Marvel’s Eternals, which features a gay superhero, is being review-bombed just a week before it hits theaters.
Eternals centers on a race of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly existed on Earth for thousands of years. The main cast includes Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kumail Nanjiani, Harish Patel, Barry Keoghan, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan and Brian Tyree Henry.
Henry plays Phastos, an “Eternal” who married another man and had a child. The film marks Marvel’s first ever film featuring an openly gay character and anticipation has been high among the LGBTQ+ community. A queer kiss scene is also said to be included in the film.
But angry Marvel fans have taken to the IMDb reviews page to protest the film’s LGBTQ+ representation. The Direct reported that around 450 one-star reviews were posted to the Eternals page, before subsequently being removed by IMDb.
Pink News included a round-up of some of the now-deleted reviews, with one person writing: “If woke and mediocre would be given a medal, this would win. C’mon Marvel, this was cheap even for you.”
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Another said Marvel was simply trying to “tick all the Hollywood woke boxes,” by including LGBTQ+ representation.
The same reviewer added: “Totally unrecognisable from the comics. Don’t waste your money, it’s not worth it.”
IMDb removed the negative reviews on the basis that most of the reviews had not seen the movie, and seemed only concerned with the addition of a queer character.
In terms of reviews from actual movie critics, Rolling Stone called the film “boring” in a new review and The New York Post dubbed it as one of Marvel’s “worst films so far.” The Seattle Times hailed Eternals as a “different kind of superhero movie that lingers long after you leave the theater.”
Eternals premieres November 5th.
