Eternals was probably the most blind I’ve ever been going into a Marvel movie. The only time I even saw the trailer was in theaters, in front of other movies. It was a pretty cool experience not knowing what the film would be about, even though it disappointed me slightly. 

I feel like I should acknowledge the news of this currently being the lowest-rated MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Right off the bat, no, I don’t think this is the worst MCU movie. However, it’s definitely lower-tier in my opinion. I had a good number of issues with it, although it still had a few redeeming qualities too. 

For starters, I thought it was technically-beautiful. This was probably one of the best-photographed films in the entire franchise. I adored the cinematography, particularly in the landscape shots. All the blockbuster stuff was good as well - the sound, the visual effects… you know what l’m talking about. 

The tone, for lack of a better word, was also well-executed if you ask me. Even though all these superhero movies tend to feel the same, I liked that this one didn’t take itself too seriously. And while the action sequences were plenty of fun, it was cool that the film actually took its time and had a lot of dialogue, too. 

But despite all the exposition and world-building, I must say the movie failed to invest me in most of the events taking place. It was cool to look at, as I said, but I was checked-out from an emotional standpoint for virtually the entire runtime. There were a lot of new characters introduced, so the movie inevitably had a rough time developing each one. This was like if The Avengers was released before any of the phase-one standalone films were.

On top of that, I just couldn’t relate to any of them. It’s not that the performances were bad; it’s just that, for instance, what makes someone like Iron Man such an interesting character is that he was just a human in the start before something happened that gave him his “abilities.” The same applies to Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, etc. Everyone in this, however, starts out as ultra-powerful beings making them feel even more distant from reality or any form of relatability. 

I also just really felt the length at times. I know that’s just an easy criticism to throw on top of things, but it was especially noticeable this time because, again, it was slower-paced. I understand the film’s need for a longer runtime when developing all those main characters, but with that many it was next to pointless. And that’s not even accounting for all the time-jumps, which made the plot even messier and harder to follow. 

All in all, Eternals was an okay addition to the MCU. It’s somewhat forgettable for a number of reasons, although I’m still glad I saw it.