An ambitious, visually polished MCU outlier that reaches for myth, melancholy, and cosmic scale, but the sprawl, uneven character balance, and muted emotional payoff keep it from fully landing. It’s worth watching if you’re curious about Marvel’s most earnest attempt at prestige sci-fi, less so if you want the… Read more
Eternals
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Science Fiction · Action
Wed · 2h 36m
Director: Chloé Zhao
Starring: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie
Overview
The Eternals are a team of ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. When an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows, they are forced to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Director
Chloé Zhao
Cast
Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie
Curator Review
Verdict
An ambitious, visually polished MCU outlier that reaches for myth, melancholy, and cosmic scale, but the sprawl, uneven character balance, and muted emotional payoff keep it from fully landing. It’s worth watching if you’re curious about Marvel’s most earnest attempt at prestige sci-fi, less so if you want the franchise’s sharpest action or funniest momentum.
Best for
Viewers who like superhero films with a more serious, contemplative tone
Fans of ensemble sci-fi and ancient-myth storytelling
People interested in big-budget visual worldbuilding and location shooting
Audiences open to slower, more philosophical comic-book movies
Skip if
You want fast-paced, joke-heavy Marvel entertainment
You prefer tightly focused character arcs over large ensemble mythology
You’re looking for a clean, crowd-pleasing action structure
Muted performances and exposition-heavy plotting tend to frustrate you
Overview
Eternals is Marvel trying to widen the frame: less quip machine, more cosmic fable. Chloé Zhao brings a patient eye for landscapes and faces, and the film’s best stretches have a genuine sense of scale, as if the MCU has briefly wandered into a more meditative science-fiction epic.
Worth noting
The problem is that the movie is carrying too many ideas at once. It wants to be a family drama, a creation myth, a moral debate, and a world-ending blockbuster, and those pieces don’t always lock together cleanly. Some characters feel vividly imagined, while others are left stranded by the script’s need to keep moving.
Bottom line
Still, there’s something admirable about how strange and self-serious it is. Even when it misfires, it feels like an attempt to make a superhero film about time, duty, grief, and the cost of intervention rather than another interchangeable franchise chapter. That ambition makes it more interesting than its reputation suggests.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Lucy (3★) · 11355 likes
the amount of times that robb stark and jon snow affectionately said “cersei” and it really and truly took me out every single time 😵💫
jaime (3.5★) · 8751 likes
no ikaris don’t be evil you’re so sexy aha
marvelscorsese (1★) · 8180 likes
“Um guys, I think you’re gonna wanna see this!” -Druig, September 11th, 2001
matt lynch (1★) · 5465 likes
A completely frictionless 2hr 40min platitude. One of the most flavorless things I've ever seen.
Dakota Joaquin (3.5★) · 5153 likes
The strangest phenomenon known to cinema is that, in the same year of WandaVision & Loki & Falcon and the Winter Soldier & Black Widow & Shang-Chi, this is the first rotten movie of the MCU. Absolutely baffling. I’m not even saying this is great. Far from it. But just by default it’s easily Marvel’s best project of 2021. Idk. Maybe the Marvel fandom is upset because only ~one~ character was unabashedly obnoxious in their humor, rather than 95% of the cast. Let this be a lesson to Marvel. You start making content fit for literal children, they’re gonna throw a tantrum the moment you try anything remotely mature.
Themes
immortality, ancient mythology, found family, moral duty, cosmic intervention, grief, humanity's future, god complex