Eternals is the most recent film in the Marvel franchise to hit the market. It was released on Nov. 5, and has received more negative attention than positive attention. The film brought something new to Marvel that fans have not seen before. In this film, viewers do not follow a group of popular superheroes with a variety of personalities. Instead, fans follow a group of powerful people that cannot quite be considered superheroes that fight for a higher being, at least for a majority of the movie. This change has not been accepted well by moviegoers, but that is not the only failure on Marvel’s end.

One of Eternals’  biggest downfalls is that it jumps to many different time periods, making it difficult for viewers to keep up with at times. Granted, most of the time, the jump is labeled with the exact year and location, but there are a few instances where fans do not get that context. 

There are a few times in the film in which the audience is unsure if the action is taking place in the present or the past. This is a result of the quick cuts which make the time jumps unrecognizable, which is not something people want to see in a film, especially if the film has as many flashbacks as Eternals. 

However, when time jumps are correctly labeled and easily recognizable, the film is historically accurate right off the bat. Not only that but some of the Eternals’ names correlate with the names of mythical historical figures such as Icarus (Ikarus), Thena, Gilgamesh, and Circe (Serse). 

The lack of labeling from Marvel on the time period in which Eternals takes place is not the only drawback of the film. It is common for Marvel movies to have a main plot and multiple subplots, given that there are numerous characters presented in the films. This is also present in Eternals; however, there are too many subplots. Just about every character has their own subplot resulting in almost an hour and a half of expositions, only for the storylines to be left unresolved or rushed to a resolution. 

For example, the entire subplot with the evolving deviant that ended up obtaining the powers of Gilgamesh (super strength) and Ajax (regenerative powers) was rushed to an end. A deviant such as that should have taken the strength of all the Eternals to beat, but it only took Thena about a minute or two to beat by herself. This plot itself is about half of the movie. That is not the only storyline that took a long time to resolve.

She ended up helping the Emergence or the end of the world so she could start over with new memories, but she failed. Yet, by some miracle, with only 10 minutes left in the movie, Serse somehow gained the ability to turn Sprite into a mortal that ages. Fans have not seen much of this power so far, except for when she accidentally turned a deviant into a tree. There are a few more instances such as these in Eternals, but they were not as bad as these two.

On a different note, there is something major that is said in this film that could be seen as just a simple joke. Towards the second half of the film, when talking about Ikarus, Phastos’ kid compares him to Superman. Superman is part of the DC universe with other heroes such as Batman and Wonder Woman, while Eternals is a part of the Marvel universe with the Avengers and other series. 

Although it is said just as a joke, the slight hint at Superman means that he exists in the Marvel universe, which is groundbreaking. This has shocked most fans, as it shows Superman exists in both the Marvel and DC realm of cinematic experience.

Moviegoers may not remember the post-credit scene and that there is a man on the screen for no more than five minutes. He is Serse’s current boyfriend, but a little more than just that. The post-credit scene tells us who he truly is, the Black Night. The sword he wields is called the Ebony Blade, an astonishing sword. He does not have any powers, but is good in combat, at least in the comics. After the sequence, fans can also hear an unidentified male voice. 

However, based on his previous films, fans can conclude that it is most likely Mahershala Ali who will be playing Blade in the upcoming movie. Also, fans very briefly meet Eros, the brother of Thanos, played by Harry Styles. So all in all, the post-credit scenes set up for two new films that will hopefully be better than this one. 

Although Eternals may not be exactly what everyone was expecting it to be, it shows a new side to Marvel and potentially it’s future, as the very ending hints at more movies to come.