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The first reviews for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania are in, and well, Marvel Phase 5 looks to be off to a wobbly start. While there’s plenty of praise for Jonathan Major as Kang the Conqueror, the third film in the Ant-Man series has seemingly lost the franchise’s lighter “palate cleansing” charm by making Paul Rudd go up against the MCU’s newest big bad instead of his fun, breezy, lower stake antics.

Quantumania is also considerably more FX-laden thanks to the film taking place almost entirely inside the sci-fi world of the Quantum Realm. Given Marvel’s recent track record with questionable CGI, that creative decision may affect the film’s reception. The critics are certainly divided on how well the spectacle lands with some comparing Quantumania favorably to Star Wars while others miss the low-key charm of the first two films.

You can see what the reviews are saying below:

Mike Ryan, Uproxx:

I feel like I’m reading a comic I like, but a run I’m not totally into. At least not yet. And with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, like I said, I think Peyton Reed has given us an installment that, with the material that has to be introduced, is about the best version this could be. But I found myself missing the more grounded and funny world of Scott Lang that the prior movies had set up.

Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge:

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, from director Peyton Reed, wants to make you laugh. But it also wants you to think it’s cool — kind of like a dad who doesn’t know how to relate to you now that you’re both adults who can recognize that he’s always sorta only had maybe one or two good bits. Quantumania knows those bits have worked in the past, and it gamely whips them out as part of the Ant-Man series’ most visually imaginative stories yet. But rather than coasting on its sense of dad-focused humor, Quantumania tries to switch things up a bit by mainlining a few doses of whatever psychedelics Doctor Strange has been brewing and inviting you to partake in a little madness that doesn’t always make sense.

Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly:

Thirty films in, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become not unlike a box of chocolates; the high-fructose casing is guaranteed, but the flavors and the mouthfeel change. The original Ant-Man, whose cowriters included Adam McKay (Anchorman, The Big Short) and Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) had the rat-a-tat snap of a story rooted more in high multiplex comedy than mythology. This one is penned alone by Jeff Loveness, an alum of Jimmy Kimmel and Rick and Morty, and his take is both noisier and more patently absurd: a spinning Gravitron that shoots off wry one-liners, clangorous CG fight scenes, and shameless sentiment in equal, if hectic, measure.

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast:

A chore of diminishing returns, it’s an adventure that plays out almost wholly on green screens, here used by desktop artists to realize the Quantum Realm, a subatomic world that resembles a cross between Star Wars and Avatar, except with far more garish and muddy blues, oranges, and yellows. It’s a murky mess of an artificial setting that no doubt made filming during COVID easier, not that the pandemic is any excuse for the chintzy aesthetics and leaden writing of this forgettable franchise entry.

Joshua Yehl, IGN:

To Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s credit, it manages to supersize this adventure while still maintaining the awkward, deadpan humor that makes Paul Rudd’s portrayal of Scott Lang so endearing. Yet in its haste to do so much, some of Quantumania’s characters, ideas, and plotlines feel underdeveloped – and that’s not the first time that’s been said about a recent MCU movie. The saving grace is Jonathan Majors’ show-stopping performance as the chilling new villain Kang, but not even he can conquer the MCU’s tendency to get in its own way.

Brian Truitt, USA Today:

These days, nothing is safe from becoming an all-out Marvel epic, and so goes “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” Gone are the usual quirky personalities and breezy shenanigans (we miss you, ginormous Hello Kitty Pez dispenser!), though returning director Peyton Reed pumps in enough family bonding and signature whimsy to complement the massive world building and a new time-traveling big bad played by a terrific Jonathan Majors. Laying important groundwork for Marvel’s film future unfortunately means losing some of the franchise’s essential scrappy charm.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter:

Although this film features some laughs … humor is generally in shorter supply. Which is probably appropriate for a film featuring one of Marvel’s scariest-ever villains in the form of Kang the Conqueror (a truly fearsome Jonathan Majors, instantly establishing a career annuity) and a potential cataclysm involving … actually, I don’t know what, to be honest. I just know that it’s really, really, bad, and that between the Multiverse and the Quantum Realm, you practically need an advanced physics degree to figure out what the hell is going on in Marvel films these days.

