It finally happened guys! Marvel has officially made a movie that was not critically acclaimed or at least received for the most part very positively. Part of me is upset but I think we knew at some point that Marvel was going to have a film that wasn't going to be all that acclaimed because no studio can remain perfect but considering how good Marvel has been lately it's just kind of shocking that now it has finally happened and that it's Eternals that is the first MCU movie that seems to have really divided a lot of people. Not to mention that it is the first MCU movie to receive a rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Anyway, I am back from seeing Eternals, and does it deserve that pretty low Rotten Tomatoes score of 49% as I'm writing this? Personally, I don' think so but I definitely don't think it deserves to have an amazing rating on that site either. Eternals is sadly one of the MCU's weaker movies and while I wouldn't put it as the worst it is down there with stuff like The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World even though I consider this movie slightly better than those two. I'll start with the problems with this film because I have a lot to say about this movie and why I think it at least for me manages to overcome being bad but still doesn't reach that level of greatness that the majority of Marvel movies have managed to achieve. The first is that the story is very predictable and it's not that engaging. Mainly because I figured how it would play out and while that is the case with most MCU movies here I just wasn't as interested in what was happening. The second issue is that there are way too many characters in the film and it gets to a point where you can easily forget about some of them because they don't leave that much of an impact. The third issue is the fact that the humor half of the time didn't really make me laugh. There are a good amount of times where I did chuckle and I even did get some good laughs out of this movie but the other half of the humor just wasn't landing for me. Mainly because some of the characters either try way too hard to be funny or the jokes are being said by a person who just doesn't deliver it in a funny way. Then there is the last issue of the movie and while it is a variety of many different issues they all come back to this reason on why the movie isn't all that great and in a way does make understand the mixed reception the film is getting and that is how this movie is mostly just exposition for two and a half hours. There is so much exposition in this film to the point where it felt less like a Marvel movie and more like a drama that just so happens to be a superhero movie. Part of me does really appreciate the fact that the movie does try to be something other than the traditional comic book movie that we've seen so much from Marvel but it's one of those cases where doing something other than the traditional formula that we've come to expect works against the movie. It doesn't really work because it can make the film kind of boring at points, it makes the pacing really slow and like the film is going on forever, and there's not a lot of action scenes in this film. I was really hoping to see a lot of fantastic action scenes in this film and while there are some action scenes that were pretty great to watch there is not enough of them to truly make up for the movie's predictable story and an over-reliance on exposition. I'm sure that Chloe Zhao who directed the movie really tried to make something really ambitious and different with this film but for me, I think that she really needed to tone down on both the exposition and the length to not make the film this long and slow. Seriously this movie is just as long as Dune and it has more action than that one but I was still much more invested in that movie than I was here. It's also pretty ironic how the film is really long but still ends up being pretty convoluted. Mainly it's because of all the characters in the film while also having a story that has so many things going on. All of these problems really did affect my enjoyment of this film and are what keep it from being a great movie. Thankfully I don't consider this movie to be bad and it does manage to pull through to become an ok film. This leads to honestly a good amount of positive qualities about the film. The cinematography is gorgeous and looks really nice, the musical score is good, the direction is great, the characters while there are too many of them are still mostly likable for me to care about them, the visuals look amazing and are really stunning to look at, the humor that does work can get some good chuckles and a handful of laughs, the effects look very solid for the most part, the dramatic moments can be really strong and effective, the few action scenes in the film are intense and a lot of fun to watch while also being some of the most engaging parts of the movie, and the best thing about this entire movie is hands down the cast. Everyone in this film does a really great job in their parts. Especially the Eternals themselves. Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie all do really good jobs in their roles and make their characters more engaging to watch despite some of them not leaving as much of an impact as some of the others. I will also give the movie credit for having a couple of twists that I wasn't expecting. They aren't really great twists when you start to think about them but at least they do surprise you even though you can quickly figure out where the film is going to go from there once those twists are revealed. So overall with all of that said do I think Eternals is a bad movie? No, I don't. In fact, I actually would almost consider the film good but it's one of those movies that when you think about it more you notice more problems with it. It really is disappointing because I was really expecting this film to be amazing not just from the trailers but also because it is directed by Chloe Zhao who also did Nomadland. which won Best Picture earlier this year and a whole bunch of other Oscars. For me, I honestly think that Chloe Zhao when directing this movie just got way too lost in directing her own superhero movie that was trying to be a lot more different than the other MCU movies. Like I said before I do appreciate the fact that this movie is different and that Zhao really wanted to make something super ambitious and I never got the feeling that no one wasn't trying on this film but I just think that Zhao should just stick with doing dramas like Nomadland because she clearly can make amazing movies with that genre but I don't think it translated that well into an MCU movie. Overall, Eternals is a giant mess of a film that really should've played more like a traditional MCU movie which Marvel has proven to be really good at or just have a director that could bring another type of creative vision to these characters and Zhao's vision, in my opinion, wasn't really the best one to go with. I know that's controversial to say considering how acclaimed of a director she is but that's just how I feel regarding this movie even though I am convinced that Zhao did try her best here. If you're a fan of the MCU then, of course, you are going to watch this film because who would skip any Marvel movie at this point? However, for general audiences and moviegoers, it very much depends on what you would want. If you want a traditional comic book movie then Eternals really isn't the film for you but if you want a comic book movie that is much different than most others then maybe you will enjoy this film. I do think it's worth seeing especially in an IMAX theater considering how gorgeous the film looks in that format but I also can totally see people waiting to watch this film at home and that concludes my long review for Eternals. Now if you excuse me I'm going to go watch the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer again just to get me more excited for that movie because I have never been this excited for an MCU movie in a long time. Sucks that we have to wait about 6 more weeks for it to come out but hopefully it will be worth it and the best MCU movie of the entire year.