Eternals Just Suffered A Devastating Blow For Marvel
While Eternals was promoted by Marvel Studios as big MCU milestone, the film hasn't been scoring big with critics and MCU fans.
This article is more than 2 years old
While this was a major year for Marvel projects, Oscar-winning Chloe Zhao’s Eternals has been the most hyped and highly awaited. But the film hasn’t been living up to the expectations of critics and even the general public who haven’t been very generous when it comes to reviews. All films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have always enjoyed a majorly positive response, but whether it is Cinemascore or the approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Eternals is shaping up to a below-average showing.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Eternals is the only MCU film with a “rotten” rating. It currently holds an approval rating of 48%. While many reviews praise the film for being an ambitious Marvel outing set within a lavish setup, they also say it lacks proper character development and doesn’t have a coherent storyline. Even the response from MCU fans has been lukewarm at best as on Cinemascore, the popular audience-surveying market research firm. There the film has earned a lowly score of below 50%, which is an all-time low for a Marvel film. Apart from 2011’s Thor, which received a B+, all Marvel films have snagged an A grade.
In our review, Giant Freakin Robot has also criticized Eternals for favoring elegance over telling a more understandable plot. The story crashes time and again while trying to make sense of the overcomplicated web of plots it spins. And adding to that, the animation used to create the vile-looking Deviants is perhaps the worst use of special effects in the MCU to date. Unlike other Marvel films, which are known for being the perfect blend of humor, action, and emotions, Eternals often fails in striking that balance as the overarching gloomy vibe throughout the film barely leaves space for anything else. Though the film was touted as being a milestone in MCU’s streak till now, its underwhelming performance barely makes a dent.
Eternals depicts the story of Earth’s first superheroes, an alien race of ten immortals that was sent to the planet by the Celestial Arishem to battle the evil Deviants and end their existence. While they have resided on the planet for 7,000 years, their duty was restricted to battling the Deviants. They had strict orders to not interfere in the human affairs on the planet. This is why the Eternals didn’t even lift a finger when Thanos wiped half the living population. But the reversal of the Blip by the Avengers has triggered a major apocalyptic event known as the Emergence and brought the Deviants back into existence thus pushing the estranged Eternals to join hands once again.
Despite the poor to mixed reviews and its low Cinemascore, Eternals is scoring big at the box office. Contrary to its 48% “rotten” critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, the MCU feature is minting big bucks at the box office and is already predicted to be the top film this weekend. It is being speculated that in the first three days since its debut, the film will earn $69.5 million. This would make it the fifth film in 2021 to have a big opening weekend during the pandemic after Venom: Let There Be Carnage, F9: The Fast Saga, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
