Marvel’s newest installment into their cinematic Universe, The Eternals, has gathered some less than stellar reviews in anticipation of the film’s release. As of this writing the film has a score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
A main criticism that has come up is that the plot and overall story is uninteresting and leaves you bored more than anything. One critic by the name of Michael Burgin wrote “Eternals is unlikely to leave audiences wanting more…or remembering much.” The people that don’t like the film mainly blame the poor plot and boring aspects of the story as to why they feel that way.
People that do enjoy the Eternals will tell you it’s because it takes a unique approach to a comic book movie. The film is reportedly more of a drama and character study than a straight up action blockbuster. One critic named Avi Offer wrote “One of the most humanist MCU movies ever made. It’s an exhilarating, suspenseful and visually dazzling spectacle with a surprisingly warm, beating heart. By treating the characters as human beings…” So far it seems like one side enjoys the film for its realistic and well developed characters, while the other side dislikes the film for its bland plot and boring story.
Supporters of The Eternals have turned to twitter in order to voice their disappointment in the film’s negative reviews. Many have begun to think that it’s not a matter of the film being of poor quality, but rather that the majority of film reviewers are biased against the cast and characters due to their gender, sexuality, and races. One element of the film is a love story between two men, a first in the marvel cinematic universe. Casual audiences immediately took note of this and with the poor reviews put two and two together creating a narrative of bigotry and discrimination among movie reviews. To rebuttal these claims some people have looked at Black Panther and Shang Chi which are very diverse films made by Marvel that have fantastic scores on many sites.
The Eternal is not the first MCU film to have controversy regarding poor reviews and accusations of sexism among people who viewed it. The first one would be Captain Marvel, the 2018 film starring Brie Larson as the lead character, the first female lead in marvel’s film history. When Captain Marvel came out reviews were lukewarm, with the general consensus being that the movie was too bland and that Larson herself wasn’t a good fit for the role. To combat this Brie Larson made a public statement about the film and blasted movie critics for their unfair bias and for reviewing movies not made for them. In the now famous speech Larson said
“[Audiences] are not allowed enough chances to read public discourse on these films by the people that the films were made for. I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about A Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t made for him. I want to know what it meant to women of color, to biracial women, to teen women of color, to teens that are biracial…”
Brie Larson
These comments made by Brie Larson are once again being brought up as fans of The Eternals praise Larson for “warning us” of what is to come unless film reviews become more inclusive. At the time she said this, Larson received backlash from many critics and movie goers such as the popular film company and YouTube channel RedLetterMedia, who brought up the fact that they enjoyed films that were “not made for them” such as Moonlight and Horror Noire. They then mentioned how insignificant the issue of movie critics not being diverse enough is compared to other issues the world is facing.
The overarching conflict is between film critics who don’t like the movie and fans of the film accusing critics for being biased against marginalized groups. It’s hard to believe these claims of injustice, considering many films with vastly diverse casts and characters receive favorable reviews all the time, including some Marvel movies. That and the fact that a film such as Joker which social media branded as a movie for straight white incels, got bad reviews by critics who were straight white men.
The most disappointing part in all of this is the power film reviews have on people. No longer can you sit and watch a film and enjoy it, now the film you like must have above a 70% on rotten tomatoes with at least 3,000 good reviews. This Eternals situation and the Captain Marvel situation are both prime examples of the detriment of film review sites. What was once a way to see if a movie was worth seeing, is now a way to validate your taste in film, and if a film you like has bad reviews you can simply blame it on the critics and say that it wasn’t “made for them”. I say watch whatever you want and remember that just because something you like has bad reviews doesn’t mean you have poor taste in art. And, although it would be great to see more diversity among film reviewers, there are so many bigger problems in the world that need to be taken care of which makes it all seem minuscule.