Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Is Second-Lowest Rated MCU Movie on Rotten Tomatoes

Ant-Man’s Rotten Tomatoes score is shrinking. Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (in theaters February 17th) ended its review embargo Tuesday, debuting on critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes with an early 63 percent approval from critics for a “fresh” score. While the score could still fluctuate as more critics’ reviews are added, the third Ant-Man movie currently sits at 55 percent “rotten” from 115 reviews at the time of publishing. That’s the second-lowest score of the 31-movie Marvel Cinematic Universe, behind only 2021’s Eternals, which was the first — and formally only — Marvel Studios movie to receive the green splat with a “rotten” score of 47 percent.

MCU Movies Ranked on Rotten Tomatoes

Black Panther (2018): 96% Certified Fresh
Avengers: Endgame (2019): 94%
Iron Man (2008): 94% Certified Fresh
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): 93% Certified Fresh
Thor: Ragnarok (2017): 93% Certified Fresh
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017): 92% Certified Fresh
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): 92% Certified Fresh
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021): 91% Certified Fresh
The Avengers (2012): 91% Certified Fresh
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019): 90% Certified Fresh
Captain America: Civil War (2016): 90% Certified Fresh
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014): 90% Certified Fresh
Doctor Strange (2016): 89% Certified Fresh
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018): 87% Certified Fresh
Avengers: Infinity War (2018): 85% Certified Fresh
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017): 85% Certified Fresh
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022): 84% Certified Fresh
Ant-Man (2015): 83% Certified Fresh
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011): 80% Certified Fresh
Black Widow (2021): 79% Certified Fresh
Captain Marvel (2019): 79% Certified Fresh
Iron Man 3 (2013): 79% Certified Fresh
Thor (2011): 77% Certified Fresh
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): 76% Certified Fresh
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022): 74% Certified Fresh
Iron Man 2 (2010): 71% Certified Fresh
The Incredible Hulk (2008): 67% Fresh
Thor: The Dark World (2013): 66% Fresh
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022): 64% Fresh
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023): 55% Rotten
Eternals (2021): 47% Rotten

ComicBook critic Jenna Anderson wrote Quantumania “is not only the third ‘act’ in the almost decade-long Marvel Cinematic Universejourney of Ant-Man, but it is a forecast of what’s on the horizon —kicking off Phase 5 of the franchise’s storytelling, and fully teeing upits biggest Big Bad yet, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). It wouldbe a lot to ask any of Marvel’s existing superhero franchises to carrythat latter burden, but in the hands of Quantumania, it proves to be a fun challenge in nearly every way. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania isan eccentric and essential spectacle, which further expands thepossibilities of what the MCU’s tentpole projects can still be capableof.” 

After the events of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, returning director Peyton Reed’s follow-up to 2015’s Ant-Man and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp sends Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) into the sub-atomic dimension of the Quantum Realm, where Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) was once trapped for 30 years. It’s there that the Ant-Family learns the trapped time-master Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) has dominion over time — and the multiverse — itself.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Rotten Tomatoes Reviews

Other reviews praised Majors’ performance as Kang, a multiversal variant of his He Who Remains character from Loki, and the Ant-Man threequel drew comparisons to Star Wars. (The weird world of the Quantum Realm is “A Bug’s Life-meets-Return of the Jedi,” one reviewer wrote.)

While some highlighted the “psychedelic” world-building due to Quantumania taking place amost entirely in the Quantum Realm only glimpsed in such films as Ant-Man and the Wasp and Endgame, others said the shift to a bigger-scale adventure and “laying important groundwork for Marvel’s film future, unfortunately, means losing some of the franchise’s essential scrappy charm.” Read more Quantumania reviews here.

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathryn Newton, and Jonathan Major, Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens only in theaters February 17th.