Eternals Review: Wonderfully shot superhero epic almost bites off more than it can chew

Fresh off her Oscar-winning directorial work on Nomadland, Chloé Zhao enters the MCU with Eternals. With Zhao at the reins, Eternals is a film that feels tonally and story-wise mostly disconnected from the interconnected Marvel films we’ve seen to date. A general audience member could walk into a theater, watch this film and have no idea it’s a comic book film. The disconnection is both the film’s biggest strength and weakness.

The performances across the board are outstanding. Unfortunately, even with the film’s nearly 3-hour runtime, some of the most promising characters are shortchanged. The quality of Angelina Jolie‘s acting in this film is in a different stratosphere compared to the rest of the MCU. Her character, Thina, has the most trauma and strain out of any of the Eternals. Jolie makes you feel every ounce of anguish. However, the film struggles with balancing the story of 11 Eternals. Thina is one of the many characters that fade into the background far too often during the film. The same goes for just about every character with the exception of Sersi played by Gemma Chan. Chan is outstanding as the one member of the Eternals who loves humanity the most.

Eternals struggles to handle the weight of its lofty story. The film tackles the age-old dilemma of free will vs predestination. Can we only reach the heights bestowed by a being who created us? If the one who created us gives us an order, should we or can we break out of it? It’s through this dilemma that separates the Eternals.

In Eternals, the Deviants are disappointing CGI villains in the same vein as the Chitauri from Avengers. They exist to be destroyed by the Eternals and pretty much serve as cannon fodder. There is an attempt later in the movie to flesh them out, but it’s too little too late. Action scenes are competent, but with the exception of Makkari’s speed effects, there’s nothing spectacular.

The film was shot on location and you can tell. Cinematographer Ben Davis and Zhao have crafted one of the most unique-looking MCU entries. The use of natural light and diverse locations really helps the movie set itself apart.

Performances, direction, epic scope and score by Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi makes Eternals a solid entry that sets a divergent direction for the MCU. However, the lack of quality villains, depth for almost all of the characters and connection to the MCU places the film below Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.

With the overview out of the way, let’s dive into the thinkers and warriors known as Eternals. There will be some minor spoilers. 

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Introducing the Eternals

The Eternals are led by Ajak played by Salma Hayek. She is the only member of the team at the beginning of the film who can directly communicate with the celestials. Ajak has the ability to heal herself. She is the one who decrees that The Eternals can live among humans but can’t interfere. They can’t prevent war, advance technology or change humanity’s way of think.

Sersi has the ability to transform any object, except for a living being. She can transform a rock into water or a car into a shower of flowers. Out of all the other characters, she is the most connected to humanity. Her relationship with Dane played by Kit Harrington is a lovely example of her connection to humanity. Ikaris, played by Richard Madden is essentially Superman. He can fire beams from his eyes, fly and super strength. He and Sersi shared a romance that lasted centuries. Ikaris is the strongest of the Eternals.

Thena (Jolie) is the best warrior out of the Eternals and also happens to be the most vulnerable. She suffers from Mahd W’yry a disease that overwhelms the mind with memories. Gilgamesh played Ma Dong-seok is my favorite character in Eternals. As for his powers, let’s just say he has heavy hands. His loyalty to Thena provides the film’s biggest source of heart.

Kumail Nanjiani is Kingo. A fighter who can create energy blasts with his hands. In the present day, Kingo is a successfully Bollywood actor and serves as the film’s main source of comedy.

Sprite played by Lia McHugh is the youngest member of the Eternals in appearance. Eternals can’t age and Sprite has the appearance of a child. Her inability to grow and unrequited love for one of the Eternals is a big source of conflict. Sprite can create illusions. She can duplicate the appearance of a person or even make people disappear.

Brian Tyree Henry is phenomenal as Phastos. He’s the scientist and engineer of the group. In the present day, he’s in a happy marriage to his husband and has a son. Out of all the Eternals, he has the most to lose.

Lauren Ridloff is a revelation as Makkari. A deaf speedster who is able to generate a full range of emotions with a simple gesture. Her friendship with Druig played by Barry Keoghan is wonderful, whenever the film decides to pay any attention to it, which is seldom. Druig essentially has the same powers as Professor Xavier. He can control any human’s mind. More than any other character, Druig struggles the most with interfering on the behalf of humanity. He can stop any war from happening, but should he is the crux of his character.

Unfortunately, the humor provided largely by Nanjiani and Henry doesn’t fit the solemn natures of the story.

Celestial Interference

Each of the Eternals was created by a Celestial with a specific purpose in mind to protect Earth from the Deviants. Outside of stopping these CGI creatures, The Eternals can live amongst humans, but can’t interfere.

Some of the Eternals believe they should continue to carry out the Celestial’s orders. Once they understand the Celestial’s plan, other members decide to try and prevent the Celestial’s plan for humanity. Some of the members, like Phastos lose their faith in humanity and only to find something worth fighting for. Ajak is the most unique as she slowly falls in love with humanity, which is a cool character progression. However, we never actually see this take place on the screen. She simply tells Ikaris and since Hayek is so good in this role, I do believe the change, but would have liked to see this happen on-screen. Hayek is probably the most underutilized in the cast.

The character interactions work much better in the one-on-one or smaller scenes than those involving the whole team. Despite some resistance, The Avengers, eventually choose to work together. With the Eternals, there is no such bonding period or smoothing of rough edges. They show up on Earth, defeat some Deviants and are accepted by humanity. Then the group breaks up several hundred years later due to issues with Athina and Druig’s struggle with allowing humanity to fail. Perhaps if the setup was better, then perhaps the team scenes would work better.

The Deviants

Eternals attempts to tell this epic, lofty story mostly succeeds. However, none of the action scenes stir up any emotional context whatsoever due to the forgettable CGI villains. The film wisely switches up villains in the 3rd act. This Eternal’s act of betrayal seems rather obvious, but the payoff and where the film goes once the person’s identity is revealed is solid enough.

Eternals Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Eternals simply has too many characters to introduce at once. Each of these actors brings so much nuance to these characters that it seems wasted when one of them is offscreen for long periods of time. Perhaps if the film had focused on 5 or 6 members it could have knocked this epic, unique and necessary story out of the park.

Chan is a wonderful protagonist throughout. Jolie, Ridloff and Dong-saek are the standouts but are left in the background far too often. Hayek and Harrington are underused in the film to a shocking degree. Harrington is such a breath of fresh air in this film. It’s a shame he’s rarely on screen. However, this film is merely a setup for his character and it works well enough.

Despite those issues as well as undeveloped villains and underwhelming actions scenes, Eternals is unique and in many ways the most interesting film in the MCU pantheon. The way the film ends opens up many possibilities. You could connect some of the Eternals team to the main MCU or let it exist on its own.

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