Marvel’s Eternals has arguably the riskiest road to success. A group of super-powered individuals without recognizable faces like Captain America or Iron Man requires a lot of faith on the part of the audience. Not since Guardians of the Galaxy has Marvel bet so big on a project with such a large cast and massive stakes within the MCU. But by and large Eternals works – establishing a new group of heroes that are worth learning more about, even if it feels a bit bloated.

Sent to Earth thousands of years ago, the Eternals are meant to protect civilization from a race of monsters called Deviants. While many of the Eternal’s powers are offensive in nature – Ikaris (Richard Madden) can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes, for example – some of them are capable of radically changing the trajectory of human history if they intervene too directly. And up until around 1500, when their work is done and the Deviants are thought defeated, the Eternals flourished as a team, building bonds between each other and developing a genuine affection for the human race. From there, the group separates to live lives of their own, some together and others apart.

Richard Madden as Ikaris using his laser eyes in Eternals

By juxtaposing their modern lives with significant historical periods like Babylon, The Eternals does its best to establish a rich history for these characters. And as the team rallies back together to stop a new threat, they face some of the decisions they made as a group and in the time since. It is this “building the team” concept that Marvel tends to do so well and while The Eternals can be overwhelming with how many characters there are, it still works overall. Some characters, like Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo provide fun comic relief, while others, like Ma Dong-seok's Gilgamesh create the heart that runs through this group and shows just how close they once were.

Eternals

Eternals is at its best when the audience is piecing together how this united group became divided. But as they come back together and the greater plot starts to reveal itself, some of that momentum is lost. In typical Marvel fashion, there is heavy use of CGI in the action sequences, and while the Eternal's abilities lend to some clever fight scenes, it’s still a lot of visual effects mashing against each other. At this point, there isn’t a lot that Marvel fans haven’t already seen on screen.

There really is a lot to cover for The Eternals, both in establishing some deep Marvel lore that is only hinted at in past films and highlighting this group that should be a centerpiece of the MCU moving forward. Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao knows how to develop characters on screen, but she was given the monumental task of introducing so many and trying to make them all memorable. For what it is, though, Eternals feels like a different flavor of a familiar setup for Marvel and that alone makes it worth the investment.MORE: Is Marvel Downplaying Eternals Already?