After an unexpected decline in the last five years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is slowly inching towards its past glory days. The spectacular end of a decade that came with Avengers: End Game
, in 2019, made many promises of a shinier future, but they remained unfulfilled as the MCU failed to gain the same traction as the past decade. However, with the announcement of Avengers: Doomsday
, and hoping for a major breakthrough with the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps
, things do not look so bleak for Marvel’s far future. But it has once again fallen flat in public opinion with Thunderbolts.
Marvel is just a day away from its first movie release of this year with Thunderbolts
. Scheduled for May 1, the movie promises the fans the same glory days of justice and righteousness they were accustomed to by Marvel. And on Rotten Tomatoes, it has already scored a 95% rating based on 96 reviews that called it “thoughtful, character-driven”
and a good watch due to the “stellar Florence Pugh”
. But when this news was shared on X by the Discussing Films account, fans completely disagreed with this score and called it a hoax. Even Paul W. Downs told Deadline, “I get the show, it’s bought, we don’t need to keep doing this
.’”
“After years of multiversal messiness, ‘THUNDERBOLTS*’ is the comeback movie Marvel has desperately needed.” pic.twitter.com/94rNQsnZ2u
— ScreenTime (@screentime) April 29, 2025
The fans are about to witness a mini Avengers assemble with Thunderbolts
with Florence Pugh, Lewis Pullman, Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, Olga Kurylenko, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, and, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. These actors will be seen reprising their beloved characters of Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, Ghost, Taskmaster, and John Walker, who find themselves in a death trap set by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and must go on a dangerous mission to get out of this new fix.
The cast and the plot seem intriguing, but fans showed absolutely no mercy as they tore apart its Rotten Tomatoes rating.
Thunderbolts fails to appease netizens on X
The social media platform X is a merciless place where movies often have to bear the brunt of fans’ disappointment if it is not up to mark. Similarly, coming from their experience of the last few MCU movies, fans expressed in the comments how Marvel is lately not what it was in the earlier phases,
and they do not expect Thunderbolts’
early review to set a wrong narrative.
Sounds like it kind of leans into (as Deadpool and Wolverine did) the fact that the MCU movies haven’t been great lately. When you can get on the audience’s side, you can then take them along for the ride.
— Shannon Nutt (@ShannonNutt) April 29, 2025
Good reviews = ITS BOUGHT
Bad reviews = just what I expected— Nero 🪄 (@SlyPerformer) April 29, 2025
No. It is not. This movie will flop so hard
— Josh 🇺🇲 (@YeetHeck) April 29, 2025
Still doesn’t move the needle for me. Most of the Phase 4 and 5 movies have just been so bad – it is nearly impossible for me to muster up the desire to sit through more. Might catch this one on streaming and see if things consistently improve over time.
— Major Havoc (@CatBitShrazy) April 29, 2025
The netizens also felt that the early crowd review before the release is not the right parameter to asses the movie, and should wait for the actual fans review which will come in soon.
Those are critics scores. I’ll wait for the audience score.
— The Real Chicken (@The1RealChicken) April 29, 2025
With the early review crowd who is incentivized to be lenient and keep their access
They don’t want to lose press junkets, early screenings, and goodie bags
— ＺＡＣＨ (@ZachBowders) April 29, 2025
The early phases of the MCU have witnessed immense fan love and revenue with established characters. But after the departure of Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Wanda Maximoff, and others, the franchise seems to be losing its grip in the 4th and 5th Phases. With Thunderbolts
and another release this year, the studios are hoping for a revival. The fans will the the ultimate jury of their fate, but apparently it will not be based on just the Rotten Tomatoes score.
What re your thoughts on audience’s response to Thunderbolts’
Rotten Tomatoes review? Tell us below.