Eternals Quicktake: Heartfelt, Ambitious, Thoughtful, and Muddled
After a remarkable 13-year 25 film run, the MCU’s winning streak is finally over, at least in the eyes of critics. Eternals is Marvel Studios’ first critical bomb, currently sitting at 47% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes (based on nearly 400 reviews).
To be clear, those poor reviews aren’t stopping audiences from packing into theatres. Upon release, Eternals held the pandemic-era’s second-highest opening weekend. Even though its box-office numbers look great on paper, they’re cause for concern when compared to other MCU rollouts.
So what went wrong? How can a movie with an Academy Award-winning director (Chloé Zhao), one of Hollywood’s biggest stars (Angelina Jolie), and fuelled by the MCU hype machine rub so many people the wrong way? Is Eternals legitimately a bad movie, are critics suffering from superhero fatigue, or is the film ahead of its time?
During Eternals’ press conference, Zhao discussed taking inspiration from a William Blake poem. Zhao said, “In that poem, Blake was trying to say that you can see endless beauty and meanings of the cosmos within the smallest things you can find on earth. The vision of the film was to set out to capture that scale. Something as large as the sun and as intimate as the whispers of lovers.”
Zhao’s intentions are beautiful and ambitious and speak to her arthouse filmmaking background. But she’s not drawing from what most viewers want or expect out of a comic book movie: familiar characters, pulse-pounding action, and plenty of heart. Instead, Eternals introduces unknown characters, the action is forgettable, but does it ever have heart.
Eternals begins 7000 years ago when the celestial being Arishem (David Kaye) sends a group of mighty beings called Eternals to earth to serve as humanity’s protectors.
The team consists of their leader Ajak (Salma Hayek), the sentimental Sersi (Gemma Chan), all-powerful soldier Ikaris (Richard Madden), goddess of war Thena (Angelina Jolie), fast-talking Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), shape-shifting Sprite (Lia McHugh), the speedster Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), rugged fighter Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok), mind-controlling Druig (Barry Keoghan), and Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), the brains of the operation.
A savage race of alien beasts known as Deviants have invaded earth, intent on wiping out the population.
Tasked only with protecting humans from Deviants, the Eternals aren’t allowed to interfere in other eartly affairs. After defeating the final Deviant, the Eternals are left to bide their time on earth until they’re called to return to their homeworld Olympia.
Flash forward to present day and the Deviants return, stronger than ever. After going their separate ways for centuries, the Eternals must put aside their differences and reunite to save the only home they’ve ever known.
Eternals clocks in at a Celestial-sized 157 minutes, and that’s not enough time to do the cast justice. You could make a strong case Eternals would work better as a The Falcon and the Winter Soldier weekly series where each episode focuses on an Eternal before reuniting them in a movie.
Characters like Makkari, Phastos, and Thena get sidelined for long stretches before the story throws them back into the mix. Ridloff, Henry, and Jolie leave a strong impression with the screentime they’re given, which left me wanting to see more of them. It doesn’t help that Sersi and Ikaris, the characters who get the most screentime are also the least charismatic Eternals.
The film’s editors Dylan Tichenor and Craig Wood have their hands full with this project, trying to juggle a story taking place in multiple timelines. The movie begins at the dawn of civilization before visiting ancient Babylon, the Aztec empire, and the furthest reaches of outer space.
It’s all quite striking (some of the time). The cinematography swings wildly between stunning and awful. Zhao brought her distinct visual style to the movie. That means shooting outdoors in real-world locations instead of on soundstages in front of green screens. And the drama unfolds against the backdrop of gorgeous magic hour sunsets. At other times, though, this film is hard to watch, literally.
Certain scenes are so poorly lit – the early scenes on the streets of London are a prime example – I had trouble seeing what was going on. Films often use darkness to cover up makeup effects and lousy CGI, but there was a murkiness to the footage that went beyond masking the special effects.
The darkness is so bad that the critics I screened the film with thought the theatre’s projector needed a new bulb. So it was to my surprise that when I went to see Eternals again in a different theatre, the picture still looked gloomy.
