About the film (courtesy of Marvel Studios):
Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS follows a group of heroes from beyond the stars who had protected the Earth since the dawn of man. When monstrous creatures called the Deviants, long thought lost to history, mysteriously return, the Eternals are forced to reunite in order to defend humanity once again.
I keep trying to shake this feeling an overall underwhelming disposition towards Marvel Studios’ Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s become the case ever since the last phase was closed out with Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019). Black Widow (2021) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) each had an unfamiliar feeling of what fans have come to expect from an MCU movie both in tone and familiarity. I applaud Marvel Studios for not trying to become stagnant, however I’m finding it to be a challenge to buy in right off the bat. I’m living more in light of “wait and see” rather that blindly embracing whatever the House of Mouse is throwing out. Eternals is another attempt at bringing all new faces to the table in the hopes that fans will latch onto it as they have so many times before. Let’s talk about these new characters.
Oscar-winning director, Chloé Zhao, takes on the largest, by far, film project in her 13 year career as a director. Nomandland (2020) seemingly came out of nowhere last year while racking up a multitude of awards from just about every outlet and platform known to man. Her stock was definitely and now it’s time to see how her skills are tested in a much more demanding arena, that of one filled with millions of true fanatics. Eternals is facing the steep climb of what’s become a larger-than-life mountain of unattainable expectations.
The story of Eternals spans more than 7,000 years which translates into a dense runtime (237 minutes) that lacks a few key components during this journey. The characters that we are introduced to are not ones that the casual Marvel fan would necessarily be familiar with. Ajak, Druig, Gilgamesh, Ikaris, Kingo, Makkari, Phastos, Sersi, Sprite and Thena are the featured characters in this epic story. Some of the names may be familiar (or have variations close to ones you know) from exposure to names from Greek mythology. But in the MCU these names may have you scratching your heads. And unlike Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), for example, most of these characters lack the charisma and magnetism that propelled the 2014 relatively unknowns to box office stardom.
On the casting front, Angelina Jolie, Brian Tyree Henry, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington, Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden and Salma Hayek are each names and faces that most of us recognize. The issue is that the fit for many of their parts didn’t provide the familiar spark and connection that we’ve come to expect from a Marvel Cinematic Universe film. I wasn’t sure of my feelings on September’s Shang-Chi release, but looking back on it and comparing it to Eternals, I feel that former greatly outshines the latter.
Eternals does have some great visuals, both in set design as well as special effects. And there are moments of entertaining banter as well as some interesting plot lines. The problem here is that in the grand scheme of things, as in the robustly extended runtime, there are just not enough driving forces to place this entry on par with any of the previous MCU films. I really did want to enjoy this one and I applaud Marvel Studios for taking risks. Sadly though, this one missed its mark by quite a bit.
Even being down on this feature, Eternals is not a total waste and I’m sure others will find more entertainment in this more-drama-than-action offering. I do stand behind my belief that some of the castings don’t quite fit and that takes away from the action sequences. I will also add that this has been the least enjoyable MCU movie of the 26 to-date. They can’t all be winners, I suppose. Lastly, I don’t think I need to remind you, but I’m going to at any rate, stay until the very end if you are interested in both the mid and post credits scenes. Playing in theaters everywhere staring November 5th, with early showings Thursday evening.
