Eternally rotten
With just two days to go before its theatrical release, Eternals is now Marvel Studio's most critically derided film to date. It's the first to be certified rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, beating the previous worst performer—Thor: The Dark World has a rating of 66%—by a considerable margin. Even some reviews that rated it fresh were hardly fulsome in their praise.
The film's supporters cried foul over review-bombing on IMDb, while conveniently overlooking the more prevalent review-boosting. It seems that the fanboiz and h8rz have been scoring points against each other, without actually having seen the film yet. And the stans have been busier by roughly 2:1.
But the RT critics' score comes from named, (semi‑)professional critics, not internet trolls.* Even those who've given Marvel an easy ride in the past, have been quite derisive of the latest entry into the MCU. It's not that critics' opinions are a faultless barometer of good and bad, they're not; but the lack of enthusiasm, compared to previous entries, is unexpected.
The most common complaint seems to be that it commits the cardinal sins of being boring, incoherent, and confusing. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm boycotting Disney completely, I'd be tempted to watch it, just to see if it really is as bad as all that.
Hang on though; runtime 157 minutes? Perhaps not. After all, car crash curiosity only goes so far.
* This leaves aside the question as to how/if RT manipulates the ratings in favour of studios. Unless Disney has removed financial or equitable support to RT or its shills, any undue influences
should be internally consistent.
This comment, in a review by one of RT's top critics, amused me:
Large parts of Chloé Zhao’s film find the impressively starry cast…sitting in dark rooms discussing the film’s gimcrack theology. If they weren’t dressed like members of Earth Wind & Fire you could be forgiven for thinking you were watching a left-wing book group in a trendier corner of Portland. “Just relax and have fun,” critics of Marvel are often told. I would if I could, darling.
Donald Clarke, Eternals: Po-faced superhero entertainment, The Irish Times