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

The script, by former “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Rick and Morty” 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. In a way, the ultimate investment is offscreen: Will the film successfully launch Phase 5? To even wonder about the answer is to miss that the only real conqueror in “Quantumania” is the MCU.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania shrinks into theaters on February 17.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Pop music consistently provides the perfect balance between sad and slay, and most, if not all, of this week’s songs are fitting for those of any relationship status. From some killer new remixes of fan-favorite tracks to a few collaborations sprinkled in, this was truly a stacked time for releases.

Continue scrolling for Uproxx’s Best New Pop roundup from this week.

Lizzo, SZA – “Special”

Lizzo enlisted SZA to open the first verse of the new remix of “Special,” where both women put aside any external judgment from people who don’t know them and aim for uplifting each other instead. They had been teasing it since last year after Lizzo brought SZA out during her concert to perform the version together.

Dove Cameron, Khalid – “We Go Down Together”

Another solid collab out this week, Dove Cameron and Khalid perfectly complement each other’s vocal strengths on their new ballad, “We Go Down Together.” Cameron described their uplifting duet as “very personal and special,” given that the song is about sticking by someone’s side no matter what.

Beyoncé – “Cuff It (Wetter Remix)”

While it might not be the Renaissance visuals just yet, Beyoncé’s “Cuff It” remix still gave fans a treat. Sampling the instrumental of Twista’s 2009 song, “Wetter,” Bey also adds a new opening verse. Initially, it was only available for purchase through her website, but it didn’t take long for the song to finally hit streaming.

Taylor Swift – “Lavender Haze (Felix Jaehn Remix)”

Swift dropped a new remix of her recent Midnights single, “Lavender Haze,” with DJ Felix Jaehn giving the previously-dreamy song a whole new energy. Jaehn, whose previous remix credits include Omi’s 2014 song “Cheerleader,” speeds up the pacing of Swift’s song to create an EDM-influenced intensity. Still, the autotune and instrumental never feel overwhelming as some remixes can.

The Kid Laroi – “Kids Are Growing Up (Part 1)”

The latest track from his upcoming debut album, The Kid Laroi reflects on getting older on “Kids Are Growing Up (Part 1).”

“Growing up, I watched my favorite rappers’ interviews / I ain’t believe ’em when they said, ‘It ain’t all what it seems’ / But now I’m here, realized they were tellin’ truth,” Laroi sings, noting that his rise to fame isn’t all he thought it would be.

Gracie Abrams – “Amelie”

Gracie Abrams details a fleeting connection from the past on “Amelie,” as she struggles to make sense of it all. “It allowed me to walk away from versions of myself that I no longer recognized. It allowed me to let go,” she said of the song. Abrams is set to drop her album, Good Riddance, later this month.

Tove Lo – “Borderline”

“’Borderline’ is a song about being on the edge of love,” Tove Lo shared about her new song, which was co-written with Dua Lipa. “The drama you cause inside yourself and with another person if you feel insecure. You test them. This song has existed for a long time and I’ve always felt it was incredibly special so getting to release it now has sort of a full circle feeling.”

The music video is fun but also has some… chaotic crash test dummies. However, as someone who already finds mannequins, dolls, and anything in that wheelhouse incredibly creepy, this definitely didn’t help that fear.

Jessie Ware – “Pearls”

“Pearls” builds upon Jessie Ware’s shimmery disco influence that she presented in 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure, proving that this sound is where she is at her strongest. She even notes on the song that she’s purely here just to dance — and what a perfect party track to create to do so.

Mau y Ricky – “Miami”

The duo, Mau y Ricky’s “Miami” is a personal reflection from Ricky about meeting his wife. Meanwhile, the band flips the tone for the music video, leaning into what people perceive to be the Floridian city’s culture in a funny way.

Rebecca Black – “Destroy Me”

“[The song] is about trying to find a way to let that go in a way where it feels like I have power over it, like, ‘Yes. Go ahead and destroy me. Everyone does it,’” she told Them about one of the standouts, “Destroy Me,” on her new album. “The reality is we’re all trying to find empowerment from really dark places in our lives.”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lana Del Rey is a die-hard hopeless romantic, so much so that social media users labeled her the ultimate ‘pick me’ after they found out who her boyfriend was at the time. Backlash ensued, and she eventually decided to deactivate her social media profiles. Although she ended up calling it quits with her then-partner, the public still hasn’t let it go off who they think she is based on what they read about her or saw online.

