Yesterday marked four years to the day since Captain Marvel flew into theaters, but if you ask 100 Marvel Cinematic Universe fans for their opinion on Brie Larson’s standalone debut as Carol Danvers, then you’re destined to get 99 different opinions.
With a box office haul north of $1.1 billion, it still ranks as one of the franchise’s highest-grossing origin stories, and you don’t have to travel too far to find a huge number of people who can barely contain their hype for upcoming sequel The Marvels, even if they’ll have to wait a little bit longer after the Nia DaCosta-helmed second chapter was recently pushed back to November.
On the other side of the coin, there’s always been a rumbling thunder of backlash and negativity towards Captain Marvel, which is far and away the entire MCU’s lowest-rated feature-length chapter on Rotten Tomatoes in terms of its average user rating. In fact, the blockbuster’s 45 percent score puts it bottom of the pile by a massive distance, with The Incredible Hulk sitting second from the bottom on a substantially better 69 percent.
To that end, supporters and detractors alike marked the milestone occasion the only way they knew how; by once again weighing up the pros and cons of what might just be the biggest opinion-splitter among the superhero saga’s 31 films to date.
Judgement on The Marvels should be reserved until we get a chance to see it, but based on the pre-emptive trolling campaign that blighted the opener, you get the sneaking suspicion that things aren’t going to be quite so straightforward.