Marvel's 'Eternals' Exceeds Expectations
Starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry
Rated PG-13
Action, drama, fantasy
Run time: 2 hrs, 37 min
Directed by Chloé Zhao
In theaters November 5, 2021
I’m always a sucker for a good Marvel movie, and I missed the experience of summer blockbusters in theaters so much last year that despite me not being overwhelmingly awed by Shang-Chi and having some issues with Black Widow (though I was irrationally thrilled by Florence Pugh’s entire existence in the film), I was still trying to keep an open mind about this movie. The critic reviews were far harsher than any I had seen for any Marvel film, so maybe it was due to my expectations being incredibly low, but I really enjoyed this movie. Other than my now-constant complaint that movies are too long lately (which feels like my most indulgent “old-man-get-those-kids-off-my-lawn” refrain), I was solidly invested from the jump and wasn’t able to predict exactly where it was going to go.
I won’t go too much into the story details, as I think it actually helps to let the full scope play out in front of you on the screen, but the premise is simultaneously concise and sprawling. There are these immortal creatures called Eternals (hence the name of the movie, of course) with some fascinating powers (one shoots lasers out of his eyes, another can change matter into other matter, one has super strength, one can summon weapons out of the air, etc.) that were sent to Earth in order to fight a species of monster/predator called Deviants (not to be confused with Variants that were introduced in the Loki series). Said Eternals (all the above listed cast minus Kit Harington) spend millennia quietly protecting humanity from these creatures while letting humans deal with their own conflicts, wars and tragedies among themselves. They exist as gods and lore among societies, becoming fables passed down by generations. But unsurprisingly, there is always more than there seems.
The team is led by Ajak (Hayek) and are full of some incredibly named (though with changed spellings) immortals that warmed my Greek mythology loving heart: Sersi (Chan), Ikaris (Madden) and Thena (Jolie), to name a few. The overall tone of mythos and fantasy helps Eternals succeed where I felt Shang-Chi failed. Where Shang-Chi lives in the modern world, full of technological and sci-fi elements and then shifts to indulge in fantasy, the opposite occurs in this film. We see the team evolve from the fantasy of deities and powerful beings to modern creatures living in that tech world, post Blip and through an almost unfathomable number of developmental years. While the story sometimes gets weighed down at times, it’s still one that held my interest for the majority of the runtime. It covers almost every genre: fantasy, sci-fi, romance, drama and even some comedy.
Selfishly, I think I adored this movie as much as I did for no reason other than the cast. As a former Game of Thrones obsessed fan, seeing Madden and Harington (who really got to grow into a surprisingly wonderful, comedic role) come face to face was enough to win me over. I’ve also been a Gemma Chan fan since the second she walked on screen in Crazy Rich Asians, so seeing her play such a prominent role in a huge property warmed my heart. Eternals did at times feel like we had been thrown into a movie like The Avengers without having the standalone films to help build investment and development, but thankfully, they were able to create intriguing enough characters that made me extremely curious to know where their stories will go from here, especially after those two end credit scenes. That being said, why do people still insist on leaving the second the credits roll at a huge film property? Have they learned nothing over the last decade??