It was bound to happen eventually, but for the time being, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s impeccable track record on Rotten Tomatoes has come to an end. As recently as a couple of weeks ago it seemed impossible to believe that Eternals would be anything other than spectacular, but critics clearly aren’t in agreement with that sentiment.
In a cruel twist of irony, the first installment in the franchise to be helmed by a filmmaker with an Academy Award for Best Director under their belt has turned out as the lowest-rated ever on the aggregation site. At the time of writing, Chloé Zhao’s cosmic epic is sitting just under the threshold at 59%, but it’s not a foregone conclusion quite yet.
As we get closer to Eternals‘ November 5 release, the score could rise up or down, but with well over 110 reviews in the bag already, it’s likely to remain bottom of the pile behind the 66% accrued by Thor: The Dark World almost a decade ago. Of course, it won’t matter at all should the movie make a ton of money at the box office, but even that’s far from a guarantee in the age of COVID-19.
There’s already rumors flying around that a planned sequel could be in jeopardy, even though plenty of terrible films have spawned highly lucrative franchises, and it isn’t as though Eternals is being panned.
