Eternals Early Reactions Describe It As MCU's Most Epic & Unique Film

The first wave of non-spoiler Eternals reactions is finally here. Directed by Academy Award-winner Chloé Zhao, Marvel Studios is gearing up to introduce MCU's newest superhero team in a couple of weeks. Known as the Eternals, they're essentially immortals who were sent to Earth to protect humans from the Deviants.

Created by the Celestials, the heroes have been living alongside people for thousands of years. However, they were instructed to blend in and not meddle with any other human issues unless it's related to their original mandate, hence why their existence is unknown. The MCU's main Eternals team is composed of 10 members: Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Gemma Chan as Sersi, and Barry Keoghan as Druig. Initially, they operated as a single unit, but after a couple of centuries, they decided to part ways.

In Eternals, the titular characters need to band back together due to the looming Emergence. This mysterious MCU catastrophe was apparently kickstarted by Smart Hulk's (Mark Ruffalo) reverse snap in Avengers: Endgame. As the newest superhero team to join the franchise, there's a lot of anticipation for the blockbuster. And now, the initial reactions to the movie have made their way online. Check them out below:

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Looking at these initial reactions, it seems like Marvel Studios may have succeeded in introducing a brand new superhero team to the MCU. It's worth noting that this is the first time the franchise is debuting a group of characters who have yet to appear in any previous project since James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. Even compared to that, introducing the Eternals is much trickier, because there are a lot more characters. Despite this, Zhao seems to have found a way to efficiently establish them in the universe. Granted that it sounds like the movie spends quite a bit of time with expositions, that's somewhat expected since Eternals opens up an entirely new pocket of the MCU. As with other movies and TV shows in the universe, the characters appear to be the standouts of the film, which is a good thing considering that they're expected to play a pivotal role in the franchise moving forward.

Unlike previous screenings, however, Eternals' global premiere included the two post-credits scenes. There are currently no clues as to what they might be, but based on some of these early reactions, it could very well be franchise-changing. After all, why would Marvel Studios go the extra step to omit it from an earlier press screening of the movie? Another big takeaway from these social media posts is that Zhao didn't strictly follow the MCU's typical three-act storytelling format for Eternals. And because of that, it feels fresh and different from anything that came before it.

More: Marvel Is About To Make The Avengers Unnecessary

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