Eternals is the lowest-rated Marvel Studios movie on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing. A quick browse of the Tomatometer shows the upcoming film at 65% right now. That would be one percentage point lower than Thor: The Dark World. (Chris Hemsworth’s second outing as Thor is contentious in its own right, so that makes a ton of sense.) Reviews are all over the map with most agreeing that this is a massive swing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some responders seem to think that there’s a lot going on in the film, and others feel like it might lose the audience in the process of trying to explain a ton of what’s really up with the backstory of these films. One thing is for sure, Rotten Tomatoes scores are not the end-all-be-all of a movie’s success. You’re probably reading off a list of wildly different projects that bombed among critics but still did amazingly at the box office. (Venom currently sits at 30% on the site with an audience score of 81% and a billion dollars earned.)
Chloe Zhao clearly isn’t worried about any of that business though. She told the story that she wanted to tell for all intents and purposes. If Eternals does well enough at the box office, there will be another one at some point in the future. The MCU’s cinematic slate continues to balloon with every passing month. If this movie isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, there will surely be something for them to enjoy.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“What I loved about making this film is that it tied so close to the origin of the MCU is also going to have a big repercussion moving MCU forward. With those two as secured, we get to play and do whatever we want and make a strong standalone film and leave everything on the table,” Zhao told The Playlist. “I would be back in a second working with the team at Marvel for sure. So we’ll see.”
As our Jamie Jirak put it absolutely perfectly in her own review: “Eternals will likely be one of the more divisive films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The strong characters and visuals will be enough for some fans to consider it one of the best of the franchise while others will find its messy plot and extended runtime a hard pill to swallow. No matter how you feel about Eternals, there’s no denying Phase Four is off to an exciting start.”
Will you be seeing Eternals on Day 1? Let us know down in the comments!
