Audience and critical reactions to Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel have been mixed over the years.
The vitriolic, sexist reaction to the MCU heavy-hitter came down almost immediately following news of her impending debut, and it has hardly slowed down since. Carol Danvers maintains plenty of fans, of course, but the misogynists would have you believe that Captain Marvel lacks any redeeming qualities. They spent months degrading the film, before it was even out in theaters, only to have their toxic theories squashed upon the flick’s release.
Captain Marvel is far from the most popular MCU flick, but it’s nowhere near as bad as early reviews wanted audiences to believe. The widespread review-bombing the film faced ahead of its debut clearly taught Marvel a thing or two, and it’s leaning on those lessons as it eyes the impending release of The Marvels. The film’s review embargo won’t lift until close to its actual release, in hopes of keeping the toxic masses at bay.
The Marvels review embargo
The response to Captain Marvel was expected, but more dramatic than many people anticipated. Review bombing of the film started long before audiences set sights on it, and several weeks ahead of the official review embargo. Like The Marvels, Captain Marvel enjoyed a very brief window between the lift of its review embargo and its official release to theaters, which was largely prompted by those noisy detractors.
The Marvels, despite a lack of that early review bombing, aims to follow suit. Unlike some of its MCU peers — including favorites like Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther — The Marvels review embargo won’t lift weeks ahead of its debut. In fact, audiences will only have two days’ worth of live reviews to browse through ahead of the film’s launch.
The review embargo for The Marvels is set to lift on Nov. 8, two days ahead of the film’s release. The social media embargo will lift a few hours earlier, on Nov. 7 at 9pm ET, leaving fans with a touch more time to share their excitement online. While many people were left somewhat unimpressed with Captain Marvel, a film that — despite hitting many of the notes that make a classic MCU flick — simply didn’t reach the heights of some of its peers. The Marvels looks like a rare sequel of higher quality than its predecessor, thanks in large part to the addition of both Iman Vellani and Teyonah Parris as Ms. Marvel and Photon, respectively. Audiences can catch a glimpse of what critics think of The Marvels in the early hours of Nov. 8, and make their minds up for themselves when it arrives in theaters on Nov. 10.
