Marvel Studios has created a rare disappointment. Eternals isn’t a bad movie necessarily, but for all the great components it has, it’s too slow-moving and passive for it to live up to the high expectations of superhero fans worldwide.
As this is the 26th entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s getting harder and harder to stand out among the crowd in a genre filled with tropes. The team of Eternals, based on the mostly unknown comic books, has no shortage of uniqueness. Their originality and diversity, in fact, is one of the film’s best parts.
Where the problem lies is how a story spanning 7,000 years of human history somehow is devoid of major events. There’s a lot of introspective discussing, ruminating, and debating how best to save the world. But there’s very little actual world saving on screen.
The basic premise is the Eternals, a race of warriors from outer space with varying powers and skills, were sent to Earth thousands of years ago to eliminate a species of monsters called Deviants. But in 1400 AD, the last of them were killed, and the team scattered across the planet to live in peace while awaiting new instructions.
Now, 600 years later, a deviant is discovered and threatens modern life, forcing the team of Eternals to come together again for the first time in centuries. Led by recently promoted team member Sersei (Gemma Chan), they need to find everyone ASAP before the world is destroyed.
As a premise, this is a great backstory and set up for a superhero adventure. But the story and screenplay get several things terribly wrong. In a nearly two and a half hour “action” movie, for one, there are only three action scenes. Cumulatively, they account for way too little of the run time.
The real inciting incident, for another matter, doesn’t happen until more than an hour into the film, meaning there’s over 60 minutes of exposition. It is slightly interesting meeting all ten members of the Eternals. It’s also, however, a big story problem giving everyone enough screen time to flesh all these characters out.
Only Chan and her co-stars Kumail Nanjiani and Lauren Ridloff stand out among the pack. The rest of the ensemble is fine, but a screenplay that’s two-thirds “getting the band back together” suffers when all ten members aren’t worth spending extended periods of time with.
All of these are writing problems more than a directing problem. Director Chloé Zhao (last year’s Oscar winner for Best Director for Nomadland) has great skill framing shots, the big sets, and the CGI monsters. She’s also great at coaching her actors when they perform.
Sadly, she’s a co-writer, and she had a lot of creative control that she didn’t exercise in trimming the story down to a manageable length. Raw humanity in expansive and arid landscapes define her movies - here, there’s just too much.
What I really enjoyed in the story arc was learning the true reason why the Eternals have a strong conviction to defend Earth and its citizens. That’s a great theme that connects with Zhao’s work on a more profound level.
There’s great nuance in how each of the heroes finds value in humanity, and the overall message is an optimistic one: flawed and nihilistic as we are, people of the world have an inherent goodness and intelligence to them, and as Ajak says, “they are worth protecting.”
It’s too bad it takes an eternity for Marvel’s latest movie to get anywhere interesting. If Eternals cut half its exposition and used more action instead of more expansive dialogue, it could stand more proudly with its cinematic cousins.
Eternals
6 out of 10
PG. 2hrs 37mins. Superhero Adventure Fantasy.
Co-written and directed by Chloe Zhao.
Starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Lia McHugh, Kumail Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie, Brian Tyree Henry and Salma Hayek.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, 5 Drive-In, Cineplex Winston Churchill and Cineplex Oakville & VIP.
One more quick note: the movie is surprisingly intense at moments, including in its violence and on-screen intimacy. Even though it’s only rated PG across most of Canada, this is as close as a movie could get before it’s 14A. I recommend it for those 14 and up.
