There are movies, and then there are Marvel Studios movies. Both are hated by critics for wrong reasons many a time, and Marvel's latest and ambitious entry is an example of such a case. Kudos to Marvel Studios for keeping Theatres alive. Eternals is pretty good, unlike the hate it acquired for being "woke" or having a diversified cast (characters) or being different from previous movies in the marvel cinematic universe. It's not great, didn't turn out that grand as I expected yet it's easily another crowd pleaser and solid entry they have in Phase-IV. The critics or fans can't process mature content in a comic book movie, Marvel should take note of it but continue taking such risks and just be themselves. Every MCU movie won't be Endgame or Avengers you clowns.

The storytelling is in a non-linear fashion, the same suite was followed in Shang-Chi and personally, I love this. For certain plot points and surprises, this helped a lot. I feel the same for the pacing, despite being the third-longest MCU film, time flows by once the Eternals start assembling and the plot unfolds. Some part of it is predictable, but I didn't find it cheap. For the most part, I was pretty invested in what's about to happen and side-by-side, knowing the past of the Eternals. Kang poses a bigger threat than Thanos, a villain introduced in the upcoming Ant-Man movie, we go further deep into the roots of the creation of this universe and even a bigger threat that challenges the existence of all sorts of humanity and even our entire universe and Eternals being in the center of all the drama.

There were many flaws here, especially the character development and the average plot or villain. It's tough to give justice to all members of this ensemble like Ajak or Makkari could have better development and it hurts when certain characters are just ignored for a major chunk of the action or plot. I felt this for Kingo and how he was not even present for most of the third act but let me tell you, Kumail Nanjiani was pretty funny with his Bollywood gimmicks and the standout performance from Harish Patel who played Kingo's valet. This duo kept the humor alive, and surprisingly the humor wasn't forced again, and so good were the one-liners, especially from Harish Patel in Hindi. Kept people giggling for those right moments in theatres.

Phastos was my favourite, Brian Tyree Henry was phenomenal with the perfect mixture of humor and his role as the most important Eternal. I wish Makkari had better development like the others, I absolutely loved her action sequences, something fresh and unexplored in MCU. Then comes, Thena and Gilgamesh. Angelina was the soul of the story for me, the movie becomes are a mess here, trying to stick to its root and advancing to the Marvel formula hence becoming a mess with its characters, including Cersi. I liked Gemma Chan but her character was pretty flat. The scenes with Thena were a bit emotional, and were the point where I got invested in the present timeline. The character conflicts keep you invested till the end. The VFX and Cinematography were splendid, Chloe Zhao's touch is hard to miss, and if the script could be less messy this was marvel's finest shot since Endgame.

The stakes are there, characters die, but it becomes hard to care for them with such less background or emotions attached, unlike other Marvel characters. This film almost follows the same route as Captain Marvel in its plot and the controversy. I went for the first-day first show, the crowd was amazing, I absolutely loved it, it might not be memorable like some previous MCU films but this has a heart to it and is a delight to watch in this festive season. Ikaris and Arishem bring a lot to the plate, and I liked the antagonist.
Interested to read about Dane Whitman.