We’ve previously reported on the singer filing for and being awarded a temporary restraining order against an alleged stalker, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. During a conversation with Billie Eilish for Interview Magazine, the singer revealed that wasn’t the only startling thing that has happened to her in the public. As her major label debut album Born To Die began to take off, and on a number of occasions, the public would go to odd lengths to get her attention.

Lana told Eilish, “All of a sudden, I was walking down the street [in New York] as I always did, and people would throw elbows at me. I was like, ‘Oh my God, no way did that actually happen.’ Someone recognized me and gave me a shove.”

That was only the beginning, as Lana continued, “Or in San Francisco, I was eating at a bistro, and a woman threw a book about feminism at my face.”

Eilish was in complete disbelief, replying, “No way.” Lana had a quiet calm response to the scary interaction, “When things shift radically in your life, you have to almost want to have a radical perspective shift. You can’t force it, but if you stay calm, all of a sudden, it comes.”

Ireland’s Sweetheart Paul Mescal has a lot of things going for him right now. He scored an Academy Award nomination for his role of a young disillusioned father in Aftersun just two years after receiving an Emmy nomination for the miniseries Normal People. Next up, he is rumored to lead the Gladiator sequel by director Ridley Scott. So, this man is doing pretty well, on paper. Or at least maybe that’s what everyone thought until pretty recently when it was rumored that Mescal and his alleged fiance Phoebe Bridgers had broken up.

Though neither Mescal nor Bridgers has addressed the rumors directly, there have been many signs and hints, and today, on the holiest of days, Valentine’s Day, it seems like Mescal is making his feelings known by channeling the queen of heartbreak, Taylor Swift…who is about to head out on tour with Bridgers. Are you following along?

In a new video for W Magazine, the Oscar-nominated actor uses his dramatic acting chops for a powerful reading of Ms. Swift’s breakup anthem, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” with those piercing lyrics about dating someone who listens to indie music. The signs are all there! Love is dead. And to think we still have to go on and celebrate Wick Week with broken hearts.

Of course, Mescal is also buddies with Swift and Joe Alwyn (if you are more of a visual learner, here is a rundown of the multiverse), so maybe he just really wanted to pay tribute to his pals, and maybe this has nothing to do with him being brokenhearted. He’s such a good actor, we may never know!

Post Malone has been having a lot of fun lately. Earlier this month, he drank beer from a fan’s shoe in Australia; in November, he officiated a wedding between two fans on stage in Seattle. There was also the time last year he brought mayhem to Seth Meyers while they went day drinking together, and now the famous rapper is causing trouble with other celebrities.

Post Malone joined forces with the notorious Impractical Jokers crew, who are known for playing pranks on each other in New York and seeing how much they can get away with. In a new clip, the “Circles” singer gets out of a car in a parking garage and says, “Thanks for letting me smoke that up in there, man,” as a big cloud of smoke comes from the inside of the vehicle.

In an extended video on Billboard, Post Malone adds, “Give it about five to ten if you guys don’t want the contact high.” To make matters worse, the car belongs to a woman who claims she’s allergic to tobacco. “Oh, don’t worry about that, it’s not tobacco,” Q says, prompting laughs from the others.

The episode airs on truTV and TBS on Thursday, February 16 at 10 pm ET.

In case you haven’t heard, Black Thought is keeping his hot streak going with a new collaborative album. Glorious Game, due April 14 through Big Crown, sees The Roots frontman teaming up with New York “cinematic soul” band El Michels Affair. They announced the new project in January with the lead single “Grateful,” and today, they share its follow-up, “That Girl.”

Appropriately for its release date, “That Girl” is an ode to the latest object of Thought’s affections, who he describes as “a flower from a garden / A pure, fleur de jardins.” The production is, as usual, very similar to the score of a Blaxploitation film, with an orchestral soul intro and woozy funk loops. It’s a short but sweet track that previews what fans can expect from the new album.

