Eternals (2021)
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Eternals Movie Review
Eternals is a 2021 superhero film directed by Chloe Zhao and starring Gemma Chan and Richard Madden among others. It is the MCU’s most ambitious movie to date.
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“We have loved these people since the day we arrived.
When you love something, you protect it“
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The Eternals, a race of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years, reunite to battle the evil Deviants. When they realize that the Earth must be sacrificed for the natural order, they rebel against that decision and battle against one Eternal who sticks with the plan. That is the basic premise behind this impressively ambitious movie that blows any other superhero movie out of the water when it comes to epic runtime, storytelling and mythology.
The critics have rallied against this movie for reasons that are understandable, but still not valid enough to give the film a bad rating. In fact, I find it infuriating that they did not support such a massively ambitious Marvel movie as for once the studio ended up delivering something entirely different and unique. I hadn’t been a fan of Chloe Zhao before this film, but I must admit that her directing here is quite strong and she managed to make an operatic, mythological, SF-oriented MCU movie that also operates as a historical epic of sorts. And I loved every single second of it.
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The central conflict fascinated me. The idea that Earth must end its cycle in order for other planets to arise was interesting and a great metaphor for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The idea of a natural order and whether or not it can be changed was very well explored here and it served as the perfect catalyst for the conflict between Ikaris and the rest of the group. Simply the idea that the Eternals would be fighting each other instead of some CGI creature in the end was refreshing and the fact that the third act for once wasn’t a CGI chaotic mess was quite welcome.
Undoubtedly, the idea that all of Earth’s technology was created by an Eternal and that the group helped humanity along the way was religiously and scientifically blasphemous, especially the choice to even criticize humanity for its “slow” progress. That did not sit well with me, but still this is a fun superhero story first and foremost, so it should not be taken too seriously. Understanding it in the context of Greek Mythology is more apt as most of these superheroes have their roots in that influential mythology. I am a big fan of that, so this is why the movie immensely appealed to me.
Sersi is somewhat forgettable as the leader of the group. Gemma Chan is fine in the role, but somewhat subdued and the character simply wasn’t as memorable as others were. Ikaris is much more interesting and Richard Madden was so good and imposing in the role. Their romance was only okay, but his shift worked for me as did his eventual death that was very poetic and suitable given the Greek Mythology roots. The battle between him and the other Eternals was just terrific.
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Kingo is awesome. Some have accused this movie for being too serious, but I disagree completely as Kumail Nanjiani acts as a terrific sidekick of sorts while his assistant was hilarious and a scene-stealer when it comes to the jokes. Makkari is solid with a well realized sprinting power while Sprite was very interesting as this Tinker Bell and Peter Pan-like character who just wants to be human and grow old. Phastos was very likable and important as this tech-creator. Finally, a Marvel movie brought an openly gay character to the big screen without it feeling manipulative. The whole movie is extremely diverse, but it wasn’t brought up and it did not feel like tokenism, which I appreciated.
Druig is also great as he provided the movie another perspective of the one who just won’t sit and watch silently while Earthlings kill themselves. Again, that idea to interfere or not was powerfully explored. I really enjoyed Don Lee as Gilgamesh that I was quite sad when he had to die. Salma Hayek also died rather quickly, but she still has a sizable role set in the past and is important as basically the first leader of the group. Angelina Jolie is graceful and kickass as Thena, though they failed to properly explain her condition where she suddenly attacks her crewmates from time to time.
Arishem was unforgettable and those cosmic sequences were beautifully executed across the board. What is interesting about this movie is that it jumps from time to time in its first half, thus allowing us to visit so many historically significant areas, such as the Ishtar gate for instance. All of those historical scenes were gorgeously shot and they had terrific production design, making me wish for a whole movie set in the past with the Eternals.
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Yes, the only big problem that Eternals has is undoubtedly its runtime and medium choice. It is around two and a half hours long and still it wasn’t enough for this story that was clearly meant to be told on the small screen. I hope that they someday make a television series out of it and I would be so excited to see that. This choice to film it as a movie was wrong from the start and it must be the biggest reason why the critics did not gravitate toward it all that much.
Eternals is a Marvel movie with the least amount of action scenes, which I hugely appreciated. Instead, it has a strong emphasis on dialogue and character-driven storytelling and it mostly succeeds in both of those areas. Emotionally speaking, it’s also quite successful as a couple of scenes are quite moving. The cinematography is stunning as usual for a Zhao movie while the special effects are tremendous and the creature design of the Deviants was excellent. The editing and pacing also worked for me, and for this long movie to never at all bore me was quite an accomplishment.
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