November 5th saw Marvel Studios release their much-anticipated, horizon-expanding cosmic caper Eternals in theatres worldwide. Be it for its grand scale, breathtaking visuals, star-studded cast, or oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, Eternals had been hyped beyond measure ever since its announcement. It was widely expected to further expand the MCU to even grander and weirder heights.
With a solid 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it is clear that the movie was well-received by MCU fans and casual moviegoers alike. That being said, nothing on the internet is safe from the meme army, and Eternals is no exception.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
8 Phastos The Builder
Every member of the Eternals possesses their own unique set of abilities. Phastos, the inventor of the group, has been responsible for advancing humankind and their technological prowess slowly and steadily over the centuries. Guiding and progressing mankind’s societal development, Phastos was shown to have come up with a steam engine for humans roughly 4,000 years before its actual invention at the end of the 17th century.
With the Eternals’ leader Ajak instructing Phastos to calm down and invent something simpler for the humans of their era, a dejected Phastos reluctantly builds the agricultural plow for humankind.
7 Karun Patel, Cinematographer
Somewhere around the halfway point of the movie, the Eternals go deep into the Amazon rainforest to reunite with their fellow Eternal, Druig. The team is soon ambushed by a pack of Deviants, the sworn enemies of the Eternals.
While the team struggles to fight the Deviants while also protecting the hordes of humans present there, Kingo’s valet, the beloved Karun Patel, hops from cover to cover to get some epic shots of the Eternals fighting the Deviants for the documentary he’s been instructed to shoot, unafraid of the dangers around him. That is one tenacious cinematographer.
6 Kingo, More Like Kingone
Kingo, played by Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani, has the power to shoot cosmic energy projections from his hands and fingertips. One of the most powerful members of the team, it came as a surprise when the Eternal, who, up until then, was adored by audiences, decides to leave his fellow members right before the final battle, owing to his "conflicting beliefs" about the right course of action.
In hindsight, this was certainly weird. Kingo, being a famed Bollywood star, definitely had the most to lose if the world did indeed end. But hey, at least the memes are good, right?
5 Feige, The Real Boss
Perhaps the one question that has been on everybody's minds since the very announcement of Eternals is why they never bothered to help humanity in their fight against Thanos. After all, explaining absences in previous events is probably the most difficult task when it comes to adding newer characters into an already-established universe.
While Eternals cleverly excuses its characters for their absence in the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, it raises more questions than it answers. But fans all know the real reason they’ve been absent up until now: money. That's about it.
4 No. Capes.
When lead Eternals Ikaris and Sersi go meet Phastos in the hopes of making him come out of his self-imposed exile, they first meet Phastos' husband, Ben, and son, Jack. As young as Jack is, he sure knows his way around a phone, as he immediately recognizes Ikaris from the events of the first act, which were recorded and became viral on the internet.
Jack calls Ikaris by the name of a very popular hero from another universe, Superman. Ikaris, instead of denying it outright, simply points out that he doesn’t wear a cape. One clever meme explaining this exchange assumes that Ikaris met Edna, the resident costume designer for superheroes from the Incredibles movies, who is infamous for her hatred against capes in costumes due to the dangers they can pose. There’s one crossover we would love to see!
3 The Eternals? In Central Perk?
Again, retroactive continuity really only helps to a point – adding new characters in a universe where world-ending events have already taken place is surely a bit of a tough task. Take, for example, Captain Marvel – she had to argue that she was off-planet helping out other worlds during the events of every movie before Avengers: Endgame.
The same is to be said for the Eternals. Apparently instructed not to interfere in human conflicts unless deviants are involved, the Eternals sure have let a lot of damage happen to the planet while abiding by their instructions. Nevertheless, the people of the internet aren't going to forget it easily.
2 We Really Never Saw That Coming
In a surprise twist right before the third act, Ikaris (played by Richard Madden) is revealed to be the real antagonist of the movie, having sabotaged the Eternals up until then on many occasions.
While audiences cheered for the amazing display of Ikaris’ powers up until then, it sure filled them with dismay seeing the rest of the Eternals struggling to restrain him even with their combined powers.
1 The "Eternal" Struggle
It is a tale as old as time – the eternal battle between critics and audience ratings. While Eternals became the lowest-rated movie across the MCU’s entire lineup, it boasts a stellar audience score, sitting pretty at 80%.
In the end, it is up to viewers to decide whether they liked this new direction the MCU took, and so far, they’ve made their positive voices heard. It remains to be seen if Eternals will get a sequel now, or if the powers that be at Marvel decide that this was a one-off venture away from the usual crop of MCU outings.