Early critic reviews are in and Marvel's Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is sitting on a 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Making it the second lowest rated Marvel Cinematic Universe film, behind only Eternals.

Though early reviews for Eternals earned it a 71% score from critics which now sits on 47%.

Early reviews come from pre-release screenings to which select critics are invited.

Once the cinema doors are thrown open, it's a free-for-all.

Quantumania could also plummet.

Obviously we've not been invited to see it ourselves so can't offer much in the intelligent commentary, however, a few critic quotes stand out.

Hollywood Reporter's Frank Sheck:

For better or worse, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the most overtly sci-fi film in the series, and on that level, it succeeds very well.

Nothing about that sentence bodes well.

Variety's Owen Gleiberman:

Writer Jeff Loveness is making up the rules as it goes along, which is why Quantumania whisks you through its visually zapping action without generating any real investment in it.

If this is what Phase 5 looks like, God save us from Phases 6, 7 and 8.

One of the key distinguishing features of science fiction is consistency - internal and to our present scientific understanding of the universe.

In fantasy every writer and franchise writes their own rules.

Consumers of science fiction media are less likely to have to contend with essentially random and stupid plot developments.

Writers love to surprise their audience but clevely and meticuously setting that up is probably a lot of work.

Or you can just write whatever surprise you like and lazily say "because magic".

The exception is when science-fiction starts dropping terms like paradox and quantum.

Writers want viewers to think "It doesn't make sense, but it's real (in this fictional setting) therefore clever. Aha!"

Most of the time we regard it as utterly daft and try not to feel embarassed for those writers.

So we look at the comment about Quantumania's writer making up the rules as he goes along and wonder if this might have fallen into that trap.

Star Trek or Doctor Who might be able to get away with dropping an occasional paradox over the course of their many years but a film set in the absence of any rules might be so narratively aimless that many viewers will just write it off as random and daft.

On a positive note for science-fiction lovers, Avatar: The Way of Water is currently killing it in cinemas so its not like audiences are going to come away from this one thinking that sci-fi is stupid.

The real risk is for Marvel and Disney if people see this as another dud in a franchise which built its wealth on reliably excellent films.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania premieres in Australian cinemas on February 16.

[ Main Image: Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania. Credit: Marvel via IMDb.com. ]

References

Campbell, Christopher (February 14, 2023). Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania First Reviews: It's Marvel's Star Wars, and Kang and Modok Steal the Show. Rotten Tomatoes.

Rotten Tomatoes. All Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer. (viewed February 15, 2023)

Rotten Tomatoes. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quatumania. (viewed February 15, 2023)