I have to confess that ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ was not what I expected at all. After the, with few exceptions, soporific Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Multiverse Saga has decided to step on the accelerator and add some interest to its narrative with a new Ant-Man adventure whose reception is being much less enthusiastic than one might expect.
banknotes and tomatoes
As far as I’m concerned, the latest from Peyton Reed is a hilarious exercise in old-fashioned sci-fi that has finally recaptured the comic book essence lost over the last couple of years; but the tone of the comments poured into networks as a result of its launch is in the antipodes of this opinion and suggests that Scott Lang and company have paid the price after a long period of saturation.
However, the irregular reception of the feature film has not prevented ‘Ant-Man 3’ from debuting beyond expectations, amassing 110 million dollars at the North American box office during its first three days and being able to close the long weekend of President’s Day with about 120 million dollars; a sum vastly higher than that of the two previous installments of the trilogy.
For its part, the first ‘Ant-Man’ began its journey at the box office with 57 million dollars, while its sequel ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ closed its release with 76 million. Of course, the estimable performance of ‘Quantumania’ at the box office —despite its puncture in China with 19 million dollars— has not prevented the title starring Paul Rudd from having equaled an all-time low for critics as we can see on Rotten Tomatoes.
The popular aggregator of reviews Today, it awards a “rotten” rating to ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ with only 47% positive opinions —among which mine is included—, tied with Chloé Zhao’s soporific ‘Eternals’. Thus, both films are the only ones in the entire MCU that do not have a “fresh” assessmentbeing the third from the tail a ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ that has 64% of critics in its favor.
Will ‘Ant-Man 3’ hold up the guy in his second weekend? Are we facing the first signs of wear and tear on the Marvel Universe? Will Bob Iger’s return to Disney and his “quality over quantity” policy help? Only time will tell.