Eternals, the latest movie in phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is out this weekend! It’s such an exciting time for the MCU, as we meet more new characters who will lay the ground work for what’s to come in the future.
After the movie was panned by critics (it currently has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of any MCU movie ever, at 48%), I was really nervous about how it would turn out. But after seeing it, I’m SO glad I didn’t let the score discourage me.
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The movie follows a group of immortal beings sent from another planet to protect Earth from creatures, known as Deviants, in secret over thousands of years. The movie was directed by Chloé Zhao and has an ensemble cast including Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, and Lauren Ridloff.
This movie was so much better than I expected! I liked each one of the characters, the actors gave great performances, and I thought the action sequences were so well done. All of the characters had their moments to shine, but Angelina Jolie was probably my favorite to watch. Her fight scenes looked the coolest and she stole every scene. Kumail Nanjiani was my favorite as well, and I thought his comedic timing was on point.
The final act of the movie was the very best part and had me on the edge of my seat! It was pretty obvious that some kind of twist was coming but it still hit me hard.
Eternals, however, is not perfect. The pacing in the first half of the movie is very odd. For a while I kept thinking, “Ok, where are they going with this story??” The time jumps got messy and a bit incoherent, since there was a TON of backstory to cover and characters to introduce, and seemingly not enough time to do it.
Because of that, I don’t think we got as much character development as I would like. Don’t get me wrong, by the end of the movie I felt connected to the characters, but it took a long time. Things that happened over many years and characters grew and changed as citizens of Earth, but we didn’t get to see much of it. I know it was probably difficult to cram so much into one movie, but I do think they could have done a better job with that.
It almost feels like this movie should have been split into two parts — one where we meet the characters learn their origins on Earth, and the other where we see what they’re up to in present day.
But even with its flaws, I had a lot of fun with Eternals. It’s so different from everything else we’ve seen so far in the MCU and I think that’s what makes it special. And although it’s dealing with some pretty heavy concepts (humanity, love, purpose, death, etc.), it doesn’t take itself too seriously. But at the same time I thought it did a good job of knowing when to be funny and when to be serious.
By the way, there are 2 post-credit scenes that I have so many questions about! Between this and the post-credit scenes from Shang-Chi and Venom, I’m excited to see what these new developments are building up to. I can’t even imagine what we’ll see at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Marvel always knocks it out of the park with those post-credit scenes.
If you’re on the fence about seeing it because of the poor reviews, I’d say if you enjoyed Captain Marvel then you will probably enjoy this. I personally think it’s a great addition to the MCU already, and we’ve only scratched the surface of what this franchise could be.
