The Eternals (2021) Movie Review
I was sincerely excited to see The Eternals. Marvel movies are a guilty pleasure of mine and they had tapped one of my favorite directors, Chloe Zhao, to be at the helm of the newest Marvel flick. The beginning of this movie already departs from the traditional Marvel structure. We’re greeted with text, explaining the difference between celestials and eternals. There is admittedly a lot of backstory infused in this movie, some of it is interesting and some of it is kind of boring.
The gist of it is the Eternals were brought to Earth long ago and have participated in almost every major historical event dating back to ancient times in an attempt to protect humans from monsters called Deviants. We are introduced to each member and their powers: Sersi (Gemma Chan) can manipulate elements, Ikaris (Richard Madden) can fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes, Ajak (Salma Hayek) has healing powers, Sprite (Lia McHugh) can create illusions, Druig (Barry Keoghan) has telepathic abilities, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) creates cosmic blasts with his hands, Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok) has super strength, Thena (Angelina Jolie) can conjure weaponry, Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) is a cosmic technology whiz, and Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) has super speed.
The movie flits between past and present showing the Eternals at every stage of human history. Their task is to protect the humans from monsters called Deviants, who attack humans at every turn. Eventually, the group has disagreements about their role on Earth. This causes a rift between them all and they disperse. If you were around the same people for 5,000 years, it’s likely you’d get sick of them too so it makes sense. But luckily the Deviants have all been defeated so there’s relative harmony on Earth and the Eternals aren’t needed anymore. The anchor of the rest of the story is Sersi. When Deviants show up in London where she lives and works, she begins tracking down the other Eternals to try to figure out what’s happening and why the Deviants have resurfaced. That is a gross oversimplification of what goes on for the remainder of the movie but that’s the basic plot.
The Eternals is chock full of talented actors and is helmed by an amazing director, but unfortunately the movie still falls a little short. There is a lot of backstory going on and it takes away from the present day story. The backstory could have been interesting as it touches on major points in history, but it feels rushed and exposition heavy. Plus there’s the emergence of the Celestial which reminded me of a Transformer and seemed a little hokey. The acting felt a bit stilted and much of the cast seemed to lack the easy chemistry that the other Marvel movie cast members have together. The jokes didn’t land right and it felt like they were all trying a little too hard. Anglina Jolie had no chemistry whatsoever with her on screen partner Ma Dong-seok and they are supposed to be romantically entangled. Gemma Chan and Richard Madden were the best of the bunch but even some scenes with them felt forced. Kumail Nanjiani provided most of the comic relief and was reliably good but he didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the energy of his cast mates.
The Eternals clocks in at two hours and thirty-six minutes and not in a good way. I was ready for the story to be wrapped up at about the ninety minute mark. But instead it drags on and on with a story that lacks the zest and zeal to make you care about getting to the end. This is a different take on the superhero genre and while I admire the attempt to do something unique, Zhao’s indelible mark is absent from the movie. That’s a shame because I think Zhao’s filmmaking style could have been a welcome departure for a Marvel movie. The Eternals is far from being a terrible movie, it’s just not as good as I’d hoped.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like movies with a lot of exposition and back story
2. You want to see all of the MCU movies
3. You like complex storylines with many characters
