Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was not well-received by critics (it's actually only the second MCU movie to drop to "rotten" status on Rotten Tomatoes after Eternals), and the reception was not something writer Jeff Loveness was prepared for.
While speaking to The Daily Beast about the threequel's (mostly) negative reviews, Loveness, whose work Rick and Morty fans should be very familiar with, admitted that the critical drubbing came out of left field, and, understandably, he did not feel great about it.
“To be honest, those reviews took me by surprise. I was in a pretty low spot. Those were not good reviews, and I was like, ‘What the …?’”
Loveness says attending a public screening of the sci-fi adventure during its opening weekend cheered him up a bit, as the audience reacted well to a lot of the jokes he had added to the script.
“I’m like, ‘Goddamn! No, [the reviews] are wrong! I’m right! MODOK is great!’” he added. “I’m pretty happy with it overall, and I think I learned how to take a punch this week. And now that I learned that it’s not too bad, I can just get on with making things.”
In a separate interview with The Phase Zero podcast, Loveness was adamant that the movie's chilly reception would not impact his plans for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
"Yeah, I mean, I'm in the process of that right now," he said of the work-in-progress script. "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."
"But, yeah, it's a mix of both, man," he added. "'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."
Not every big studio blockbuster can be a 5-star banger, so Loveness is right not to allow the negativity surrounding Ant-Man 3 influence him too much. At the same time, he might be wise not to completely brush off the criticisms and take a look at what could be improved upon.