Black Thought has spent the last few years branching out from his role as the The Roots’ rapper. In addition to playing a low-key co-host role on The Tonight Show alongside Jimmy Fallon, he’s been releasing a string of collaborative projects, including Cheat Codes with Danger Mouse and the Streams Of Thought EPs with 9th Wonder, Salaam Remi, and Sean C.

Listen to Black Thought and El Michels Affair’s new song, “That Girl” below.

Suga, a member of the immensely popular group BTS, has announced a handful of global solo tour dates and is being tied to his Agust D project.

There are two Verified Fan presales being offered by Ticketmaster: one for BTS’ ARMY membership holders (which fans can join through here) and one for the general public. Both are offering registration from now to February 23 at 10 pm ET.

The ARMY membership on-sale will take place on March 1, with the general Verified Fan sales taking place the following day, pending ticket availability. From there, if any additional tickets are unsold, there will also be a sale open to the public on March 3.

He also plans to announce the Japan tour dates soon, but they are not included in this initial drop.

More information on Suga’s new tour is available here.

Continue scrolling for the complete list of tour dates.

04/26 -– Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
04/27 — Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
04/29 – Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
05/03 –- Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena
05/05 –- Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena
05/06 –- Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena
05/10 –- Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
05/11 –- Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
05/14 –- Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
05/16 –- Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
05/17 -– Oakland, CA @ Oakland Arena
05/26 –- Jakarta, ID @ Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE BSD) Hall 5-6
05/27 –- Jakarta, ID @ Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE BSD) Hall 5-6
05/28 –- Jakarta, ID @ Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE BSD) Hall 5-6
06/10 –- Bangkok, TH @ Impact Arena
06/11 –- Bangkok, TH @ Impact Arena
06/17 –- Singapore, SG @ Singapore Indoor Stadium
06/18 –- Singapore, SG @ Singapore Indoor Stadium
06/24 –- Seoul, KR @ Jamsil Indoor Stadium
06/25 –- Seoul, KR @ Jamsil Indoor Stadium

It always kind of felt like Marvel’s secret trick was, at its heart, these were characters we cared about and the characters themselves really did have a lot of personality and they could be genuinely funny movies. The jokes always seemed to come at the right time and there was a symbiotic relationship between the humanity of the characters and the story. They worked well together. Though, it now feels like we are getting to a stage where that balance feels a little off. What started out as a story about a guy who builds himself a suit of armor is now all about the multiple universes and variants on the same character. I have read comics most of my life and I still sometimes get confused by all this. It’s why I think it’s funny to picture someone who hasn’t seen a Marvel movie (or streaming show) in awhile strolling up to the ticket counter, “Let’s see what my pal Ant-Man is up to now,” then getting inundated with two hours of explanations about the multiverse and why there are almost endless versions of Kang.

Which feels like the inherent problem with the multiverse. The Disney+ series Loki kind of served as an instruction manual to all this, yet each movie has to sit down and explain it all again because it can’t be assumed everyone buying a ticket caught the previous explanation. (Even trying to explain this incarnation of the Loki character is kind of confusing.) So now these stories are all pre-baked with exposition, and it almost feels like the humor has been dialed up to try to offset the exposition, but it feels “off.” I now leave these movies kind of feeling like I left a trigonometry lecture.

And the craziest thing is, after saying all that, I think Peyton Reed made one of the best versions of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania possible, considering what he had to shove into this movie to set up all the aspects of Phase 5. Remember how we all loved Michael Peña’s Luis? Who would give those recaps of the story that were very unique to the Ant-Man movies? Yeah, he’s not in this. In fact, pretty much all the side characters these movies built up over the previous two movies are nowhere to be found. Remember when the Ant-Man movies were referred to as basically fun “palette cleansers.” Well, those days are gone. This movie exists to set up the next Phase 5 movie and more Kang.

Well here’s the good news about Kang: Jonathan Majors is terrific. Here’s the not-as-good news: it’s still Kang. Majors is such a force, I kind of wish he were playing Doctor Doom – a character that truly would be a step up from Thanos. Look, I know there are Kang fans. And I’m hoping by sheer force of will Majors can turn Kang into a character non-Marvel diehards will love. If anyone can do it, he can. But Kang is confusing. When I was 10 I had a Kang Secret Wars action figure and played with it almost daily and I still find Kang confusing and would find it difficult to explain him to our aforementioned hypothetical Ant-Man fan from earlier. Oh and trust me, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sure tries to explain Kang. Many, many times. (Also it’s kind of weird Ant-man and Wasp handle their own with Kang in this movie, just on their own. But watch out Avengers! It would be like the first time we met Thanos he got beat up by Hawkeye.)

