In a marvelous turn of events, the newest MCU installment, The Marvels has flipped from rotten to fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. After the movie’s premiere, it was hovering right around 55%, now, on the eve of its official release date on the 2023 film schedule, it’s risen into the fresh threshold as more people screen it for the first time.
While many early reactions to The Marvels praised the film as “fun,” it was also met with quite a bit of criticism. Overall, the reviews of the movie seemed to be mid. As many showed love for it by complimenting The Marvels cast, they also noted that they had issues with the villain and the overall plot.
For example, our own Eric Eisenberg had very nuanced thoughts when it came to his opinion of the movie as he wrote in his review of The Marvels:
It’s not the MCU’s biggest blockbuster in terms of scale and stakes, and it doesn’t make back-breaking efforts to significantly play with and expand the canon, but what it does do is provide a clever and thrilling adventure that takes full advantage of its powerful ensemble of charming heroes.
These mixed reactions help explain why the movie was floating around the 50% mark right after its premiere. However, at the time of this writing, with 148 reviews, The Marvels has a 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning it’s fresh. This flip is thanks to people who marked the movie as fresh instead of rotten when they submitted their reviews. Some of the positive responses on the site include:
- Tonally, “The Marvels” embraces the goofy nature of a sci-fi superhero movie aimed at a female audience. -Katie Walsh from Tribune News Service
- While it’s full of all the expected Marvel metaphysical head-spinning... it’s also unexpectedly endearing, a pleasant popcorn-flavored joy ride into the cosmos, with three likable heroes as our guides. -Moira MacDonald from the Seattle Times
- Being a huge fan of the source material, Nia DaCosta leans into the wacky. There’s tonnes of unique and exciting camera work, cinematography and worldbuilding. The incredibly choreographed action feels like part of the script, rather than an afterthought. -Joe Passmore from Attitude
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The overall consensus on the movie appears to be that it’s a super fun ride, and the trio of leading women are incredible together. However, the overall story feels a little weak.
Many of the more negative reviews cite how this feels like another installment in the MCU that seems chaotic and others didn’t find the plot cohesive. However, it would seem that those opinions are being outweighed by the positive ones that praise the film’s creativity, the cast and how delightful it is.
Over the last year, it has seemed like this mixed response has become common for the MCU – just look at the mixed to negative reactions for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. So, as the upcoming Marvel movies come out, it will be interesting to see how they’re received. While the overall opinion on the Ant-Man movie seemed to falter as more saw it, when it comes to The Marvels, it appears to be on an upward trajectory, and it’s possible it could stay that way.
Now, that the critics have shared their thoughts on the latest MCU installment, it’s the audience’s turn to take it in and figure out if it’s rotten or fresh. To see this movie for yourself, and figure out your feelings on it, you can see The Marvels in theaters right now.
