Do not listen to critics or Rotten Tomatoes. They judge movies and say if they are great, good, mediocre, or terrible. But sometimes, they are wrong. 

For example, Joker has a 59% on Metacritic and a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it is regarded as a modern classic in the superhero/supervillain genre. People loved it, as it has an 8.4 on IMDB as it won two Academy Awards, Best Actor and Best Score.

Another example is the topic of today’s article: Eternals.

Eternals is the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which was released on November fifth, 2021.

Eternals is a very controversial and divisive film because some people hated it while others loved it. People did not like Eternals because of the plot’s pacing; as many said that it felt too fast, and it did not allow characters to be fleshed out, so when things happened to the characters, it did not have the intended effect on the audience. On the other hand, some people loved it because of the characters and the look of the movie.

Leading up to the release of Eternals, I was worried about it. I thought the movie was going to be terrible, so I lowered my expectations. But after seeing it, wow, just wow, Eternals was fantastic.

Here are my thoughts and reasons why I liked Eternals.

*Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

Plot and Story:

The story is an epic about a group of demigods called Eternals that came to Earth to stop the deviants, monstrous creatures threatening human life, under the control of their god, Arishem the Judge. After time passed, the Eternals split up, and after Iron Man brought back everyone Thanos dusted, it caused the deviants to come back. Now the world is facing its death in seven days, so the Eternals have to get back together to stop the deviants and save the world.

I know that might sound like a basic superhero movie, but it is not. It is so different compared to other superhero movies. Sure, it feels like a movie in the MCU in some aspects, like the CGI ending’, but I still think it is very different.

The story travels over 7,000 years, and I really liked it. I thought it would not work, but past events were either the beginning of the movie, like in Mesopotamia, or in flashbacks, like in Babylon, Tenochtitlan, India, Hiroshima, and Alaska. Having these events in small flashbacks and in the beginning of the movie worked well because the story could progress faster and not feel like a slog in some parts of the movie.

Traveling over 7000 years also led to seeing places that are not represented well in Hollywood, like Mesopotamia and Babylon. I thought it was cool to see past civilizations and how different they were from what you would think they would be like.

Also, I like how myths were mentioned and confirmed, like King Authur and Excalibur and the boy who flew too close to the sky: Icarus.

I like history, so seeing these locations and myths on the silver screen was very cool and added to the story and characters like their development, relationships, desires, etc. It also showed how the Eternals were considered gods through different times of history, like in Babylon and Ancient Greece.

Another part of the plot that people did not like was the exposition dump heavy first act. I felt like I was being shot with a machine gun of plot stuff and facts, but I processed everything and enjoyed the movie’s second half better. I feel like the people who did not like it because they had to process a lot of things, and some stuff went over their heads, so they were unable to appreciate the second act. However, because I took in everything in the first act, I was able to appreciate the second act.

Even though I liked the story, I can understand why others did not.

The storytelling was interesting because it was different from most movies that I have seen, as it bounced around from location to location and from past to present.

While there were one or two-character moments where I feel like if the story was told differently or the movie was longer, it would have worked better, but overall, the plot held my interest for the full two hours and 37 minutes.

Overall, in the sea of aggravated fans because of their claims of a poor plot, I really enjoyed it, but I can see why people are not fans of it.

Characters:

The character in Eternals was the best part of the movie or at least one of the best parts.

Unlike other movies in the MCU, I knew nothing about the characters. It was kind of like Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but I knew one character in that movie, the Mandarin.

Even though I did not know any of the Eternals, I liked them a lot because each member is so diverse and different when compared to other Marvel teams. There are five men and five women. Out of the characters, two are Asian (Sersi and Gilgamesh), one is Latin (Ajak), one is Indian (Kingo), two are African American (Phastos and Makkari), one is deaf (Makkari), and the others are white (Druig, Thena, Ikaris, and Sprite). Having a cast that is made up of actors and actresses of different backgrounds gives a different experience at the movies and helps inspire others by having their nationalities represented by superheroes on screen. Each character is different too. There are a lot of characters, so I will talk about my two favorite ones and an honorable mention.

Firstly, one of my favorite characters is Sprite. Sprite is a trickster who uses her powers to fool others, including the deviants. I thought Sprite was an outstanding character because, for the whole movie, she was snarky, cranky, and just generally ticked off. While it was part of humor for the beginning of the movie, near the end, she monologues that she acts this way because she has been a kid for over 7,000 years and cannot experience things that others can like love and romantic relationships. Even though she sort of betrays the team, but not really, she still makes the audience care about her.

The audience can see how human Sprite is, how her extensional crisis has changed her, and why she went with Ikaris to stop the others from saving the world.

Lia McHugh gives a funny, clever, and depressing performance; she is my favorite character because of her complexity and her conflict.

My other favorite character is Thena, and she is played by the star Angelina Jolie.

It is crazy to think that Jolie is a part of the MCU, but it is real, and it was great casting as a character that could be boring is played perfectly and is not one-dimensional.

Thena is the goddess of war, and she can create weapons of matter. She is a warrior, and if the character ended here, I would not have liked her as much, but Thena has more in store.

During the Tenochtitlan flashback, it is revealed that Thena has mad weary, a disease that makes her remember events from the Eternals’ past, and it causes her to attack the team. It can be cured if her memories are wiped, but she does not want to do this because she cares about the team.

Her strong nature shows here because she is a strong warrior and mentally strong. After all, she refuses to have her memory wiped and wants to live with mad weary because she does not want to lose all the memories about the team.

