Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania faced an uphill battle even before it hit theaters, as the film was met with poor reviews. Those reviews didn’t deter moviegoers from showing up on the opening weekend. Unfortunately, the Marvel film suffered a drastic drop during its second weekend in theaters. Whether the reviews hurt the film is still up for debate, it did affect those involved in the blockbuster production in differing ways. After learning about those poor reviews, the film’s writer shared his honest reaction.
The maligned sequel was written by TV and film writer Jeff Loveness. The film set up what Kang the Conqueror will bring to the MCU. Following Quantumania’s release, Loveness has been tasked with writing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. So the writer was taken aback by the unfortunate major Rotten Tomatoes score of 47 percent. The Quantumania scribe spilled he was surprised by the sequel’s not-so-nice reviews. He recalled his reaction upon seeing the score and reading critics’ thoughts with The Daily Beast.
I was in a pretty low spot… Those were not good reviews, and I was like, ‘What the …?’
Loveness was right to be in his feels as Ant-Man 3 served as not only his debut MCU movie but his first feature script after writing for numerous TV shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live and Rick and Morty, for a decade. Seeing the poor critical reception would be a downer for any first-time movie scribe. He wanted to appease not only diehard Marvel fans but the critics as well. Unfortunately, Ant-Man 3 suffered the same fate as the lowest-rated MCU outing Eternals.
The film and TV writer felt quite low after pouring his heart and soul into the Quantumania script. Jeff Loveness admitted he was proud of his script before he learned about the film’s poor reviews.
I’m really proud of what I wrote for Jonathan [Majors, who plays the villain Kang the Conqueror] and Michelle Pfeiffer [scientist Janet Pym]. I thought that was good stuff, you know? And so I was just despondent, and I was really sad about it.
Fortunately, moviegoers proved reviewers with decent box office numbers and a better audience Rotten Tomatoes score of 84 percent. Loveness found solace in the film’s audience as he recalled seeing in a movie theater after the reviews came out.
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.
It appeared Loveness was nourished by the audience’s laughter after taking a mental and emotional beatdown from the critics. The audience’s reaction wasn’t surprising as critics and moviegoers have become increasingly divided in recent years over which films are better than others. The show must go on as the Rick and Morty alum gears up for his next MCU assignment - The Kang Dynasty.
Outside of Marvel, there hasn’t been any other news on what projects Jeff Loveness will pen next. You can currently watch Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania in theaters. After watching Marvel’s 31st entry, find which new Marvel movies are coming down the pipeline in Phases 5 and 6.
