History YMMV / Eternals

* VanillaProtagonist: A common criticism is that the personalities and CharacterDevelopment of the main leads aren't really fleshed out due to the film's lack of breathing room. Sersi is particularly hit hard with this trope, with viewers not knowing much of her personality other than her love for humanity, something that most of the other Eternals share as well which makes her stand out less. Ironic, considering her comic counterpart is among the most fleshed-out of the Eternals.

* MisBlamed: An early review severely misrepresented the scene where Phastos regrets helping human technology evolve due to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, giving the impression that the film presented him as being ''personally responsible'' for the bombings, which naturally led to a ton of outrage over the first gay hero in an MCU movie being presented that way. In the movie proper, Phastos is distraught at their use, but he doesn't claim personal responsibility on these attacks.

* PresumedFlop: Its comparatively poor reviews have led to some assumptions that it also flopped at the box-office. While the film's gross of $400m is definitely on the lower end of things by the MCU's standards, and a bit less than than the preceding and lower-budgeted ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'' earned, it ''was'' just about enough to cover this film's $200m budget, even before any home media release came into play. The only real failing of the film (and ''Shang Chi'') was that it wasn't able to earn enough money to overcome the loss made by ''Film/BlackWidow2021'', which did prove an outright BoxOfficeBomb.[[note]](Even then, only after both the cost of the advertising campaign for its originally-planned 2020 release and a lawsuit by Creator/ScarlettJohansson against Disney were weighted against its budget)[[/note]]

*** A another gigantic being exists! This one emerges out of the ocean and is named after a dragon/serpent like deity from Asian Myths (Tiamut named after the Iraqi/West Asian Goddess Tiamat and Vlitra named after the Indian/South Asian Danava Vritra)

** The MCU Eternal's plot have striking similarities to the Capcom VideoGame Asura's Wrath.

** The planet-sized scale of the Celestials got many comparisons to [[Franchise/Transformers Unicron]], especially after the character's appearance in ''Film/TransformersRiseOfTheBeasts''.

** [[BlatantLies "Kingo dies."]]/Kingoposting[[labelnote:Explanation]]A fake spoiler for Kingo meant to mock overzealous MCU fans who reacted harshly towards perceived spoilers, such as John Campea's [[https://twitter.com/johncampea/status/1450468379094028299 tweet]] stating that [[DisproportionateRetribution any press member who spoils a movie before its release should pay a $1 million dollar fine]]. This soon morphed into an ironic fandom surrounding Kingo, complete with posts acting like he was real person who died an untimely death.[[/labelnote]]

** As stated in the AuthorsSavingThrow entry above, Disney refused to cut the scenes of Phastos with his husband, which was seen as a step forward in LGBT representation. Then, in March 2022, Disney remained neutral for Florida's "Don't say gay" bill. While the company has publicly changed its views after an ''extremely'' vocal backlash from fans, the fact that they made no move to oppose it on their own makes their efforts to keep Ben and Jack in the film ring hollow.

* HarsherInHindsight: As stated in the AuthorsSavingThrow entry above, Disney refused to cut the scenes of Phastos with his husband, which was seen as a step forward in LGBT representation. Then, in March 2022, Disney remained neutral for Florida's "Don't say gay" bill. While the company has publicly changed its views after an ''extremely'' vocal backlash from fans, the fact that they made no move to oppose it on their own makes their efforts to keep Ben and Jack in the film ring hollow.

* SignatureScene: The absolutely enormous Arishem appearing before Earth in all his terrifying glory as he takes the remaining Earth-based Eternals.

** At Babylon, Gilgamesh fights a Deviant in the form of a bull. Gilgamesh's myth has him fight the Bull of Heaven.

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: The film has Earth, and everyone on it, at stake with the Celestial Tiamut's birth threatening the entire planet [[EarthShatteringKaboom with destruction]] if it's not stopped. However, considering ''Series/{{Loki|2021}}'' shows that both Earth and humanity are still around in 2055, which takes place after this film's events, and that more films and shows were set to be released, the Eternals saving the planet ends up feeling more like a ForegoneConclusion.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Shares a [[BaseBreakingCharacter/MarvelCinematicUniverse page with the rest of the franchise]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Sprite. She is either a complex and tragic character, whose inability to age and unrequited love for Ikaris makes her interesting to watch. Or she's a whiny, immature brat who abandons her team for selfish reasons.
** Kingo is seen as either the most entertaining member of the Eternals or an unfunny douchebag whose non-involvement in the third act makes him a pointless character in the film.
** Kingo's valet Karun Patel also is a very contentious character. Either he's a genuinely humorous and sweet person whose presence gives a much-needed human perspective for the Eternals as a whole, or he's an annoying, unfunny character who has no story-relevant reason to tag along with the group after Kingo officially joins the group.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: As anyone familiar with Creator/RichardMadden and Creator/KitHarington's [[Series/GameOfThrones past of playing brothers]] can tell you, Ikaris and Dane look quite similar. While Sersi's feelings for Dane certainly feel genuine, with his [[DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest likeness]] to her OldFlame Ikaris in mind, it can be theorized that she was partially drawn to him because of this.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** Some people were a little turned off at the casting of Music/HarryStyles as Eros/Starfox in the film's first Stinger. This is in part due to how bizarre the idea of Music/OneDirection’s former frontman being the biological brother of Thanos is, but also due to the FridgeHorror around him playing a character who is notorious in the comics for using [[EmotionControl his powers]] to have sexual escapades with women on many occasions, essentially committing an empathic version of date rape (and which was the subject of a ''ComicBook/SheHulk'' storyline).
** Many Indian fans also raised their eyebrows at Kumail Nanjiani's portrayal of Kingo, as the character's modern day cover is a Bollywood actor, while Nanjiani himself is of Pakistani descent. Becomes HilariousInHindsight when Farhan Akhtar, an actual Bollywood star from India, played Waleed, a Pakistani character, in ''Series/MsMarvel2022''.

