Wow. This was a lot to take in. Granted, the film is 2 hours, 37 minutes and takes place over the course of 7000 years, so there’s definitely a lot to process. One of my biggest gripes is the way the actual narrative is structured. The events in the film don’t take place in chronological order, so the audience is sometimes left trying to catch up as certain moments between the past and present are intercut. It can honestly be a little jarring, and it sometimes took a bit to notice when the actual event was taking place. 

What I’m most undecided on in this film is the treatment of the characters. In order for a narrative this grand to actually function, you actually have to care about the characters engaging in it. Only 1 of them has an actual arc, but I don’t know if I would go as far as to call it a full-fledged arc. It just wasn’t as fleshed out as it needed to be. The other characters are all given time to grow and interact with one another, and I did find myself caring for a few of them, but for many of the others, I found them quite dull and at times even annoying (Sprite.) 

What really works in this film, however, is the action. This is some of the most thrilling and intense action we’ve seen in the MCU thus far. Besides that, this is probably one of the funnier MCU movies, but at the same time, I found a lot of the jokes falling flat. I like humor, but there were far too many attempts at it in this film. My favorite part is undoubtedly the opening scene. In my eyes, it’s one of the MCU’s most tightly crafted openers in a while. We instantly care for the eternals in the first scene because they’re helping people, united. Overall, this is probably the weirdest and most bold entry in the MCU, and even if I didn’t love it, I’m still glad it exists.