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With nearly 50 reviews recorded on Rotten Tomatoes as of midday Friday, Thor: Ragnarokis (so far) the best-reviewed superhero film of all time, scoring a 98% fresh rating that's four percentage points better than the next runners up, 94% fresh Iron Manand The Dark Knight(with the 1978 Superman just a step behind at 93%).

To keep that title, however, Thor: Ragnarokhas a ways to go.

Major superehero releases tend to have 250-350 reviews by the end of their reviews cycle, and the God of Thunder just got out of the gate. Hot Rotten Tomatoesstarts almost always tend to trend slightly downwards; Blade Runner 2049, for instance, opened to 95% fresh in its first week after reviews came in, only to settle in at 88% after trailing critics finally posted.

What's interesting about Ragnarok, though, is that even its across-the-board criticisms -- that it's a little too jokey and doesn't carry a lot of emotional heft -- don't seem enough to push it in to "rotten" territory. This is a crowd-pleaser, easily the funniest of the Marvel movies, and would take a real grouch to say the experience was "rotten."

In other words, I think it's got a shotat keeping this title – but an outside one.

Which is funny, because you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone calling this the best superhero movie, or even the best Marvel movie. It's simply not. But with the binary nature of Rotten Tomatoes, there's a big difference between "best" and "best reviewed."

There were early indications that this would happen -- Thor: Ragnarokhad a ridiculously long amount of time between when the first reviews were allowed to post (Disney/Marvel set the embargo for Wednesday at noon ET) and its earliest public screenings (Thursday Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. ET). As we've previously reported, a long span like that is a good predictor of a high RTscore.

THOR: RAGNAROK has a shot at being the alltime best-reviewed Marvel movie, beating IRON MAN (94%), based on 14-day lead time & social reax

— Josh Ice Pickey (@JLDlite) October 18, 2017

And those very early social-media reactions were also over the moon -- another good sign that the eventual score will be high.

So where will Thor: Ragnarokland in the end? Given the way studios are manipulating the roll-out of critical reactions these days, it'll definitely be somewhere below 98%. My guess is that it will fall to 93% fresh, leaving Iron Man and The Dark Knight alone in their rightful spots atop the pile, and sliding in just above Wonder Womanand Spider-Man: Homecoming(92%).

Ragnarokmay not wind up being the best-reviewed superhero movie of all time, but it'll always be your friend from work.

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