The following article contains spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder.Thor: Love and Thunder is off to a great start at the box office as people all over the world flock to theaters to see yet another classic Thor adventure. However, many more viewers and critics are not coming out of cinemas as satisfied as they normally are by MCU blockbusters, as Thor: Love and Thunder's review scores continue to trend downwards.
Taika Waititi's second Thor movie did get a hefty dose of positive impression after its Hollywood premiere a couple of weeks ago, but regardless of that, the movie’s merits have become a contentious topic for Marvel fans, with many considering Ragnarok to be a vastly superior work. The film does leave the door open for a future Thor sequel starring Chris Hemsworth, as hinted by Thor: Love and Thunder's two post-credit scenes, so how bad are things looking for Thor Odinson?
Currently, one of the most popular review aggregators out there shows a grim landscape for Thor: Love and Thunder on the Tomatometer, placing it as the fourth-worst MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes, according to critics. This places Thor: Love and Thunder just barely ahead of Thor: The Dark World, The Incredible Hulk, and Eternals with a 65% critics’ score, and it's faring slightly below average on the audience scale with an 82%. Over on CinemaScore it really doesn't look much better, as the median score given by moviegoers right out of the theater is a B+, only beating Eternals in what is definitely a much more generous ranking.
Meanwhile, on IMDb, Love and Thunder holds a respectable if not great 7.0 rating that puts it above Captain America: The First Avenger, Iron Man 2, The Dark World, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Eternals, and the MCU's sole Hulk movie. Compiling all these scores, Love and Thunder edges closer to the bottom of Marvel library, unlike Ragnarok, which usually finds itself at the top. Reviews for the film indicated audiences may want to temper their expectations after Ragnarok, and it appears their warning was warranted.
Of course, some folks absolutely loved Thor: Love and Thunder's comedy and Jane Foster's cancer storyline, and there’s a lot of speculation about where the Thor franchise could be headed next. Even though Thor: Love and Thunder changes a lot from Marvel Comics source material, particularly with villains like Gorr, what seems to be dividing fans of the film is Waititi's overall approach.
It’s unlikely these criticisms will hurt Thor: Love and Thunder's prospects at the box office after making over $300 million worldwide during its opening weekend, but it could hurt its chances to surpass Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' box office performance.
Thor: Love and Thunder is currently available in theaters.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, CinemaScore