The Eternals
A gorgeous piece of filmmaking that focuses on the people in this piece, rather than the fighting and setpieces.
The Eternals have been here for thousands of years. Led by Ajak (Salma Hayek), and sent by the Celestial Arashim to protect the Earth from the Deviants, the Eternals are a mix of various superpowered immortal beings. There’s Thena (Angelina Jolie), the goddess of war, who is struggling under the weight of so many millenia of memories; Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok) whose immense strength is matched only by his devotion to Thena; Sprite (Lia Mchugh), a conjurer who is perpetually a child; Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), a master mechanic; Druig (Barry Keoghan), who can possess the minds of humans and bind them to his will; Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), who is super fast and Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), who can shoot bolts of energy out of his hands. Then there are our two main characters - Sersi (Gemma Chan), the kindest and most human-loving of the group, who can transform any object into another, and Ikaris (Richard Madden), the strongest of the group, who can fly and shoot golden lasers from his eyes. The group dispersed when they defeated the final Deviant nearly 500 years ago, with each going their separate ways. But when Sersi’s date with Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) is interrupted by an extremely powerful one, and Ikaris, her long lost ex who left her centuries ago returns to save her, they discover that the Deviants are not only back, but herald something even worse on the horizon. Together, they must assemble the rest of the Eternals to try and save the planet.
Much has been made of how this film is the first Marvel movie to be given over to a director of particular aplomb. Chloe Zhao releases this directorial ambition just after having won the Best Director Oscar for Nomadland, and brings a lot of her sense of indie movie visuals to this movie. To put it another way - this is the most beautiful Marvel movie ever made. Zhao takes time on the human moments of these characters in a way we haven’t seen Marvel films do before; whether its a glinting sunset framing a couple, two hands intertwining, or a brutal, guttural cry of pain in the middle of a farmland as someone comes to grips with what they have done. It is refreshing and engaging to be able to sit back and be entranced by the characters, rather than the action, in one of these superhero tentpoles.
That being said, there is a lot of action on display here too. Sometimes, that works out really well, and the ways that the powers of these individuals display are interesting and, at times, revolutionary. Some of the best moments are when our heroes battle one another, particularly when the creativity in some of the lesser powers is brought to bear against the more obviously superhero-type powers. Some of the humor is really engaging also. Nanjiani, as the Bollywood star hiding his super powers but also bringing along his manservant to record, documentary style, his return to the superhero world, is particularly engaging.
The weaknesses in this film also stem from the action too, however. The Deviants are yet again CGI monsters, seemingly easy cannon fodder for this group, and the big bad celestial to defeat at the end is too mammoth and unrevealed to really give any personality to the villainy. What is interesting is the state of the Eternals during and after the final fight. It’s refreshing to see some of our heroic team abstain, some feel differently, and some switch sides. That brings a nice new flavour to these team ups, and introduces some complexity both to the circumstance, and to our heroes.
In the end, The Eternals is like no Marvel movie you have ever seen. For some, that will be a problem - you’ll be wanting it to have more heroic moments, more bombastic action. But for most, surely, the fresh flavour of this piece, coupled with a swathe of great characters, beautiful cinematography, set design and costuming, and a couple of truly out there post-credits scenes, should be enough to get you excited not just about this superhero team, but about the future of the MCU.
