Eternals just dropped on Disney+ recently, and since the release in the movies was during my exam period, I waited until know to watch it.
This review could contain spoilers for Eternals as well as for the whole MCU.
To be honest, my first impression was not really that great. So is it as bad as everyone says?
Eternals is the 26th film in the MCU and the 3rd movie of the Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The story plays after the story of Endgame and the snap and is about the Eternals, Superpowered individuals, that are created by the Celestials - the "Gods of the Universe". Ten of these Eternals came to Earth in 5000 BC to fight the Deviants a species also created by the Celestials. But the Deviants did evolve and didn't want to follow their purpose anymore, but wanted to live in their own ways and up to their own rules.
They fight against the Deviants and defeat them in the millenia after their arrival - the last being killed in 1521. After that the group is split up, since their opinions differ from each other, especially regarding how to treat the humans.
In the present Sersei and Sprite, two of the Eternals, live in London. Sersei has a relation with a human and works at the National History Museum. The three of them are attacked by a deviant and aren't able to defeat it, when Ikarus, Serseis earlier partner, shows up. Even though he is one of the stronger Eternals, they cannot manage to win against that Deviant. They travel to South Dakota where Ajak, their (former) leader, lives and want to talk about the newly arrived Deviants and how to handle them.
They arrive and notice that Ajak is dead. Sersei is chosen by her posthum, to become the new leader. She communicates with Arishem, their celestial, to get further instructions, but is being told that it will be time soon - and nothing more.
So they start to find the others and put the team together again, starting with now Bollywood star, Kingo, who they find in India, to Gilgamesh and Thena, to Druig, who they find in the jungle, and Phastos. The completion of the team is Makkari, whom they find on their starship, the Domo.
On the way, after they collected Gilgamesh and Thena, but before Druig, Sersei is able to communicate with Arishem and finds out, that they purpose was not really to fight the Deviants, but prepare for the Emergence - the birth of a new Celestial. The only problem is, that this birth consumes all (intelligent) life on the host planet, since the Celestial feed on the intelligent lives. Especially Sersei, who really loves the humans, wants to stop this from happening and try to find another way to solve the problem.
They also have to fight the Deviants on the way and Thena has some problems with her memory, which makes her forget where she is and whom to trust and whom to attack. But they manage to kill most of the Deviants in the Rain Forest at Druigs place, except for Kro, the leader of the Deviants, who is able to heal himself. But Gilgamesh is killed at the fight and his powers taken by Kro. So only eight Eternals remain.
With the help of Phastos, they want to create a device or way to delay the Emergence, which was already delayed with the Snap, since with half the humans gone, there wasn't enough for the new Celestial, Tiamut, to feed on. They think, that with Druigs mind control power, they can put the Celestial to sleep. But this is a betrayal to their mission. And it is shown, that not all of them are happy with that.
Especially Ikarus is against the plan to either kill or put the Celestial to sleep, and went even so far as killing Ajak. She did want to abandon the mission, and told Ikarus about it. So he tossed her into a place with many Deviants, where she was killed by Kro. Ikarus believed that the other Eternals would be busy searching and fighting the Deviants, so they wouldn't get to know about the Emergence or at least wouldn't be able to do anything againt it.
Sprite, who is in love with Ikarus, joins him, when he attacks and later leaves the other Eternals, while Kingo is just leaving, since he neither wants to stop Tiamut, nor wants to fight his family. The others try to still work on a way to stop Tiamut of destroying Earth.
A big fight starts, when the other Eternals find the place of Tiamuts "birth" and get attacked by Ikarus and later also Sprite. Also Kro joins the fight and first attacks Ikarus, but gets attacked by the other Eternals, since they don't want him to get Ikarus' powers. Thena manages to kill Kro, when they are fighting alone, while Phastos can keep Ikarus at bay for quite some time, before he escapes and comes for Sersei. Sersei was already attacked by Sprite, but gets helped by Druig, who was earlier attacked by Ikarus and thought dead. Ikarus wants to stop Sersei, but cannot harm her, because he still loves her, so she is able to stop the birth of Tiamut, by turning him to stone.
In the end, it is shown, that Druig, Makkari and Thena leave Earth to search for other Eternals, while Sersei, Phastos and Kingo stay on Earth, Sprite as well, but she gets changed into a human, because she wishes to. Ikarus flies into the sun, supposedly dying. The three on Earth live for a short time, before Arishem arrives at Earth taking them from the planet for judgement, since he is very angry about their actions leading to the death of a Celestial.
The mid-credit scene is on the Domo, when suddenly Eros and a companion of him arrive - and tell them, that he is the brother of Thanos and knows how to find their friends, who are in trouble.
The end-credit scene features Sersei's "human" friend, who has a "magic sword", the ebony blade, and wants to use it, to find and free Sersei.
Some things came as a surprise to me. Ikarus was probably the biggest one. I didn't think that he was the bad guy - and especially in which way he was the bad guy. Also the mission wasn't something I expected.
After I watched the movie, I wasn't deeply dissatisfied, but I also wasn't really thrilled by the movie. I did expect more and 2,5 hours are quite some time - the same duration as Infinity War. Of course, they had to introduce a lot of new characters and some new concepts, but maybe this was too much for one movie. I guess in a series format, with maybe six to eight hours run time, this could've worked a lot better.
Because the movie wasn't really bad. It just couldn't live up to the expectations. It was something new, not really like any other Marvel movie. And it did break out of the MCU.
It was slow paced, which is also "new" to MCU movies. And it also was a "stand-alone" movie - that did tell an epic story that was closed in itself.
Surprisingly for a MCU project the references to other movies and shows have been not a lot. Even both the mid- and post-credit scene, didn't teaser other MCU projects, but did work on this one, and what could be started with it. There are some minor references, but those are not necessary for the bigger story.
So yes: Eternals could be the another step to a more galactic MCU. Since, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, Loki and some other movies and show did open the focus to the galaxy outside of our Earth, this movie could expand that by a lot. And bring more galactic threats that can't be dealt by the heros we know so far into play.
Because, although some of the abilities of the Eternals look similar to some of the abilities we already know, it could go to a bigger level. The Eternals will return - and even though not everything was great, I can imagine, that this is going to be a great step.
Cheers,
