Thor: Love and Thunder reviews are largely positive

The first wave of reviews are in for Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder, and while they’re largely positive… it’s clear many critics thought it was a step back from 2017’s wildly-beloved Thor: Ragnarok.

Marvel has typically given their major characters three stand-alone movies, but that changed after Thor: Ragnarok ($853 million worldwide, 93% on Rotten Tomatoes) vastly out-performed its predecessors, 2011’s Thor ($449 million worldwide, 77% on RT) and 2013’s Thor: The Dark World ($644.7 million worldwide, 66% on RT).

Box office projections have been strong for Thor: Love and Thunder – with analysts predicting anywhere from $150 million to $200 million, though those expectations may be tempered with lukewarm reviews, with a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

While the RT rating will certainly fluctuate between now and the July 8 opening, the 72% mark represents quite a downturn compared to Thor: Ragnarok’s 93% rating.

The original Thor earned a 77% rating in 2011 while 2013’s Thor: The Dark World – which many fans think is one of the MCU’s worst – earned a 66% rating, which for years was the worst RT rating until 2021’s Eternals became the MCU’s first ‘rotten’ movie on RT.

As for Thor: Love and Thunder, 125 reviews have been submitted to Rotten Tomatoes since the review embargo broke on Tuesday, with 90 Fresh and 35 Rotten.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman was among the critic community’s biggest fans, branding the sequel the ‘critic’s pick’ for the week.

‘The climactic battle, with its shadow monsters, its children caught in the cross-hairs, and its all-for-one exuberance, has a tingly grandeur, and by the end I felt something unusual enough to feel at a Marvel movie that it seemed almost otherworldly: I was moved,’ Gleiberman said.

‘Moved by how two Thors could come together to love each other and to save the universe. I like plenty of Marvel movies just fine, but they are what they are, and what they are is products. This one has enough wide-eyed boldness and shimmer to earn the designation of fairy tale,’ he added.

The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney was not nearly as impressed, claiming that director Taika Waititi (returning from Thor: Ragnarok) is now, ‘dipping less rewardingly from the same well.’

‘Chris Hemsworth continues to give great musclebound himbo, but the stakes never acquire much urgency in a movie too busy being jokey and juvenile to tell a gripping story,’ Rooney said, adding later in the review, ‘But is it too much to ask for something that doesn’t just feel like a strained rehash of the last installment?’

New York Post critic Johnny Oleksinski thinks the movie represents, ‘The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best shot at Oscar glory has arrived in the form of Christian Bale’s ferocious Gorr the God Butcher.’

There have only been three Oscars won in the MCU, all for 2018’s Black Panther for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Original Score, though Oleksinski seems to think Bale could win the MCU’s first acting Oscar.

He called Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher, ‘as fantastic a Marvel villain as you’ll ever see. More threatening than Thanos and richer than Hela’ with, ‘the complex motivations of Erik Killmonger.’

The Los Angeles Times’ Justin Chang compared the Marvel Cinematic Universe to an assembly line, calling this new Thor sequel, ‘painless but pointless.’

Still, he apparently agreed with Oleksinski about Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher, saying he, ‘delivers a genuinely skin-crawling turn as a zombified villain named Gorr the God Butcher,’ joking that he resembles Voldemort and The Nun so much that, ‘Warner Bros. might want to sue.’

JoBlo’s Chris Bumbray says Thor: Love and Thunder is Marvel’s, ‘best all-around film since Avengers: Endgame,’ though Digital Trends’ A.A. Dowd bemoans, ‘It’s the rare Marvel movie that barely holds together.’

Regardless of the critical reception, Thor: Love & Thunder will most certainly top the box office, with no other movies opening against the Marvel sequel in wide release.