On November 5th, the 4th phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (also known as the MCU) was expanded with the theatrical release of the film The Eternals. In this film, director Chloe Zhao, tells the tale of a group of immortal beings called The Eternals (hence, the eponymous movie title) with varying superpowers, sent to Earth roughly 7,000 years ago to protect humans from creatures out to feed on human life called Deviants. Our main family of Eternals goes as follows: Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ikarus (Richard Madden), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Druig (Barry Koeghan), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), and Sprite (Lia McHugh). So far, the film itself has collected a $281.4 million global total at the box office after only two weekends of viewings. However, despite the 86% audience score, it has still received a 51% critic score from sources such as Rotten Tomatoes. This places it as the lowest-scoring Marvel film in history. It has the largest gap between the audience and critic ratings in Marvel history too, with a whopping 35% difference. So the question is raised: what earned it such a negative rating from critics when it landed well with general audiences?

There are multiple components to answering this question, all of which can be explained by this review. Before diving in though, it is worth noting that this movie is still in theatres and, therefore, all content here will contain spoilers. Read at your own risk!

As with any Marvel movie, one of the most important aspects to look at in this film is the visual effects. Now, because Marvel spends roughly $350 million on CGI for movies with ensemble casts (such as this one), it is to be expected that the VFX in any Marvel movie will be fairly decent. That being said, the effects in this film were especially well done and the visuals in general were absolutely stunning. Since the movie is very reliant on CGI, it was a massive relief to see from the get-go that the visuals felt realistic and enticing. From settings such as ancient Mesopotamia to the digital effects behind all of The Eternals and their powers, to even the outer space setting where Ajak (Hayek) speaks with the celestial being, Arishem, who created them. It was made clear very quickly that there would be no shortage of mystical visuals and general ethera. (There’s a particular moment that sticks out to me in the beginning where Chan’s character turns a London tourist bus into a downpour of rose petals and, sitting there in the theatre, my jaw actually dropped). This does not just refer to the digital effects either. It extends to the costume department, the set designers, and the makeup department. All of these forces work together to create these beautiful scenes with costumes tailored perfectly to the personalities of each character. Thena’s white bodysuit to further the Greek goddess theme given by her name, the vibrant suit matched with the pixie cut to further highlight the youthful look of Sprite (McHugh), the darker tones to Druig’s costume (Koeghan) pairing well with his sullen personality. These are just a few of many examples. So, in general, the visuals of the film were arguably one of its strongest aspects and delivered all across the board.

The pitfalls of this movie are found in the structural and pacing issues. There are a lot of really great components to the film, ranging from happy and comedic family moments to intense betrayals or action sequences. That being said, those moments are so vastly different in atmosphere, and yet, the transitions between the two components are often abrupt and rocky. This can be only partially attributed to the vast amount of character backstory introduction needed and the setup. There’s a little too much time spent just uniting all the characters and developing their stories and they don’t seem to do it in any particular order which makes the beginning feel more aimless and confusing. One thing in particular about the camerawork that critics seemed to notice as well was that there are a vast amount of close-up shots (camera shots that were from the shoulders up) as opposed to wide shots (also known as long shots) that are full-body shots you usually see in action movies. Another thing that contributed to this was the delayed time and location stamps for all of the flashbacks and flashes back to the present. In many scenes they fail to make it clear for the first minute or two of where the characters are or what time period it is. It is safe to say that the second half of the movie is much more compelling than the first for these reasons. The famous end credit scene featuring Harry Styles also came under some scrutiny, with some saying that the casting for Eros was too unrealistic compared to the CGI done on Josh Brolin for Thanos.

Essentially, in layman's terms, Thanos was an ugly purple villain and then his very attractive, normal-looking brother appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Despite the bizarre nature of that scene and the lack of connection it has with the other components of the film, that specific end credit scene is a huge easter egg for Marvel comic fans seeing as how Thanos’ brother, Eros, becomes a superhero known as Starfox in the comic books. This, along with the film’s general focus on the theme of free will, sets up an endless amount of possibilities for what the unifying battle will be for this new wave of heroes. Potentially, thanks to the end scene (before the end credit scenes) where Arishem finds out The Eternals thwarted the birth of another Celestial, fans could expect for the climax of this 4th phase to be an intergalactic war with The Eternals and the new wave of Avengers against the Celestials and other beings determined to limit free will, such as the TVA and Kang the Conqueror (as seen in the Disney+ series Loki). To me, that makes this a movie that will probably become a lot better once the 4th phase of the MCU is developed more extensively. Not all of the pieces of this movie make sense and, for now, maybe it is intended to be that way.

Throughout all of this analysis, however, the question is still raised: why is The Eternals getting such a bad critic score yet such a positive fan response? There are multiple elements to this answer. First, this is one of the first Marvel movies with completely new characters. These new heroes are acting as a stepping stone to the 4th phase of the Marvel cinematic universe, with the expansion of worlds and the opening of the multiverse. So naturally, starting with a blank slate is an uphill battle when the original Avengers were so beloved. It means maybe Chloe Zhao overcompensated by spending too much time setting things up because she saw the importance of getting the audience to empathize and relate to these characters. However, the second and more prominent reason I believe this movie is earning such a bad reputation with movie critics is because of that dreaded D word: diversity. The Eternals featured Marvel’s first ever canonically gay superhero, with the innovative Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry, a black man) marrying another man and starting a family in an attempt to restore his faith in humanity. There’s also Lauren Ridloff, an Afro-Latin actress who stole the spotlight as Marvel’s first ever deaf superhero. In fact, out of the ten Eternals, six of them are people of colour and 5 of them are women. Only two of The Eternals are white men.