The first reviews are in and… oh dear!
With Martin Scorsese’s latest feature Killer of the Flower Moon in cinemas now, and both Napoleon and the long-awaited Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes to come later this month, November is shaping up to be a sure bet for multiple cinema trips.
Marvel also have skin in the game, their newest blockbuster The Marvels is out tomorrow (10 November), and early indications are that it’s a swing and a miss.
Early bird MCU fans and professional critics alike have been divided about the superhero studio’s latest offering, which at the time of writing sits at just 60% on review-aggregation site, Rotten Tomatoes.
Of course it’s early days, but that score leaves The Marvels as the third-lowest rated MCU instalment on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Marvels fails to impress both fans and critics
The Marvels follows Brie Larson has Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel who, with the help of super-fan Ms. Marvel and Danvers’ niece Captain Monica Rambeau, must navigate a universe destabilised by the tyrannical Kree species.
Sounds exciting, right?
Well viewers have had their say on Rotten Tomatoes and many are inclined to disagree.
One user insisted the film was nothing more than a ‘mediocre superhero flick.’
Another user, who gave the film a daunting 2/10 rating, said The Marvels lets itself down with ‘muddled storytelling and wearisome superhero clichés.’
The Marvels is a “rocky ride crowded by compromises”
So, of the 33 MCU instalments, The Marvels currently sits 31st in the pecking order on Rotten Tomatoes, beating only Eternals on 47% and Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which scored 46%.
Keen Marvel fans and film lovers will be quick to point out that this has happened before with a Brie Larson-led MCU project.
Marvel’s 2019 instalment Captain Marvel, which first introduced Larson as Carol Danvers, was infamously panned before the film even came out in what was ultimately a smear campaign led by internet trolls and fake reviewers.
Captain Marvel currently has a 79% fresh critic score and 45% rotten audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Only time will tell whether The Marvels will impress more casual viewers over its opening weekend, and that come Monday it might be boasting a more respectable score.
