Synopsis

Earth becomes a battlefield for yet another group of cosmic superbeings in Chloé Zhao’s Eternals. Early on we learn that the Eternals are a group of ten heroes hailing from the planet Olympia who have been sent by the Celestials – think literal masters of the universe – to protect humanity from the Deviants – think giant black scary spaghetti monsters. The only caveat to the Eternals’ mission is unless Deviants are involved, they’re explicitly forbidden from interfering in human affairs. While they accomplish their mission and kill all the Deviants, their conflicting beliefs over their duty – or lack thereof – to humanity eventually drives the Eternals apart. Cut ~7000 years later to the modern-day, and the Eternal Sersi (Gemma Chan) is spending her days as a teacher in England, with fellow Eternal Sprite (Lia McHugh) and plain ol’ boyfriend Dane Whitman (Kit Harington). But after an almost deadly encounter with a Deviant, Sersi and Sprite realize they’ll have to reunite with the rest of the Eternals if they hope to determine the reason for this new threat and stop it.

Analysis

Eternals has several unique elements that help set it apart from most MCU films. For one, it has a very striking visual style. Numerous shots of sweeping vistas give the movie a majestic and serene look, and natural lighting and good framing make each scene appear organic. I enjoyed how the Eternals’ powers were a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, in the way that intricate holographic displays worked in tandem with energy blasts and hard-light swords. I was also a big fan of how the design of large objects (e.g., the Eternals’ ship, the Celestials) emulated the almost spartan sci-fi aesthetic of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Additionally, I appreciated how diverse the Eternals were. It’s always nice for a movie to feature a diverse cast: it allows for members from marginalized communities to better identify with the characters on screen. Eternals goes one step further by having the team’s makeup be such that diversity is a core rather than extraneous feature of the group. The movie never explicitly addresses a specific character’s complexion, ability, gender, or sexuality either, making the group feel typical rather than strange. And while I had issues with the way the Eternals were characterized, they were at the very least distinct. Overall, the inclusion of these elements demonstrated a nice – albeit limited – departure from the typical Marvel formula.

Despite how much the movie tried, I wasn’t able to get emotionally invested in the story. A significant reason for this is barely any depth is given to the Eternals. They talk a lot about their emotions, beliefs, and values, yet we never find out the why behind these attributes. Instead, major character details and motivations are revealed almost on a whim, and the audience is just expected to go with it. This holds for characters’ relationships with one another as well, since they “develop” by jumping straight from point A (we just met) to point B (I think I love you) with no in-between. Secondly, I just couldn’t care about characters who suffered from resting sad face. There are too many long-drawn-out shots of Eternals where they look gloomy, forlorn, conflicted, or resigned. And Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) and Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) are true blessings in the form of comic reliefs, because most of what the other Eternals have to say are usually depressing and delivered in a subdued and monotone voice. This over-indexing on melancholia felt like an aggressive way of demonstrating the vulnerability and humanity of the Eternals, but ultimately they just came across as one-note and unrelatable. So unfortunately, the Eternals were too underdeveloped and flat for me to care much about what happened to them.

There isn’t really a good rhythm to this film either. For one, the use of flashback sequences is sometimes overbearing. These sequences are clearly intended to contextualize certain characters and revelations. But because there are so many, it feels like you’re watching fractions of two films rolled into one: one set in the past, the other in the present. The placement and duration of these sequences draw focus away from the core story too, which makes for a jarring viewing experience. Additionally, the central plot progresses at a relatively slow pace. Part of this problem obviously has to do with the many aforementioned flashbacks. But on top of that, the entire team isn’t reassembled almost right until the third act, which means you spend most of the runtime being introduced to team members and learning about the nature of their relationships with others. So not only do you just get a taste of the overall group for most of the film, but it also takes a while for the plot to develop since much of the runtime is spent bringing members back into the fold. One consequence of this “crammed-in story” is the film using exposition dumps to move the plot along artificially. The combination of these factors thus made the film feel like more of an exercise in world-building than storytelling.

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And as has been the case for all the Marvel movies I’ve seen this year, the third act left me very disappointed. First off, I have to talk about how the Deviants were completely wasted. The movie does such an excellent job of demonstrating how the Eternals and Deviants are almost one and the same: they were both created by the Celestials to act as their faithful instruments and enable the growth of life for their benefit. Yes, the Deviants evolved to prey upon intelligent life, but how is a “flaw” in their genetic code their fault? Even more, when the Deviant Kro (Bill Skarsgård) delivers an impassioned speech to the Eternals about the unfairness of their mission to kill all of his people, Druig (Barry Keoghan) even remarks to Sersi that “they’re like us.” So given how far the film goes in adding depth to the Deviants, you can imagine how confused and disappointed I was when the third act reduced Kro to a simple power-hungry alien who wanted to steal the Eternals’ powers just cuz. And to add insult to injury, you’re pretty much expected to cheer after Thena (Angelina Jolie) mercilessly slices Kro into tiny pieces. But more broadly speaking, the way the entire conflict was resolved was lame. Going into the finale, Ikaris’s (Richard Madden) actions have already resulted in the deaths of two Eternals, and he and Sprite have made it clear that they will kill the other Eternals if necessary to ensure the Emergence occurs. But after typical Marvel third-action fare, all it takes for Ikaris and Sprite to realize they’re wrong and join the others is … thinking about their actions? Either the strength of Ikaris’s and Sprite’s convictions should’ve resulted in them refusing to compromise, or it should’ve taken a lot more to convince them that they were in the wrong. Instead, the neat and tidy finale we’re presented with feels cheap because the conflict just ends rather than reaches its natural conclusion. However, that’s nothing compared to how ridiculous the movie’s actual ending and mid/post-credit scenes were. The last couple of minutes of screentime are purely sequel setup: they don’t provide a satisfying conclusion to the movie or understandably build upon it, but instead lay the foundations for what might happen next. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Marvel movie that had as glaring of a cliffhanger as this movie does (Infinity War is a very different story). And as for the post-credit scenes, there is absolutely no way that someone who isn’t highly knowledgeable of Marvel comics could know what to make of the scenes. These are the main reasons why unfortunately I left the theater with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Eternals makes for a pretty boring and confusing watch. It features distinctive elements (e.g., unique visual style, very diverse cast) that make it stand out amongst other MCU films, but in my opinion these aren’t enough to make up for its disappointing story. However, I definitely wouldn’t call this the MCU’s worst movie (Thor: The Dark World anyone?). There may even be a there there to this movie that I’ve missed, which is why I’ll surely revisit it and recommend that you at least check the movie out when it releases on Disney Plus. Who knows, maybe this beautiful yet somber film will become one of the MCU’s most highly regarded films in time.

Rating: 3/5