Movie Review: ‘Eternals’

Review by James Lindorf

Seven Thousand years ago, Arishem, the leader of the Celestials, sent a team of heroes known as the Eternals to earth. Their mission was to protect its inhabitants from the Deviants, an intergalactic race of monsters that kill every living thing on a planet before moving on. In the years between conflicts with the Deviants, the Eternals would gently shepherd humans towards a brighter future by giving them a helpful tool. They never gave us more than we could handle and would never get directly involved with conflicts no matter their scale. After defeating the last Deviant, the team went separate ways awaiting the call home to Olympia. But now, an unexpected tragedy and the reappearance of the Deviants forces them out of the shadows to save the world once again. Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” opens in theaters everywhere on November 5th.

The Eternals are composed of 10 members, each with a unique special ability to help protect or advance humanity. Sersi (Gemma Chan) can transmute any non-sentient item into anything she wants. Ikaris (Richard Madden) is super strong, has the power of flight, and can shoot lasers out of his eyes. He is basically all Superman and no Clark Kent. Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) can fire energy blasts of varying sizes from his hands if he has the time to charge up. Sprite (Lia McHugh) uses her ability to cast illusions to confuse enemies and create legends. Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) is super intelligent and can control some forms of technology. Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) is the team’s speedster and focuses on quick rescues but can generate devastating sonic booms. Druig (Barry Keoghan) has his mind control powers. Gilgamesh (Don Lee) was granted super strength even more remarkable than Ikaris’. Thena (Angelina Jolie), their most skilled warrior, can summon weapons from thin air. Their leader known as the “Prime Eternal” and possessing the power to heal almost any wound is Ajak (Salma Hayek). Zhao uses each of these gods as the embodiment of an element that makes us human. Kind of like the Planeteers to Captain Planet. It is about punching and kicking monsters with themes of love, fear, frustration, jealousy, hope, and courage at its core. Zhao turns a mirror on the audience and says, all of these things are in you, now will you choose to be great or give in to one emotion and let it tear you apart.

Did that feel like a lot? It felt like a lot writing it, and it felt like a lot watching the movie. “Eternals” is the most beautiful and inspiring movie in the MCU when it comes to inclusion. There is something for nearly everyone as the Eternals include Asian, white, black, Mexican, Indian, and bi-racial actors. One of them is a kid, another is gay, and we get our first deaf superhero Makkari. While “Eternals” gives almost everyone someone to connect with on a surface level, the writing goes beyond that. By offering so many distinct personalities, there may be someone else you can bond with on a deeper level. Zhao, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo, who worked together on the script, should be recognized for not falling into the stereotype trap and giving us characters anyone can identify.

As socially amazing and personally fulfilling as the cast may be for audience goers, it is also the biggest problem with “Eternals.” Even clocking in as the second-longest MCU movie to date, there simply isn’t enough time to give each character their due. We have our main group of Sersi, Ikaris, and Sprite, who are involved from the beginning and have a role to play in the climax. Then there is the second-tier group, including Kingo, Phastos, and Druig; they are crucial to the outcome or help keep the film balanced tonally. The last group of Makkari, Gilgamesh, Thena, and Ajak could have and maybe should have been cut. That hurts me to say about Makkari because she is undoubtedly the best representation of a superfast character in live-action film and television history. Ajak would be hard to remove as the leader because her actions set everything in motion. That leaves Gilgamesh and Thena, whose most significant contribution to the story is a pep talk and a few jokes about beer fermented with spit. Yes, it is a real thing. They have a good presence but bring nothing to the story. Cutting them would have reduced the total runtime or allowed that time to be allocated to another character. There is also a villain floating about that could have used a lot more development as well. The leader of the Deviants is one of the most interesting-looking and potentially dangerous villains in the MCU, and it is entirely useless.

The large cast and the refusal to do the “getting the team together montage” means that nearly every time we meet a character, we get a flashback. That way, we can learn about who they were and how they ended up here. It is brutal for the pacing of the movie with its repetitive nature, and it makes you feel the 2 hour and 37-minute runtime. The numerous trips to the past take us to a pillar of human civilization, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Tenochtitlan, and we get their modern-day equivalents in Mumbai, London, and South Dakota. The most useless of the flashbacks is the one centered on the relationship between Sersi and Ikaris. When Sersi tells her current boyfriend, Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), that she was with Ikaris for thousands of years, we know they were in love, that they had sex, and parted ways. We don’t need to see Ikaris working up the courage to tell her he has a crush, and we don’t need to see a PG sex scene that adds nothing to the plot or emotional connection.

Technically, “Eternals” is excellent. Zhao is a strong director who maintains control and creates a unified product despite the large cast and vast story. You can see why she would be capable of winning an Oscar at the helm of a smaller project. The acting is good all around, but nothing that will particularly move you. The cinematography is fantastic in how it captures the beauty of their natural and CGI locations and how they film the action. It is inventive and varied, and enjoyable from beginning to end. The action is what puts Makkari a step ahead of all other speedsters. The only part of the action that gets a little old is Ikaris’ reliance on his eye lasers, which I would probably be guilty of too. The music does its job of supporting what we are watching and doesn’t call attention to itself by being bad or not fitting the moment. “Eternals” suffers from being overcrowded, which resulted in an unsatisfying pace. Still, the good elements keep pulling you back in. After tallying all the good and harmful ingredients, “Eternals” ends up near the top of the second tier of MCU movies for me and scores a 3.75 out of 5. With all the potential in the world, the sequel has a chance of being one of the very best things the MCU has generated.

Rating: PG-13 (Fantasy Violence and Action|Brief Sexuality|Some Language)
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Action
Original Language: English
Director: Chloé Zhao
Producer: Kevin Feige, Nate Moore
Writer: Chloé Zhao, Ryan Firpo, Kaz Firpo
Release Date (Theaters): November 5th, 2021
Runtime: 2h 37m