10 Recent Movies Ruined By Unrealistic Expectations

Though there have been MCU movies saddled with more crowd-pleasing expectations than Eternals, perhaps no other MCU film has invited quite such lofty anticipation from fans.

When it was announced that celebrated filmmaker Chloé Zhao had been hired as both director and co-writer, the film world was excited to see what a world-class "arthouse" director could bring to the MCU.

This excitement only snowballed once Zhao won the Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Nomadland prior to Eternals' release, mere days after Kevin Feige jokingly suggested that Eternals would win Best Picture in 2022.

And indeed, there was genuine belief that Eternals would be the second MCU film to receive a Best Picture nomination after Black Panther, that a filmmaker of Zhao's caliber would bring an uncommon level of artistry and depth to a superhero movie.

Yet let's be honest - Black Panther was an epochal, once-in-a-generation superhero film and a major step forward for blockbuster representation, as well as being a film with something to say about the world around us.

Eternals, for its merits, was always going to struggle to generate the same groundswell, and yet, the world was left shocked when it released to wildly polarised opinion from critics and fans alike.

It's tough to separate the lukewarm reception from the wildly overinflated pre-release expectations, that Eternals would be the film to confirm the artfulness of the MCU, when in fact it was an ambitious if massively uneven tentpole.