Director: Chloe Zhao
Notable Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail
Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Ma
Dong-seok, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Bill Skarsgard, Harish
Patel
Disney and Marvel have always been very particular with how
they expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The introduction of mysticism was in
a wholly generic and formulaic origin film with Doctor Strange, the leap
with Thor into the cosmos happens mostly on Earth, and the introduction
of the multi-verse took two entire Avengers films to pull off. The
latter is a choice that will now seemingly dominate the entirety of the
franchise for the foreseeable future and allow for MCU to exist until mankind
burns to the ground.
For Eternals, a full-on expansion of the MCU into epic cosmos insanity, Marvel and Academy Award-winning director Chloe
Zhao attempt to ride that fine balance once again by introducing an entire new
squad of Space Avengers. They are not the Guardians, for the record, but they
do ask the hard questions to each other like “who will lead the Avengers now?”
to make sure we don’t forget the film is part of the franchise, I guess. These
Eternals have been patiently waiting on Earth to receive the call from Space
Dad, a six-eyed stone-looking red space god named Arishem, to go back home.
Naturally, not all is what it seems and the Eternals’ natural enemy,
animal-like bundles of tendrils named Deviants, arise on Earth once more as a
pending disaster looms on the horizon.
Tonally, there is a lot of fascinating choices being fed to
the audience with Eternals. Granted, most of these choices are at odds
with other choices, but a large part of me has a lot of respect for this film
for attempting to try something refreshing with this 26th entry into the
franchise. Bringing in Chloe Zhao to write and direct the film, a director
known for her films that are artsy and grounded, to work on one of the loftiest and ungrounded films of the series works much better on paper than it
does in action.
What results is a film of a mixed tonality. For every 20
minutes of philosophical rumination of the Eternals posing in earthy landscapes
about the darkness and light within all of humanity, there are 15 minutes of generic
and oddly paced CGI-riddled battles. It’s a push n’ pull feel that becomes
rather repetitive as the film starts reaching well beyond the two-hour mark.
Zhao must have sincerely enjoyed exploring the entire Highlander
emotional weight within the ensemble of main characters, so it’s a shame that Eternals
is trying so hard to stuff so much material into what boils down to another
standard Marvel plot on its bare bones.
Yet, it’s hard to argue that Eternals doesn’t have
its merits in exploring its characters. Their existence as some of the most
powerful beings in creation adds a lot of huge questions to the mix that this film
is wholly intent on not answering, least of which is how they are able to stay
hidden with other powerful heroes like Captain Marvel that exist but I
digress. That’s not what Eternals wants to explore and any of those
plot holes are brushed over.
Once the film establishes its immense amount of exposition
to set up its concept, the Eternals - lead by audience surrogate Sersi played
by Gemma Chan and a Not Superman in Ikaris played by Richard Madden, aim to get
the band back together to face the new threat. The ten (yes, as in double
digits) characters that comprise the Eternals are incredibly well cast and
effective when they are on screen with one another. The overall dour tone of
the film tends to undercut some of the fun, but with a stacked cast like this -
it’s hard not to give them the benefit of the doubt. Eternals struggles
as a film to balance all ten characters once they are together and tries to
keep the little sects separated throughout. It even goes as far as kicking one
character from the film for the final act. Where’s Kingo played by the comedic
relief of the film, Kumail Nanjiani? He peaced out. He didn’t need to be
involved in that final fight, I guess.
While Sersi and Ikaris are the “leads” of the film, at least
in a traditional sense, most of the secondary characters throughout steal the
film right from under them. Those two can debate all they want about how best
to interact with humanity while the best parts of Eternals are centered
on those smaller interactions when the crew is not fully teamed together
anyway. My money goes to Ma Dong-seok (credited as Don Lee) as Gilgamesh and
Angelina Jolie as Thena as the true MVPs of the film. Their time together on-screen
highlights everything great about Eternals and if they decided to make a
new Disney+ show with them performing home improvements and cooking for guests,
I’d watch that in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, for all of the time spent building up the
heroes and their dynamics, Eternals just feels messy. The action is too
sporadic and repetitive, the lack of a true villain until the final act pulls
away from the sense of urgency to the plot, and the tonal shifts tend to feel
too jarring. However, even if it’s one of the most incohesive films of the MCU,
Eternals does add an intriguing and elevated gravitas to the franchise
that has been sorely missing and the potential for its incredible cast for the
future cannot be ignored. The film has a massive amount of heart to its
characters too. So much so, that when it works, I was totally sucked into the
proceedings and may have cried a couple of times. I mean, it was a dusty
theater. What can I say?
Say what you will about the Marvel Formula, but it works to
maximize impact for the greatest amount of viewers across the world and it takes a
slight misfire like Eternals to notice just how consumable and effective
it is. There is a lot to love in this latest film, but a lot of it is in direct
contrast to that formula and the strain is incredibly evident.
And with that being said, I’m completely game to see more Eternals
and I love that Zhao and producer Feige were championing to try something
slightly new for the series. The final product might be problematic, but for
that - it deserves some respect too.
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