UPDATE at 12.30pm ET/9.30am PT: Thor: Love and Thunder's Rotten Tomatoes score has now dipped to 68% based on 97 reviews.
You may not like Rotten Tomatoes, but its importance cannot be underestimated. These days, a "Fresh" or "Rotten" score can be pivotal to a movie's success, and a dreaded green splat can ruin its chances of making an impact at the box office.
There's a good reason studios have started using a "Certified Fresh" rating as a badge of honour on social media and in TV spots, but will Thor: Love and Thunder ultimately be among them? It's looking good for the Marvel Studios movie, but based on the first 57 reviews, it's not the critical darling Thor: Ragnarok was back in 2017.
As of right now - and this score will definitely change over the next few days - Thor: Love and Thunder sits at 74%. We don't have a "Critics Consensus" yet, though you can find a spoiler-free selection of review excerpts by clicking here.
For comparison, Thor: Ragnarok has 93%, Thor: The Dark World sits at 66%, and the movie that started the God of Thunder's journey in the MCU, Thor, is scored at 77%. That currently leaves Thor: Love and Thunder right between the 2011 movie and its sequel, so it should be interesting to see where it stands by the weekend.
Either way, it sounds like a fun ride, and it will ultimately be down to the fans to decide whether this direction is one they want to see Thor continue to head in.
The movie finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor.
Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.
Directed by Taika Waititi, the movie stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe, Jaimie Alexander, Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, and Sean Gunn among others.
Thor: Love and Thunder is set to be released in theaters on July 8, 2022.