This weekend officially marks one year exactly since Thor: Love and Thunder first hit theaters. And what a year it’s been for the fourth solo movie for the God of Thunder, for all the wrong reasons. After five years of anticipation after Thor: Ragnarok easily surpassed its forebears to become the most popular Thor film, Taika Waititi’s second MCU effort totally failed to recapture the magic, earning it increasing embarrassment as time went on.
Except, now that we have the advantage of a full 12 months since its arrival, are fans finally cooling off and able to look at its pros and cons more objectively? Yeah, don’t bet on it. A seemingly innocent post to the r/MarvelStudios subreddit proclaimed that Love and Thunder released in cinemas one year ago today (its widespread release was July 8), but only succeeded in inspiring a torrent of fresh hate.
When even Odinson himself Chris Hemsworth has admitted things went too far, that’s probably a good sign that Love and Thunder isn’t going to age well.
“A movie that epitomizes everything currently wrong with the MCU,” was how one still-bitter viewer put it.
Is Love and Thunder really the worst Marvel product since Avengers: Endgame? Some think so.
Scratch that, maybe it’s the worst MCU product of them all. Like one commenter said, “It ranks at the very bottom of my least liked MCU films and one that I have no desire to ever watch again.”
Redditor ZealousidealYou4195 provided a particular insightful critique of the film, in the thread’s most upvoted comment at the time of writing. According to their take, LaT dropped the ball on adapting “one of Thor’s darkest storyline[s]” and instead served up a “bland soulless movie” that left the character of Thor “stagnated.”
Who knows, maybe it’ll be a different story when fans reflect on Thor: Love and Thunder again on its second anniversary in another year’s time, but I think that might something even Heimdall couldn’t see happening.