Eternals Review Roundup: Critics Are Divided Over the New Marvel Movie

By Jamie Lovett - October 25, 2021 09:39 am EDT

After having its Hollywood premiere last week, reviews for Marvel Studios' Eternals hit the internet on Sunday. Early reactions seemed positive, praising the movie's unique visauls. However, the film, directed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao, may go down as one of the most divisive installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film introduces almost a dozen new characters into the MCU and, based on reviews, at times struggles to flesh them all out. Others say that Zhao's distinctive, naturalistic style is at odds with the bombastic tone of the MCU. Critics varying describe Eternals' standalone nature, not touching on much else from the MCU, a strength or a weakness.

Rotten Tomatoes has Eternals at a 71% fresh rating at the time of writing, though the aggregator hasn't published a critical consensus yet. We've gathered up some reviews from critics to give you a sense of what they're saying. Keep reading to see for yourself.

Zhao directs Eternals from a screenplay she co-wrote with Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo. The film stars Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie

What do you think of the reviews for Eternals? Let us know in the comments. Eternals opens in theaters on November 5th.

ComicBook.com

"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." -- Jamie Jirak, ComicBook.com

Los Angeles Times

"The Eternals' on-screen struggle, pitting them against the whims of a grimly authoritarian overlord, too precisely mirrors their relationship to the Disney/Marvel corporate apparatus that created them and that will exploit them until they have exhausted their potential. What initially seemed fresh and invigorating devolves into something you've seen countless times before: The fate of the world hinges on an epic burst of teamwork, as well as one character's perfunctory realization of long-suppressed potential. Longtime friends betray and forgive each other, and eyes and hands shoot bolts of gilded lightning. A rush of end-credits cliffhangers elicits gasps from the audience, and the final title card - "Eternals will return" - starts to sound less like a promise than a threat. You walk out in the depressing realization that you've just seen one of the more interesting movies Marvel will ever make, and hopefully the least interesting one Chloé Zhao will ever make." -- Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times

The Wrap

"After so many Marvel movies that give lip service to the thornier ramifications of its hero narratives, there's an earnestness to the operatic stakes in Eternals that somehow helps fuse what's physically spectacular and philosophical about it. That it's played out, too, by a cast that looks like our world only burnishes what Zhao is trying to pull off from inside a trope-laden franchise." -- Robert Abele, The Wrap

IndieWire

"Yes, all of these are superhero tropes writ large, and comic book fans might see them as features instead of bugs. But can't these movies do anything else? Is it too much to ask the most dominant kind of cinema on the planet to shake things up and challenge itself in a more significant way?" -- David Ehrlich, indieWire

USA Today

"Utilizing Zhao's penchant for naturalistic environments, Eternals looks unlike any other Marvel movie and is perhaps the most welcoming for MCU neophytes in forever. There's as many references to Superman (yes, the rival DC hero) as there are to Thor, and it helps to cast 10 ridiculously attractive people as characters even comic-book fans deem obscure." -- Brian Truitt, USA Today

BBC

"Eternals is adapted from a series of far-out 1970s comics by the great Jack Kirby, and traces remain of his visionary design, but Zhao and her three co-writers have weighed it down with lots of rudimentary dialogue, a daft plan - 'If we can assemble device X and attach it to device Y then we can defeat enemy Z' - and a standard CGI-heavy showdown to round things off. The results aren't terrible. They're definitely watchable. But considering that this sci-fi saga is directed by Zhao, and that its story spans the creation of the Universe and the fate of the planet, it would have been reasonable to expect it to prompt slack-jawed wonder rather than the grudging appreciation of an efficient, workmanlike job. Eternals may not be the worst of Marvel's movies, but it's undoubtedly the most disappointing." -- Nicholas Barber, BBC.com

Observer

"This is a film that asks on a grand scale questions we grapple with every day. How do we navigate and understand difference? Why do we value humanity so much when humans often do not seem to value each other?" -- Oliver Jones, Observer

Daily Telegraph

(Photo: Marvel Studios)

"So why the urge to get buff in the first place? The answer is the problem with Eternals in miniature: it's constantly engaged in a kind of grit-toothed authenticity theatre, going out of its way to show you it's doing all the things proper cinema does, even though none of them bring any discernible benefit whatsoever to the film at hand." -- Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph

CNN

"Granted, the beauty of Marvel's interlocking universe is that by playing the long game the pieces build upon each other, so that appraisal might change as the next phase comes fully into shape. Eternals certainly doesn't lack for ambition, but for now, Marvel -- emboldened by its success -- has reached for the stars without quite getting there." -- Brian Lowry, CNN

The Guardian

"That's the problem: there's just too much going on: it's all headed towards yet another "race against time to stop the really bad thing happening" climax. It's not exactly boring - there's always something new to behold - but nor it is particularly exciting, and it lacks the breezy wit of Marvel's best movies. One of the strengths of the MCU to date is how it has taken time to define each character individually and lay out the grand narratives over successive movies, building a sense of momentum. Here, it's all thrown at us at once. It's like coming into Avengers: Endgame cold without having seen any of the preceding instalments. Most mortals will simply find it too much. Bigger isn't always better." -- Steve Rose, The Guardian