“Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania” celebrated its world premiere in LA, and although the detailed reviews are not yet allowed to be published, there are already the first short reactions on Twitter. How is the MCU adventure being received?
Thanos was yesterday, Kang the Conqueror is the new MCU villain who will make life difficult for the Avengers in phase 5. The villain played by Jonathan Majors makes his big-screen debut in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, following a variant of the character briefly appeared in the Disney Plus series Loki. And following the world premiere of the third “Ant-Man” adventure in Los Angeles, it seems clear: Thanos has indeed found a worthy successor in Kang, because the presence of majors in his villain role is praised across the board by industry representatives.
Kudos to Jonathan Majors as Kang
So called Steven Weintraub of Collider Jonathan Majors’ performance as Kang was “excellent” and he can’t wait to see where it all goes. Ant-Man 3 is a strong start to Phase 5 and has two very good post-credit scenes. There is also praise for majors from Varietys Jazz Tangcay and Brian Davids from Hollywood Reporter.
But how did the visitors of the premiere like the new Marvel adventure apart from Kang The Conqueror? The first Twitter voices are telling and they are mostly positive – which is often the case with these direct reactions on social media following such a chic and exciting event as a world premiere. But if you look at the details in the reactions, you get a pretty good picture of what to expect in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. in which Paul Rudd slips back into the role of Scott Lang aka Ant-Man.
“Best Star Wars Movie Since 2018”
And that, alongside unanimous praise for Jonathan Majors as Kang, is a strong “Star Wars” vibe that multiple viewers attest to to Marvel’s quantum adventure.
Jamie Broadnax, member of the Critics Choice Association, calls Jonathan Majors “amazing as the big bad villain,” underlines the “Star Wars” vibes, and also points out that the film contains two post-credit scenes.
Germain Lussier von Gizmondo and io9 even goes so far as to call “Ant-Man 3” the “best Star Wars movie since 2018”. In addition to Kang’s presence, he also highlights the performance of Michelle Pfeiffer in the sci-fi adventure with “humor and heart”.
And Erik Davis from Fandango writes that “Ant-Man 3” brings “big ‘Star Wars’ vibes to the MCU at its craziest and most imaginative”. The film is like a “psychedelic roller coaster ride full of scary and also hilarious oddities”. Here, too, there is no lack of praise for Jonathan Majors, and MODOK is also positively highlighted.
But there are also some criticisms of Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania – and they have to do with the fact that Marvel’s multiverse is too complicated, especially for those who haven’t seen all the MCU films.
“Too Busy”
This is what Mike Ryan writes of Uproxx: “I’m trying to envision a newcomer to Marvel saying ‘ticket please’ and then being given two hours of babble regarding variants and multiverses.” Again, kudos to majors and Michelle Pfeiffer in particular.
For Sean Keane from CNET there was just too much going on in the movie that it was hard to emotionally connect to any of it. Kang is a charismatic, intense, and visually great villain, but the threat he poses is too abstract.
And journalist Jordie Poblete writes, “Ant-Man 3” isn’t exactly the most entertaining MCU film he’s ever seen. He was disappointed that we are entering phase 5 like this. Narratively, it is the beginning of a multiverse storyline that can literally take us anywhere.
Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania also stars Paul Rudd and Jonathan Majors, as well as Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne / The Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, and Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang and Bill Murray as Krylar.
Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on February 15, 2023. The embargo on the long reviews falls on February 14th. If you want to learn more regarding the character Kang The Conqueror, check out this video: