Eternals
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 An eternally unfaithful disappointment from a franchise and director of quality.
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Eternals is a 2021 American epic superhero film based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Chloé Zhao, who wrote the screenplay with Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo. It stars an ensemble cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie. In the film, the Eternals, an immortal alien race, emerge from hiding after thousands of years to protect Earth from their evil counterparts, the Deviants.
Eternals premiered in Los Angeles on October 18, 2021, and was released theatrically in the United States on November 5, as part of Phase Four of the MCU. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the visuals but criticized its exposition, pacing, runtime, and lack of character development. It is the lowest-rated MCU film on both websites, and the first installment to be classified as "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Bad Qualities
- The film is pretty much inferior compared to the previous MCU films which made them look great, and it lacks charm, and interesting ideas from the previous MCU films and sometimes the weaker films.
- The characters are still likable, but the problem with the movie was that there were too many characters to introduce, especially the Eternals, while the runtime was 2 hours and 37 minutes long, leaving them without any great character development.
- Besides that, instead of being produced as an individual film, it could have been produced as a single film trilogy, three sets of film trilogies, or even a Disney+ series, to extend and explore the content, storylines, and character developments of every Eternal so the audiences can understand and get to know the characters for the first time.
- The story can be rather very confusing to some fans, especially when compared to the other MCU films.
- Ikaris as the twist villain is confusing, particularly with how they were setting up Kro and maybe Druig (who was the villain in the comics) as the villains.
- Kro and the rest of the animalistic Deviants did not serve as greater, legitimate threats as their comic counterparts, and they only had fewer screen times before being killed off as if they were softest sausages (most particularly Kro in his fully conscious, humanoid figure that appeared in near the end of the final conflict).
- Despite the best intimidations and antagonization of the Celestials, only one, Arishem the Judge, served little time to set up rules for the Eternals to not interfere with human conflicts, and when they violated that rule by killing off a Celestial that was about to have emerged from the Earth, Arishem only abducted Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos and they disappeared from the space, leaving the ending as a cliffhanger had this film being financially bombed.
- Some weird moments that were not in a good way, or even funny.
- Anachronisms: Druig uses the word "genocide" in a scene set in the 16 century. The word was invented in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin to describe the Armenian genocide during World War II.
- When they are using sign language (American) there are many anachronistic signs. e.g. In the Mesopotamia scene (~500BC), the sign used for "time" is to tap her wrist as if she is wearing a wristwatch.
- It is not as faithful to the source material as the comics of the same name, and it lacks some source material from the comic of the same name.
- Mediocre and slow pacing which makes the film feel a lot longer than it is.
- Even Avengers: Endgame was 181 minutes, except it was well-paced.
- The film seems a little too exposition-heavy.
- The controversial usage of Hiroshima is brought up to introduce the idea that Phastos, having been responsible for giving humanity many of its greater inventions, introduced the concept of nuclear power to humans and became dismayed when they weaponized it, to the point of giving up on humanity and their mission of protecting it. Come the next scene in the present day, he's moved on completely. Aside from attracting controversy before the film's release, some viewers were disappointed that the idea wasn't expanded upon.
- The Eternals have lived on Earth for thousands of years. The scenes in the past are used to provide exposition or establish the characters (and, admittedly, most of them do it successfully), but the actual plot and character development all take part in the present.
- The sex scene featuring Ikaris and Sersi was unnecessary to be added to the film, despite it being shown for fewer seconds. Plus, Their relationship is forced as they mostly lack chemistry.
- It creates numerous plot holes throughout the film. For example:
- The Eternals are not from Earth but speak English, even before England existed. (Yes, we get it about the aliens from Capitan Marvel and both Guardians of the Galaxy films that can speak English like Gamora, Nebula, Yondu, Mantis, and others, but this is not an excuse!) In early scenes, they speak to locals in Mesopotamia (and other locales) in the local native language, but then speak to each other in English. Even if the movie takes the liberty that they are speaking a different language but the viewer is only hearing English, the characters all still speak in different accents, despite supposedly hailing from the same place and arriving on Earth at the same time, and none of their accents change in 7000 years.
- If Ikaris was so committed to the Emergence, why did he help reunite the Eternals? Unless he only helped gather the Eternals to prevent them from stopping the Emergence while exposing his indirect murder of Ajak the first time he spoke with them, there was no reason for him to go back to the group. He could've simply refused to help the Eternals and then flown away to protect the incoming Celestial after saving Sersi and Sprite from Kro's attacks back in London.
- Karun, despite being entertaining, serves very little to no purpose to the story other than being a comic relief and a side character. The same can be said for Dane Whitman/Black Knight, who only serves to set up future installments
- Bad direction from Chloe Zhao. It doesn't help that she was the same person who directed Nomadland, a film that won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director early on during the same year. In fact, this makes it a lot more upsetting, as Zhao went from directing an Oscar-winning film that was hailed as the ceremony's best, to directing one of, if not the most utterly underwhelming movie in the MCU, all in the same year.
- Some points during the film attempt to pander to the LGBTQ+ community by having Phastos and his husband Ben kissing each other while raising a child who just served as a side character who, like Karun and Dane Whitman/Black Knight, did not contribute anything to the plot. Additionally, the same-sex relationship is not faithful to the comic source where Phastos has a wife named Ms. Stoss while they never had any children, whether they were biological, foster, or adoptive. The relationship, not only it is unimportant to the main plot of the film, but it even caused immense controversy that made Russia, Indonesia, and nine Middle Eastern nations censor or even ban the film or its parts from streaming in their theaters.
- To make things worse, the actors criticized the censorship of the film within the Middle Eastern theaters, which made the fans refuse to see the movie even more. One point before, Angelina Jolie once said that we should respect everyone's culture, which is now hypocritical.
- The ending: Some time had passed since the Eternals stopped Ikaris and the emergence. By the time Sersi and Dane Whitman were going out on a stroll, Sersi and a few of the Eternals were taken away by Arishem and were never seen again. This means the journey throughout the film is pretty much pointless in the end.
- It's weird when Dane is the only one who cares, then goes home to don the Black Knight outfit to rescue Sersi, while the remaining Eternals don't seem too concerned when she is captured by Arishem.
- There's a weird cameo from Harry Styles as Eros in the mid-credits scene. Granted, Eros' presence (and subsequently Pip's) is pretty cool and the costume is very accurate to the comics, but his performance is pretty awkward since he seems to keep going back and forth between accents as if he got lost in between the lines.
Good Qualities
- Beautiful cinematography, more so than the previous MCU movies. Director Chloe Zhao was given creative freedom when making the movie, a MARVEL of a Disney production.
- There are some good action sequences, despite how few and far between they are.
- The costume designs for the Eternals are excellent, as they try to be faithful to the original comic source material.
- Nice and realistic visual effects, much like the previous films, and it still holds up pretty well by 2020s standards.
- There are some funny moments, such as when Ikaris, thinking Phastos' table is made of vibranium, breaks it in half, only for Phastos to nonchalantly call him an ass.
- Despite the lack of great character development, the characters of Eternals are at least likable at best. At least the film does try to be as faithful to the source material of Eternals and its characters as possible.
- Druig and Makkari have good chemistry.
- Despite them not having enough time together on screen, Thena and Gilgamesh also had good chemistry as the former, and her well-being was taken care of by the latter for several centuries while they never had disputes with each other.
- The film's CGI effects are great, much like the previous MCU films.
- Amazing soundtrack that was composed by Ramin Djawadi.
- Most of the time, the acting is great, especially from Gemma Chan and Angelina Jolie, and some of the other performances, such as from Don Lee, Lia McHugh, and Barry Keoghan are decent.
- Some film versions trimmed out the LGBTQ+ scene that features Phastos and his husband Ben kissing before the former departed with his fellow Eternals.
- If the post-credit scene is an indication, Blade is coming to the MCU!
- While the LGBTQ+ scenes are shoehorned and out of place, at least it's a slight improvement to how Disney portrays its LGBTQ+ characters, since Phastos is at least a prominent character.
- Makkari is a fairly likable character and a great representation of the deaf community. She was even played by an actual deaf actress (Lauren Ridloff).
- "Druig sucks."
Reception
Eternals was released on November 5, 2021, and it was not as well-received by critics or fans alike, as it was met with mixed reviews, who praised the visuals but criticized its exposition, pacing, runtime, and lack of character development. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 47%, with an average score of 5.6/10, based on 357 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "An ambitious superhero epic that soars as often as it strains, Eternals takes the MCU in intriguing—and occasionally confounding—new directions." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 53/100, based on 57 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". It is the lowest-rated MCU film on both websites, and the first installment to be classified as "rotten" on Rotten Tomatoes.
YouTuber Lukimus Prime regards this movie as the worst MCU movie of all time.
Despite the mixed reviews, the film received positive reviews from audiences and some fans. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an 80% score from audiences, and the Audiences says section reads, "It's a different kind of Marvel movie, but Eternals still contains all the action, humor, and heart that fans are looking for.". On Metacritic, the average user score is much higher, with a score of 6.4/10 from over 400 ratings. On Letterboxd, the film has a rating of 3.4/5. Some fans claimed it was a great installment to the MCU films, others dismissed it as a mediocre, and disappointing installment.
As with Dune, both movies are sci-fi fantasy Epic Movies with complex worlds and long runtimes, and released at similar times. Due to the close releases, many Dune fans were afraid Eternals would help to make the 2021 Dune a box-office bomb, meaning no second part onward. Villeneuve also criticized superhero movies for "turning people into zombies" and former MCU actor Josh Brolin commented that he preferred the practical sets of Dune over the MCU's CGI. This combined with "Marvel fatigue" led to a Flame War between Dune and Eternals fans. On the other hand, Chloé Zhao praised Dune as she was shown the movie before the release personally by Villeneuve and even stated that it was an inspiration for Eternals. In return, Villeneuve also commended Zhao and her filmmaking style, expressing hope that it would bring something new to the MCU.
Videos
Trailer
Reviews
Trivia
- Eternals was previously set for release on November 6, 2020, before it was shifted to February 12, 2021, and then to the November 2021 date, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of Phase Four of the MCU.
- Gemma Chan didn't expect to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after appearing in Captain Marvel (2019) until Kevin Feige approached her while promoting Crazy Rich Asians (2018) to play a new character in some further production, which ended up being Sersi in the film.
- The movie is banned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait for featuring a gay couple, as LGBTQ+ rights are considered morally offensive and punishable by death under the Sharia law.
- This is the first MCU film to receive an 18+ rating in Russia (equivalent to an NC-17 or R rating in the U.S.) due to the film's portrayal of a same-sex relationship. Although being gay is legal in the Russian Federation, they are not socially accepted there.
- Despite Disney claiming that they're proud of the movie being an LGBTQ+ movie, it was censored and edited for certain countries such as Indonesia.
- This was also the second MCU film to feature a sex scene, the first was Iron Man but the scene was non-graphic.
Template:Marvel Cinematic Universe
External links
Eternals at the Internet Movie Database
Eternals on Rotten Tomatoes
Eternals on Metacritic
Eternals on Letterboxd
Comments
- Mediocre media
- 2020s films
- American films
- Superhero films
- Live-action films
- Science fiction films
- Action films
- Adventure films
- Fantasy films
- Average films
- Marvel films
- Based on comic strips
- Bad movies from good franchises
- Disney
- Overhyped films
- Internet memes
- Boring films
- Banned films
- Controversial films
- Box office hits that received negative feedback
- Space films
- Awful grasp on the source material