come into contact with Kang the Conqueror played by Jonathan Majors.
Kang is essentially being set up as the next Thanos for the MCU, with Majors making his first appearance as “He Who Remains” in the “Loki” finale and warning about an alternate version of himself hell-bent on conquering the known universe. Indeed, the “Avengers” sequel arriving in 2025 is called “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” premieres Feb. 17, 2023.
See more reactions below.
