Critics and Marvel Bros alike have poorly received Marvel’s Eternals. The film is even the lowest-rated MCU film on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB. However, if you actually read these reviews, the majority of people writing them are angry about a film they haven’t seen because of the multicultural cast and LGBTQ+ relationship of one of the main characters. I say this with my full chest. All of you “critics” and Queer hating Marvel Bros can eat my whole A$*. 

As someone who is a fan of Marvel Comics as well as their films, there are still so many characters and stories I know nothing about. So, I went into this film very much like Guardians of the Galaxy. I have no idea who these characters are or what the story will entail, but I am open to whatever the Marvel gods lay before me.

The Eternals

WHO/WHAT ARE THE ETERNALS?

The Eternals are a race of super-powered, immortal beings who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years. While here, they have protected humans from the Deviants aka creatures who kill humans. As well as, help shape our history and civilizations with a mostly hands-off approach.

The cast of Eternals is absolutely incredible. We have Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones), Angelina Jolie (Maleficent), Salma Hayek (From Dusk Till Dawn), Kit Harington (Game of Thrones), Kumail NanJiani (The Big Sick), Lia McHugh (The Lodge), Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta), Laura Ridloff (The Walking Dead), Barry Keoghan (The Green Knight), and Ma Dong-seok (Train to Busan). My fingers hurt just typing out all that star power! With this many new characters, it can be intimidating to write them as fully fleshed out people; let alone watching a film of this magnitude and having it make sense, but somehow Eternals pulls it off!

WHAT I FOUND SO GREAT ABOUT ETERNALS

Since Eternals has a lot of information to consume in a little amount of time, I appreciate the Star Wars esque beginning. I will take reading scrolling information over a longer runtime most days. Every Eternal has an awesome superpower, even if some of them would also be great answers to the question, “what useless superpower would you want and why?” In the end, they were all incredibly useful in their own way. 

I also love that each Eternal is based on a figure from multiple cultures and mythologies. Thena (Jolie) – Athena and Icarus (Madden) – Icarus from Greek mythology. Sersi (Chan) – the Jade Buddah from Thailand, Kingo (NanJiani) – Agni from India, and more. Each character’s counterpart is represented in the animated end credits next to each actor’s name. 

The film also has epic fight scenes that I have come to expect from a Marvel movie. However, they didn’t drag like previous films (Captain America: Civil War I’m looking at you). And they definitely hit the KO Special Combo when taking out a few Deviants. My favorite came from Thena in the cave – you’ll know it when you see it. I also found the Deviants to be oddly beautiful as well as terrifying because of their rainbow colors and majestic movement while also trying to rip their faces off.

Icarus (Richard Madden) and Sersi (Gemma Chan)

EVEN MORE TO LOVE

Flashbacks in a film have to be executed just right or they can wreck the pace and feel pointless. Not the case with Eternals. I found the film to have the perfect use of flashbacks in order to fill you in on the important moments of the past while servicing the story that’s progressing in the present. When you have 10 main characters to follow, these moments helped place the Eternals in critical moments in history, as well as important moments in their own lives. This allows us to understand each character’s motivation on a new level, rounding them out as people. 

Eternals also gives Marvel fans what a lot of us have been asking for: actual adult relationship moments and Queer representation. Not only do we get a brief sex scene between characters, we also have a gay family with Phastos, his husband, and their son. Captain Marvel queer-baits the hell out of LGBTQIA+ fans when it came to Carol and her wife friend, Maria. I’m sorry, but who keeps the jacket of someone who isn’t their lover? They were obviously a family and Marvel kept it “up to interpretation.”

There are so many other things I loved about this movie, but I’m going to end it with this. The film handles dementia beautifully. They answer the question about why the Eternals don’t interfere in wars or the Thanos snap. I may not like the answer, but it makes sense. I also found it pretty neat that Phastos tech looks similar to the magic of Doctor Strange and is as inventive as Tony Stark’s designs. For me, this shows how his technology helps influence already established major players in the MCU. 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT ETERNALS

Honestly, there really isn’t much I didn’t like. The more I sit with this film the more I love it. My only complaint was a necessary evil, the pacing. There is so much necessary world-building that happens in the first 90 mins of the 2 ½ hours run time that it feels a little dense and slow. However, I have zero suggestions on how to fix it because I wouldn’t cut out anything. The final hour, however, flies by!

Eternals his theaters Friday, November 5th! Make sure to go to your local movie theater, grab some popcorn, and enjoy! You won’t be disappointed.