Even though a lot of people will agree that it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things what the critics think, the early Rotten Tomatoes score for Thor: Love and Thunder has opened up a massive can of online worms already.
At the time of writing, Chris Hemsworth’s landmark fourth solo outing holds a 71 percent rating with almost 150 reviews in the bag, which makes it one of the lowest-rated installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, ahead of only Eternals, Thor: The Dark World, and The Incredible Hulk.
Of course, there’s no other outcome besides Taika Waititi’s return to New Asgard decimating the box office in its opening weekend and making a ton of money, but fans across multiple social media platforms have been sent spiraling as a result. Is it the death of the MCU? Are the critics wrong? Is there any justifiable reason to care? All of these questions, and more, are not being answered.
It’s curious to witness the backlash to Phase Four firsthand, especially when the Infinity Saga was largely greeted with nothing but widespread praise and enthusiasm, at least for the most part. Has Kevin Feige finally bitten off more than he can chew by accelerating the franchise’s output in the Disney Plus era? Maybe, maybe not.
One thing is for sure, though, there’s barely a single Phase Four project that’s managed to escape the wrath of any notable backlash so far, bar arguably the prominent exception of Spider-Man: No Way Home.