After all the disappointments, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ earns a petty victory against ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

It would be a severe understatement to say that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania managed to one-up Thor: Love and Thunder by setting up a new high bar for disappointment. In fact, it single-handedly managed to overshadow the entire MCU, something that the early reactions to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has clearly established. But apparently, even in its lowest of lows Ant-Man 3 has finally snagged a “win” against none other than James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. 

Though the Avatar sequel faced its fair share of negative reviews that called out its plot and exceptionally long runtime, it still achieved many positive accolades, like being the highest-grossing film of 2022, and not only getting appreciation for its stellar visual effects, but also winning an Oscar in the category. 

Compared to Cameron’s visual treat, Quantumania steadily worked to find points it can be criticized for — whether it was the awful CGI, the cringy monologues, the poor debut of a supposedly-mighty supervillain, or the rotten luck that followed in the form of the assault allegations against the film’s star, Jonathan Majors. 

Both films were made to ditch the usual Disney Plus debut routine months after their theatrical arrival as they received digital releases. While Avatar 2 probably got one so that the House of Mouse could further cash in on the film’s success, it won’t be too far-fetched to guess that Quantumania’s joining the streamer was delayed in hopes that the Majors’ controversy would fizzle out with time.

As it is evident now that is not happening any time soon, Marvel Studios has picked the perfect time to add the film to its MCU library on Disney Plus — just 12 days after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters. At this point, all the studio can do is keep their fingers crossed and hope that James Gunn’s Marvel swan song will either be enough to erase the fiasco that has been the last few months, or obscure Quantumania’s presence altogether. 

Unless Disney decides to announce debuting Avatar: The Way of Water on its streamer sooner or else immediately after Quantumania and risks overshadowing what little traction — or hope of redemption — the latter can generate, it doesn’t seem like we will be getting the chance to binge Jake Sully and family heroically thwarting another attempted human invasion on Pandora any time soon.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits Disney Plus this May 17.