* SignatureScene: The absolutely enormous Arishem appearing before Earth in all his terrifying glory.

** In the stinger, Eros -- pretty much the embodiment of QuestionableConsent in the comics thanks to [[LivingAphrodisiac his powers]] -- appears played by Creator/HarryStyles. One has to wonder if [[Film/DontWorryDarling the next character Harry played]] would have found those powers useful for his own goals.

** Amazed Creator/KevinFeige[[labelnote:Explanation]]While doing a press junket for this film, Feige gave much praise to Creator/ChloeZhao's willingness to [[DoingItForTheArt film scenes on-location rather than at Marvel's studios in]] UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}. This caused many fans online to joke about Feige being awestruck at things such as real-life grass, waterfalls, or sunsets due to shooting a majority of their scenes behind green screen.[[/labelnote]]

** Thena wears a golden suit and generally wields spears in combat. Thena is associated with the color gold and one of her symbols is the spear.

** Due to the inclusion of Phastos, the first official gay superhero in an MCU film. It helps that his sexuality is treated as completely normal, to the point where nobody ever questions it, he averts almost all the negative stereotypes for about homosexuals.

* AssPull: [[spoiler:The Uni-Mind is explicitly stated to be due to Phastos's technology made after Ikaris left the main group. However, when the time comes to fully use it, he somehow manages to not only know how it works, but also to use it at all, despite not having the same technology himself.]]

** Sprite. She is either a complex and tragic character, whose inability to age and unrequited love for [[spoiler: Ikaris]] makes her interesting to watch. Or she's a whiny, immature brat who abandons her team for selfish reasons.
** Kingo is seen as either the most entertaining member of the Eternals or an unfunny douchebag whose [[spoiler:non-involvement]] in the third act makes him a pointless character in the film.

** Druig is also pretty far down the list of Eternals in terms of screen time, in addition to movie promos and comicbook canon [[spoiler: implying he would be a traitor/villain]], but he too is a fan favourite, largely due to his chemistry with Makkari and some great DeadpanSnarker moments.

** [[spoiler: Ikaris flying into the sun as a form of suicide is a tribute to the legend of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun on artificial wings and damaged them, causing him to suffer a fatal fall.]]

** Franchise/{{Batman}} and Alfred are briefly name-dropped here. Then Creator/BarryKeoghan [[spoiler:appeared as ComicBook/TheJoker in ''Film/TheBatman2022''.]]
** [[spoiler:In the stinger, Eros -- pretty much the embodiment of QuestionableConsent in the comics thanks to [[LivingAphrodisiac his powers]] -- appears played by Creator/HarryStyles. One has to wonder if [[Film/DontWorryDarling the next character Harry played]] would have found those powers useful for his own goals.]]

** After being involved for most of the film up to that point, Kingo sits out the climax in its entirety. His exiting scene seems to be setting him up to pull off a ChangedMyMindKid moment, but it is instead a compromise reaction to a crisis of faith vs. family and they stay absent from the climax.

* UncertainAudience: Some reviewers have noted that the movie tonally clashes and suffers in its pacing because it's trying to be slower and more pensive than most other Marvel movies, while still playing most of the traditional Marvel tropes (snarky comedic dialogue, big CGI fights) completely straight. Richard Newby of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' suggested that the divisive nature of Creator/JackKirby's work and the film's tone, which is similar to equally divisive works ''Film/ManOfSteel'' and ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', lead to the odd feeling and harsher reviews.

** Phastos nuked Japan.[[labelnote:Explanation]]One of the early reviews for the film pointed out that the shot of the mushroom cloud seen in the trailer is tied to a scene where Phastos feels responsible and guilty for giving humans enough knowledge to make the atomic bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A number of people expressed disbelief that this scene was real. This led to misinformation that Phastos dropped the bomb himself, while outrage also spread over the optics of Marvel making its first openly gay hero the cause of a massive historical tragedy, or for using the tragedy in question as a part of someone's character arc in the first place. It even led to ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' director Creator/JamesGunn clarifying details about Marvel's relationship with the U.S. military after a prominent Twitter personality alleged the scene and the film were BackedByThePentagon. This moment led to snowclones from other users claiming that the Eternals were responsible for other real-life tragedies, while the "Be Gay, Do War Crimes" joke saw a bit of a resurgence.[[/labelnote]]

* JustHereForGodzilla: Arishem is usually often put as the main reason why people decided to watch the movie. His overarching prescence and his possible meaning for the [=MCU=]'s future in storytelling, as well as his VisualEffectsOfAwesome everytime he appears, he's usually the most memorable part of the film.