The Eternal Struggle

Ambitious, but heavily flawed,"Eternals" attempts to showcase the prowess of Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao amidst an unfocused and overlong superhero yarn

Nothing lasts forever. It was bound to happen. For better or worse, "Eternals" has carved out a place for itself in entertainment history. Through an indomitable and improbable run that featured 25 movies and 3 television shows, every single MCU project was certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Yes, that includes series sore spots like "Iron Man 3" and "Thor: The Dark World". Through the ups-and-downs, reviewers have been generally favorable towards the franchise, in spite of its criticisms. That is, until now. As of this moment, "Eternals" currently sits at 49% (anything below 60% is considered rotten), breaking a streak that dated back over 13 years. Granted, the site is hardly the authority on movie criticism and ultimately, viewers are free to judge a film any way they deem fit (as evidenced by the film's 86% audience score). However, the platform's weighted average scores can be a good indicator of a film's general reception and reactions for the MCU's newest band of heroes have been mixed.

The story features ten seemingly immortal warriors (Angelina Jolie, Barry Keoghan, Brian Tyree Henry, Don Lee, Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Salma Hayek and Richard Madden) from a distant galaxy who descended upon Earth eons ago. Through the ages, they've been forbidden to interfere in human affairs unless Deviants are involved, which are their mortal enemies. After ridding the world of Deviants, they go their separate ways and quietly retreat to normal lives until a new threat forces them back together. In addition to directing, Zhao also co-wrote the script with Patrick Burleigh and Ryan and Kaz Firpo. "Game of Thrones" composer Ramin Djawadi also returns to score his first MCU movie since the original "Iron Man".

To its credit, this may be the MCU's most beautiful looking film. With cinematography from franchise veteran Ben Davis, its vibrant, occasionally stunning and perfectly framed shot selection is a huge contrast from some of Marvel's other more drab, indistinguishable visual outings. It's also one of their most progressive and forward thinking comic book offerings to date, featuring an ethnically diverse main cast, the first openly gay hero in the franchise and slices of existentialism for good measure. Aside from that, everything else falls relatively flat.

The pacing isn't particularly crisp and at nearly two and a half hours long, the film does drag. The characters are rather dull and there's a lack of chemistry between its talented cast, Gemma Chan's Sersi and Richard Madden's Ikaris in particular. Overall, it isn't necessarily bad and there are certainly worse superhero movies out there, but a lack of narrative cohesion undermines a lot of the film's best qualities. Buried somewhere deep inside its muddled story is a contemplative sci-fi drama. Underneath that, there's an action-packed comic book movie featuring aliens with awe-inspiring abilities. Unable to fully commit to either of these facets, "Eternals" underwhelms as it sits idling in the middle. C