Some more good news: Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas have a lot more to do in this installment. In fact, for a good portion of the movie I could make a case Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne is the main character of the movie. It’s her we see first, in a flashback to her time spent in the Quantum Realm when she first meets Kang. He crashes there, but promises her a way out if she will help him repair his ship that can take him anywhere in space or time. When she discovers who he really is, she sabotages his ship, banishing both of them there. And Janet neglected to tell anyone about this when she returned, but also wasn’t counting on Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) building a device that can send signals to the Quantum Realm. A device that, pretty quickly and (thankfully and hilariously, without much explanation) sends her, Janet, Hank Pym (Douglas), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) to the Quantum Realm.

This is why it becomes Pfeiffer’s show because she’s the only one who knows what she’s doing down there. The rest of them, for awhile, just kind of look around at things and follow her lead. At least until they all get roped into a civil war for the Quantum Realm against Kang. And there are a lot of fun “aliens” and creatures. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to Star Wars, which for the life of me I can’t figure out except that there are the aforementioned “aliens” and laser guns and the Quantum Realm sort of looks like some of the backgrounds from Attack of the Clones.

(More good news without saying too much: M.O.D.O.K. is a hoot and is in this movie probably a lot more than you think.)

Here’s what I feel like with the multiverse saga: I feel like I’m reading a comic I like, but a run I’m not totally into. At least not yet. And with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, like I said, I think Peyton Reed has given us an installment that, with the material that has to be introduced, is about the best version this could be. But I found myself missing the more grounded and funny world of Scott Lang that the prior movies had set up. You know, being a palette cleanser is a good thing.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Well, well, well.

Emily Ratajkowski has kept people guessing regarding her dating life following her divorce from Sebastian Bear-McClard, but now, answers are forthcoming. Notably, she did mention that the paparazzi made dating awkward for her, given that she’s been aiming to stay casual and date multiple people. That means that everyone is inadvertently informed on the situation when she’s snapped in public, which might be why she didn’t look as thrilled to publicly date Pete Davidson as her previous words would lead people to expect. She and Pete have been dunzo, and she’s seen pictured above with an incredibly enthused Eric Andre in NYC’s West Village on February 10.

This has been ongoing for several weeks, although neither Emily nor Eric has elaborated much. He’s left her some Instagram comments on racy photos, but now, he’s got racy photos of his own to show the world. And the “Happy Valentine’s Day” message could not be clearer. Here’s Andre, draped out nude on a couch like he’s a meme of one of Jack’s French ladies from Titanic. The photographer, EmRata, showed off her own nude body in the mirror.

They both look happy. He certainly does. Hopefully, we’ll hear commentary about this on Emily’s High Low with EmRata podcast. Emily previously made clear (while speaking with Amber Rose) that she is simply doing her thing and not aiming to get back at her ex, although, yeah, Sebastian Bear-McClard probably will not want to see these photos.

Ever since the passing of Virgil Abloh, the head menswear designer role he held at Louis Vuitton has been vacant. That may be changing soon, as the French luxury house is reportedly in talks with music superproducer Pharrell Williams to fill the position, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Virgil, who founded the streetwear brand Off-White in 2013 and worked heavily with Kanye West in the early ’10s, was the first African-American to be artistic director at a French luxury brand after joining Louis Vuitton in 2018. He was also a relatively successful DJ and cover art designer, marking the overlap in music and fashion.

Pharrell would offer a natural extension of that overlap; while he got his start in music as one-half of the superstar production duo The Neptunes, he went on to have a tremendous influence in the world of fashion thanks to his collaborations with brands like Adidas and Bape and his work with his own brands BBC and Ice Cream.

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the company that runs Louis Vuitton (along with a bunch of other luxury brands, as you can probably tell by its title), is likely looking to take advantage of that cultural cachet, continuing what Abloh started in embracing streetwear and the two musicians’ more avant-garde approach to fashion.