The first reactions to any major blockbuster should always be taken with at least a grain or two of salt, and while The Marvels has largely been winning raves that laugh in the face of the disaster already placed on its shoulders by the most ardent of detractors, we’ve been down this road before.
The Multiverse Saga has conspired to deliver every single one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s worst-reviewed and lowest-rated projects across both film and television, but how many of them came carrying the stink of negative responses from the people to have seen them ahead of release?
It certainly wasn’t Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, nor was it Thor: Love and Thunder, and even Secret Invasion was incredulously dubbed the MCU’s answer to the acclaimed and award-nominated Andor before audiences had a chance to discover it was a truly wretched TV series.
With that in mind, expectations should always be tempered when the initial outpouring of enthusiasm drops, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to start getting hyped.
In the grand scheme of things – and not to sound too harsh – but social media reactions don’t mean a damn thing in terms of how a movie is received by the masses. This year alone we’ve seen the MCU conspire to disappoint and underwhelm several times over, and we can’t forget The Flash being touted as “one of the greatest superhero blockbusters of all-time.”
That’s not to say The Marvels is in line for a critical drubbing when the review embargo lifts, but it’ll be a much better indicator of where the truth lies.