MCU movies have gone through an evolution over the years since Robert Downey Jr. first took up the role of Tony Stark back in 2008.
While movie producers all wanted franchises with trilogies and predictably high box office returns, it wasn’t until the MCU did we ever get a movie universe at this scale. With the 2008 Iron Man movie, audiences were introduced to limitless possibilities where many of their favorite characters can find life on the silver screen as each of those characters had their own movies to flesh out their identities.
The Eternals is a part of that universe but it doesn’t share in that same evolutionary formula. Instead, it tries to flesh out their characters in two hours and fails miserably in their attempt. Characters don’t have the time needed to be understood by the audience and the movie suffers for it.
I think that this could have been a great show if aired as a Disney+ series. There would be enough time to flesh out the characters, give them an identity, and get the audience interested in their outcomes. Instead, we get a movie that seems disjointed, is poorly paced, and starts interesting plot threads that immediately get ignored. It’s also hard to tell who are the supporting characters when no one seems to take the center stage.
I didn’t mind watching The Eternals but I doubt that I would watch it again unless I were looking to fall asleep. The movie is quite boring with its plots that go nowhere and its uninteresting characters. The movie goes out of its way to ensure that many checkboxes are ticked in terms of inclusivity but they seem to have forgotten to make a good movie during that process.
The aforementioned MCU evolution was progressing to have increasingly fleshed out characters in all of their movies. For the most part, they were doing so brilliantly. This is one of those exceptions.
I didn’t hate The Eternals but I cannot recommend this movie.