Marvel’s Eternals could be about to break a big record for the MCU – but not in a good way. Despite the lack of brand recognition for the team, the hype was high for Eternals, thanks to its ensemble cast, Oscar-winning director in Chloe Zhao and stunning visuals, as teased by the trailers. However, now that reviews are out, they’re surprisingly lukewarm, with the majority of critics labeling the film as one of the weakest entries in the franchise.
Unlike most MCU movies, for instance, Eternals didn’t open with a Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes – and things have only got worse from there. At the time of writing, Zhao’s Marvel debut is sitting at just 61% on RT on the back of 105 reviews. It’s still just about fresh, then, but Eternals is dangerously close to losing that rating. If the middling verdicts keep coming in, it could easily slip below the 60% mark, making it officially Rotten.
This would be a huge deal, as it would make it the first-ever MCU flick to be deemed Rotten on the review-aggregate site. Yes, even those that always languish at the bottom of fans’ rankings like Thor: The Dark World and The Incredible Hulk are comfortably above the Rotten line, with 66% and 67% ratings, respectively. So despite its strong cinematic flavor and an auteur filmmaker behind the camera, Eternals looks set to already go down as the worst-reviewed item in the whole MCU.
That’s only counting the movie side of things, of course. It’s unlikely that anything’s going to be as universally hated as Inhumans, with its pitiful 11% rating, if we’re counting Marvel Television’s output. But, still, this is a significant blow for the studio. It’ll be interesting to see if this has any kind of impact on its commercial success. We’ll find out when Eternals opens in theaters in just one week’s time on November 5.