Also, I liked Thena because of her relationship with Gilgamesh. They fight together in Babylon, and when Thena gets mad weary, he takes care of her.

I liked Thena’s friendship with Gilgamesh because it added a human element to the demigods. The relationship was one of two friends who care about each other.

And when Gilgamesh died, I felt for Thena, as her best friend died. Even though she was on a team that included herself and many others, she felt alone because the one who cared for her died.

Her vendetta for the deviant that killed Gilgamesh, Kro, led to a great and suspenseful scene in a cave where she killed him. This scene shows how strong Thena is because she killed Kro while Ikrais, the strongest member of the Eternals, could not kill him when he was even less powerful.

Jolie stole every scene either with comedy, sadness, or amazement.

I am glad Thena survived the movie, and I hope to see more of her in the MCU.

An honorable mention is for the leader Ajak, played perfectly by Salma Hayek. Even though she is not in the movie for long, as she dies and is only seen alive in flashbacks, she has a cool power (healing) and fits the role of the strong diplomat. She talks to Arishem, leads the team, and tries to resolve the problems within the team. I wish she was in it a little more, but I understand her death’s significance for the plot. I think it was smart to kill her off first because then the other Eternals would not be able to get healed, making them more vulnerable, heightening the suspense.

I am glad to learn that Hayek signed on for several Marvel projects, so I am excited to see more of Ajak in the future.

Overall, all the characters were fantastic, but these three were amazing and a big part of why I liked Eternals so much.

Cinematography:

Eternals is beautiful because it does not use CGI as much as other movies in the MCU, and I said wow after seeing some shots during the movie.

When thinking about the movie’s cinematography, I have three scenes that come to mind.

The first scene is when the Eternals show up in Mesopotamia, and some of them are shown on a hill. They are cloaked in shadow, and you can see their outline and see Ikaris touch down in the middle. The shot looks so stunning because it puts you into the scene and uses shadow and light very well.

The second scene is when Ajak talks to Arishem for the first time. She is in a building in Baylon, and when she summons the sphere that allows her to talk to Arishem, the area around fades as she is then put in front of Arishem’s face. 

The size of Ajak compared to Arishem is daunting and shows that Thanos was not the most dangerous threat in the universe. The red dominates the screen, and the camera is so clear when it focuses on Ajak.

I heard from people who saw the movie early that the Arishem scenes were amazing but seeing it for the first time, I was taken back in awe.

The filmmakers did a great job making Arishem stand out and look amazing, and it gives me confidence that the MCU can do justice to Galacticus.

I thought the third scene that looked great was when Ikaris, Sersi, and Sprite drove to Ajak’s house. The camera is zoomed in and shows them driving to her house in the plains of South Dakota while a thunderstorm and low-hanging clouds loom to the left. This scene was really cool because it is a scene that you would see in a movie that wins the best cinematography and not a comic book movie.

In general, the whole film looked beautiful and stunning. People hate Eternals because when CGI appeared, it looked bad because the movie did not use it a lot, but I felt the opposite. I could not tell what was CGI and what was not.

The whole film has the best cinematography in any movie in the MCU, period.

Overall, I loved the look of Eternals.

Score:

The music in Eternals is also a standout factor. Eternals is scored by returning composer Ramin Djawadi, the compressor behind Iron Man.

Whenever it is during a fight scene, a sad scene, or a funny scene, the music fits.

Also, two non-original songs in the movie that I enjoyed were “Time” by Pink Floyd and “The End of the World” by Skeeter Davis.

“Time” fits because it shows Sersi in 5000 BC and then her in the modern-day.

“The End of the World” fits because the movie is about the end of the world.

I like these songs because they fit the movie well, and they are not just thrown in because they sounded cool, like in Suicide Squad. I also enjoyed hearing these songs in the movie because I like Pink Floyd, and “The End of the World” is from Fallout 4, one of my favorite games of all time.

Whether it is the original score or the already existing songs, the score is great, and it is one of the reasons why I liked Eternals.

Credit Scenes:

It is standard for movies in the MCU to have credit scenes, and I had one spoiled, so it was not as unexpected as if I saw it blindly, but it was still cool.

The first one showed Thena, Druig, and Makkari talking about the other Eternals and how they have gone missing and how they have to look for them until Thena and Makkari sense something.

A portal opens, and a troll-like creature steps out and reveals Thanos’ brother, played by Harry Styles.

Harry Styles in the MCU as Eros, Thanos’ brother, and Patton Oswalt as Pip the Troll are so cool because Harry Styles is so big right now, and Patton Oswalt is a lifelong comic book fan. It will be cool to see them in future projects.

The scene also suggests a sequel, and if another Eternals film happens with Harry Styles and Patton Oswalt, I would 100% see it.

The second credit scene is just as cool, in my opinion. It is Dane, Sersi’s boyfriend, pumping himself up to open a box that has a sword from his complicated family history. It is Ebony Blade, and you hear voices come from it. 

He is about to pick it until a voice asks Dane if he is sure he wants to wield the Ebony Blade. It was not until a couple of days later that it was revealed that the voice belonged to Blade.

Back in 2019, Blade was announced to be joining the MCU, but this is the first time hearing him. I was so excited because I like the character, and seeing him join forces with Dane/ the Black Knight would be so cool.

Blade with Mahershala Ali playing the title character cannot come fast enough.

Eternals has been given bad reviews but do not listen to what the critics say. Watch it for yourself, and you will not be disappointed.