If there’s one complaint about the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (and granted, there are many valid complaints), it would be they’re all essentially the same movie. Sure, the stories and characters change. But the general framework for each movie is more or less the same. If that works for you, great. If it doesn’t, well then the series doesn’t have much, if anything to offer you. And even as a huge fan, it does get a little repetitive. There’s a definite desire for Marvel to mix things up a bit. We don’t need a fundamental change for every single movie going forward. But something new and different every now and then would be nice.
And that’s where Eternals comes in. With Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao at the helm, Eternals certainly gives us an MCU movie unlike any of the preceding 25 films. And while it’s far from perfect, it still works more than it doesn’t and is a welcome change for the franchise.
The Eternals are a race of immortal (until they’re not) celestial beings who have lived on Earth for thousands of years. Their mission is to protect the planet and humans from Deviants, monstrous creatures that can be thought of as the Eternals’ opposites. The Eternals are instructed not to interfere with any human conflict that does not involve the Deviants. When they kill the last of the Deviants in 1500 AD, they go their separate ways, living their own, anonymous lives while they await their next mission.
That next mission presents itself unexpectedly when Deviants start appearing again, attacking various members of the team. This forces them to gather together once again to take down this new, unexpected threat, all while something more sinister (of course) sits beneath the surface.
Just based off that, Eternals doesn’t sound like anything we haven’t see before. And while that’s true, it’s more in how the story is told and presented that breathes a welcome breathe of fresh air into the long-running series. Eternals has a stronger focus on humanity at large than any other Marvel movie. What is an individual’s role in the advancement of society? Are those with the power and ability to affect change obligated to do so for the sake of humanity? It’s a theme not too deeply explored in other MCU movies. And while the storytelling can be a bit clunky at times, the new theme is a great addition.
Helping here are the strong performances across the board, anchored by Gemma Chan’s Sersi (I’m not going to make the joke about Richard Madden and Kit Harrington being in a movie with a character named Sersi). More than the rest of the group, she has a strong connection to Earth and the humans who live here. Even living through all the countless wars and other atrocities, she has a strong love and affection for the people she has lived among for centuries. Working within a large ensemble cast, Chan is as close to a lead actor as the movie has, and it’s better off for it.
But that large cast is also where Eternals runs into some problems. There are 10 Eternals, all of whom are brand new characters. Of course some have to get left in the background, but you still need many of them to get fleshed out to form any sort of meaningful attachment to them. That’s part of why the movie boasts a massive runtime of just over 2.5 hours. I’m all for a long movie, as long as it earns it. But Eternals doesn’t. But it also needed it with so many character introductions needed. It was in a tough spot, and it faltered a bit here.
Eternals uses lots of flashbacks to help introduce and flesh out the team members. And while the visuals of Babylon and Mesopotamia are wonderful (and even more so on the big screen), they’re inserted at seemingly random times, making the story feel disjointed. I get not wanting to use a traditional linear timeline, but it was done awkwardly here. I applaud the effort, but it didn’t quite work.
But the look of the movie? That’s top tier Marvel. With Zhao directing, that should come as no surprise. It gives a different overall feel to the movie, which already stands out as unique among the (now) 26 movies. Combining the visuals with the slow-burn story and the more empathetic tone, and you get something uniquely different, no small feat after more than a decade of film-making.
Perhaps the most frustrating part of it all is that you can see the framework for a great movie within Eternals. It hits the necessary Marvel notes while adding its own flair courtesy of Chloé Zhao. While it stumbles at time with the storytelling format and crumbles a bit over the weight of its overlong runtime, there’s enough good and new aspects to make Eternals a solid, if unspectacular, addition to the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Score: 83/100
