Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s writer had a surprising reaction to all those negative reviews of the film. It’s no secret that the response to the MCU’s big beginning to Phase 5 is a little more divided than expected. Audience scores of Paul Rudd’s latest adventure are way higher than the critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. Writer Jeff Loveness told The Daily Beast‘s Allegra Frank that he was crestfallen to read all the negativity. “To be honest, those reviews took me by surprise,” he explained. “I was in a pretty low spot… Those were not good reviews, and I was like, ‘What the …?’” However, there was a bright spot that improved his feelings heading into writing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
“I’m really proud of what I wrote for Jonathan [Majors, who plays the villain Kang the Conqueror] and Michelle Pfeiffer [scientist Janet Pym],” Loveness shared. “I thought that was good stuff, you know? And so I was just despondent, and I was really sad about it.”
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“I went to [a showing]” of the movie after the reviews were in and the movie was out, the writer added. “And an audience was laughing, and it was one of those Sullivan’s Travels, ‘watching the movie with the prisoners’ moments.”
How Will The Criticism Factor Into The Kang Dynasty Script?
Comicbook.com’s Brandon Davis asked the writer this very question on Phase Zero and the scribe had this to say:
“Yeah, I mean, I’m in the process of that right now,” Loveness explained. “So certainly it’s been a wild couple of weeks to be writing the biggest movie of all time and to see yourself portrayed in this way,” he added with a laugh. “But, yeah, it’s a mix of both, man. ‘Cause I really do like the movie. And you know, making movies is a fight and you always look at your own work and you see the flaws or you see ways to do it better, but man, writing Jonathan Majors was like the thrill of a lifetime. And getting that M.O.D.O.K stuff in there was such a joy … It could not have been a more thrilling experience.”
Loveness continued, “It’s been really charming and really heartwarming to see it find its audience, and the people who get it, really get it. It’s kind of fun to have a movie people have strong opinions on … I had to get used to that, it’s sort of a whack to the face, but I also feel like I’ve grown up a little bit. I’m alive, and it’s like, I’m very excited to write the next one.” He concluded with a laugh, “It’s not affecting the work right now, but we’ll see if my badge has been locked out of Disney. We’ll see if I can get into the building.”
What lessons do you think he learned from Quantumania? Let us know down in the comments!