‘Eternals’ Has Marvel’s Lowest Score Ever on Rotten Tomatoes
My own review of Eternals was not positive. (“If Eternals isn’t the worst film Marvel Studios has ever produced, that’s only because The Incredible Hulk is an even bigger mess,” read the final line.) But that’s just one opinion among the dozens or even hundreds of critics on sites like Rotten Tomatoes. And many of those other critics have given the film positive reviews.
Still, with just under 100 reviews for the film now on the site, Eternals’ Rotten Tomatoes score now stands at 63. If that holds, it would make it the worst-reviewed movie in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, dethroning the longtime record-holder Thor: The Dark World, which has a barely “fresh” score of 66. (The Incredible Hulk, which is arguably even worse than Dark World, has a 67.)
Here is how every MCU movie ranks at present:
- Black Panther - 96
- Avengers: Endgame - 94
- Iron Man - 94
- Thor: Ragnarok - 93
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - 92
- Spider-Man: Homecoming - 92
- Guardians of the Galaxy - 92
- The Avengers - 91
- Spider-Man: Far From Home - 90
- Captain America: Civil War - 90
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 90
- Doctor Strange - 89
- Ant-Man and the Wasp - 87
- Avengers: Infinity War - 85
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - 85
- Ant-Man - 83
- Captain America: The First Avenger - 80
- Black Widow - 79
- Captain Marvel - 79
- Iron Man 3 - 79
- Thor - 77
- Avengers: Age of Ultron - 76
- Iron Man 2 - 72
- The Incredible Hulk - 67
- Thor: The Dark World - 66
- Eternals - 63
Although review scores for these kind of blockbusters tend to start very high and trend slowly downward as more and more pieces get written, it’s possible that Eternals could get enough positive reviews between now and next week to bump it up past Thor: The Dark World and maybe another couple movies. But realistically, it’s all but certain that the film will remain one of the five worst-reviewed Marvel movies on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s a genuinely surprising outcome, given that the film was directed by recent Oscar winner and critical favorite, Chloe Zhao, and features an impressive cast that includes Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kumail Nanjiani. It’s also a big disappointment (at least to me; I was really looking forward to it).
Eternals opens in theaters on November 5. You can read my full review of the film here.