The new Marvel’s Eternals is finally out! After seeing it on November 5th, the Marvel fan base is left with considerable controversy. Eternals brought up tons of new information: giant space gods, weird demon creatures, ancient superheroes… and Harry Styles!? This new movie has gotten high praises and killer critiques. Eternals was a whole new side to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and the only way to really form an opinion, is to see it yourself!

Before figuring out the two opposing sides, there must be some context provided for the confusing plot of this movie. Eternals is about a group of immortal people with different abilities responsible for the growth and preservation of the population in the name of the almighty Celestials. Throughout the movie, the viewers get an inside look at who every individual “Eternal” is while also having flashbacks to their former glory. These flashbacks date back to Mesopotamia, Babylon, Tenochtitlan, India, and the United Kingdom. The main villains are these demon-like creatures called deviants that feed off of human life. The main goal of the “Eternals” is to destroy all of the deviants from Earth, or that was the main goal. However, an unexpected plot twist changes the movie’s entire course, bringing up new villains, new purpose, and new technology. This movie’s primary goal was to bring Marvel viewers to the more cosmic scale with more powerful heroes and villains. 

With the story now summed up, what is the big controversy? The short answer is, there are several. First, Eternals was a movie for change, with the first openly gay superhero known as Phastos in the film. I believe that the directors of Eternals knew that this decision would start debates, but the retaliation that it has gotten is unexpected. The second controversy is a more common argument; was this a good movie? When I left the film accompanied by two other people, one thought it was good but did not live up to previous Marvel movies, and the other thought it was atrocious. The main debates are that a lot of people loved Eternals because it opened up numerous possibilities, like spinoffs, sequels, and new characters. The opposing claims that the movie was overcomplicated, too packed full of information, no emotion, and rushed. I can definitely see where they are coming from and here is my full conclusion.

Marvel’s Eternals introduced many new directions that the MCU can go. However, although this movie released a lot of potential, it was not the best as an individual movie. I felt like there were some unnecessary pieces of information and awkward relationships, and it felt a bit rushed. I would fix this issue by having them create the movie normally and subtract all of the background information. Then Marvel would create a T.V. series on Disney Plus with every episode focusing on an Individual Eternal. This would have given them more time to develop every Eternal instead of trying to fit a short story for every one in the movie. Either way, it is what it is and that is an overall not great movie, but it sets up countless opportunities for greatness in the future. 

The only real way to pick what side you are on is to actually go watch the movie for yourself. Create your own opinion and get invested. I think that is part of the thrill in watching movies and it should be encouraged more often. So have fun watching Marvel’s Eternals!