Ant Man 3 debuts with one of the MCU's worst-ever Metacritic scores

The newest Ant-Man movie isn't instilling belief in the trajectory that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is careening through, with criticisms for its peculiar shift from the comedy of the earlier Ant-Man movies, a lack of opportunities for the actors to shine, and again, an overreliance on a hefty helping of green screen.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania acts as the start of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so there's a significant amount riding on this specific movie. This is the first time we are introduced to Kang the Conqueror too, who is going to be the big bad of the Multiverse Saga and poses a threat above and beyond that of earlier villains.

"Kang is a top-tier, A-list Avengers villain," said screenwriter Jeff Loveness in an interview in January. "What do you do when you feel you’re not enough against that? How do you step up to face the challenge of this generation, who is Thanos on an exponential level? He’s almost this infinite Thanos."

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And accordingly, there has been a lot of love for Jonathan Majors' performance as Kang, a variation on the character that we saw in Loki. "One day, though, we'll probably be talking about the multifaceted Kang in the same breath as Heath Ledger's Joker," said USA Today's Brian Truitt. "Majors brings an innate and understandable humanity to a king in his own mind who's all about manipulation and winning but not without weakness."

Nevertheless, the overall score on Metacritic is a jaundiced 50 from 40 critic reviews, which is not a strong start for Phase 5. "Quantumania’s tone is sure to be polarizing, but if you can surrender yourself to its bonkers A Bug’s Life-meets-Return of the Jedi antics, the two hours (already short for a Marvel film) will fly by," argued the AV Club.

"The endearing sweetness of the early Ant-Man movies, which tapped Rudd’s ineffable charm, has been bigfooted into a noisy, smash-and-grab extravaganza that, for all its self-conscious bigness, feels smaller and less ambitious than its predecessors," commented The Washington Post. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releases in two days time, if you're willing to reserve your judgement for when you actually go and see it.