Marvel’s “Eternals” was released on Nov. 5, 2021 and became available on the streaming platform Disney+ Jan. 12. The movie features a diverse cast with some big names like Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, Kumail Nanjiani, and an appearance by Harry Styles.

Eternals is directed by Chloé Zhao, who has been known to use amazing cinematography and scenery in her movies. Based on Marvel comics, the story was modified to fit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is about a group of immortals who have lived for 7,000 years with different abilities. These immortals have been fighting beings called the deviants since they arrived. About 500 years ago the Eternals managed to wipe out all the deviants, and from there, the team split and went their separate ways. In the present day, the deviants return, but instead of attacking humans like they would normally, they attack the Eternals.

Each of the Eternals feature different powers; they all had the same abilities in the original comics. Ajak (Salma Hayek), the prime Eternal, possesses healing powers. Ikaris (Richard Madden) can fly and has laser vision. Sersi (Gemma Chan) can change the form of matter. Thena (Angelina Jolie) can create weapons, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) can fire powerful blasts from his fingertips, Gilgamesh (Don Lee) has super strength, and Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) can create and design technology. Sprite (Leah McHugh) has the power of illusions. Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) has super speed, and Druig (Barry Keoghan) can control people’s minds.

Certain Eternals have created stronger bonds with each other within their group. We saw the main couple in the trailer, Ikaris and Sersi. And we also saw other friendships and relationships that were portrayed as well. Gilgamesh and Thena have a great bond, same with Makkari and Druig. Many people agree that they preferred any other pairing than Sersi and Ikaris; they seemed forced, and they didn’t have as much chemistry as the other pairings.

Personally I would rate this movie 7/10. I saw it twice, and I liked it better the second time. I talked to other people, and their opinions are very similar to mine. They said the scenery was good, and it had good action scenes. But what they didn’t like was the lack of character development, and there were some complaints about the accents. The complaint was that there were too many different accents, stating that they should all sound alike.

Personally, I liked the amount of accents in the movie, and it meant a lot to the actors. Angelina Jolie, who played Thena, was the only actor of the Eternals main cast to change her accent from American to a British accent. Another thing I really liked about the movie was the amount of diversity.
The MCU has been slowly progressing in diversity, from the original six avengers all being white men with one white woman. Half of the eternals are POC, and five out of 12 are women. The movie also has a gay character, and features a same-sex kiss in the movie. This is a big step for Disney, as it is the first LGBTQ+ on screen kiss. Lauren Ridloff (Makkari) is deaf, and so is her character. She communicates through American sign language (ASL) throughout the movie.

Some things I didn’t like about the movie was the lack of character development. All of the heroes were the heroes from the start with a couple plot twists to spice it up a bit. That’s not to say I didn’t like the characters; most of them were likeable. I thought the actors did well in making the audience like the characters we were meant to, and hate the villains. Another thing was that the movie was slow at times, but then a lot would happen in a short amount of time. Overall the movie had good pacing though.

The movie was either hit or miss for a lot of people, and either people liked it or didn’t like it. I enjoyed it and think it’s worth seeing, and I believe it is a good addition to the MCU.