As much as I love Marvel movies, the action sequences often leave me wanting. The film’s uninspired fight sequences fit the pattern. The fast and flashy battles feel weightless. People throw lots of punches but you never feel the vicious crunch of a hit. Scorching laser blasts look more like a Tame Impala light show.
Film’s that do action well use these moments to tell a story. Great action sequences have a rhythm to them. They speed up, slow down, take a moment to breathe. And just when you catch your breath, they hit you with the kitchen sink.
The fights in Eternals feel dull and lifeless. It’s like sitting through a video game cutscene waiting impatiently to retake control of the character.
But again, I don’t watch Marvel movies for the action. I love the drama, the relationships, and the ever-growing mythology. And this is where Eternals works best. Zhao introduces viewers to an unexplored corner of the MCU, and it’s a thing of beauty.
Zhao didn’t sign onto this project because she dreamed of seeing Angelina Jolie decapitate CGI monsters. The indie darling used the platform to examine the wonders of the universe. Eternals is a celebration of humanity, warts and all.
Zhao tackles several heavy themes that wouldn’t be out of place in a Terrence Malick flick. People laud Black Panther for the moral quandary posed by its villain Erik Killmonger. Eternals explores the very same themes as Black Panther and then some.
The Eternals are in the same boat as the Wakandans. They’re supremely advanced beings with the power to step in and end people’s suffering, but they choose not to. In Black Panther, this plays out as a philosophical question and little more. But the film takes this concept a step further. Zhao puts the heroes’ burden front and centre. We see them in Latin America, watching colonizers slaughter indigenous people. It’s a disturbing moment that forces moviegoers to relive real-world atrocities – not exactly what people look for in their feel-good popcorn flicks.
Zhao also explores the notion of accountability. By looking at the Eternals’ role in earth’s destruction, the director also calls out the audience. What I’m about to say remains vague because I don’t want to spoil the plot. The movie is a commentary on how people think they’re part of a solution when they’re only adding to the problem.
Eternals acknowledges ignorance is bliss, but that excuse doesn’t wash away one’s accountability. Again, this isn’t the message people expect from their pop corn movies.
Don’t get me wrong, Zhao didn’t jump behind the camera to become the MCU’s Debbie Downer. She depicts moments of joy, friendship, and love unlike anything else we’ve seen in 25 movies. Marvel movies are full of hot stars who lust after one another. That’s nothing new. However, Eternals actually features a sex scene.
So many films are excellent at creating end of the world-level stakes. But fewer films give us a reason to care about the people who inhabit it. Christopher Nolan’s Tenet is a thrilling action flick, but I couldn’t care less about driving the plot. They’re protagonists, not compassionate, lived-in characters. Eternals made me care about the characters’ soap opera drama, and I found myself frustrated when the movie steered away from them into action flick mode.
The MCU has been Hollywood’s dominant brand for over a decade. And a considerable amount of people are ready to move on to the next big thing. Superhero movies are entertainment for the masses, and you know how hipsters and tastemakers dislike anything mainstream.
People who think these movies aren’t cinema can’t wait for the day the MCU empire finally crumbles. They’ve been biding their time, waiting to kick these movies when they’re down. And after Eternals’ release, the MCU juggernaut is finally starting to show signs of slowing down. After falling short of its sky-high expectations, the film became an easy target for haters, doubters, and writers looking to generate clicks.
At the end of the day, it boils down to this: Eternals isn’t a top-tier Marvel movie. It’s long and has pacing issues, lacklustre action sequences and some questionable camera work. It’s also a heavy film with challenging themes that force viewers to look deep within themselves. Factor in it’s an origin story featuring a cast of C-list heroes, and this movie was always a tough sell.
While Eternals isn’t the superhero movie I hoped for, I still enjoyed it. I appreciated the time-hopping story, compelling characters, and weighty themes. The film still held up after seeing it a second time, and I was excited to discuss it with the Marvel diehards and casual fans in my life.
Is Eternals the worst MCU entry? No. Does it deserve the MCU’s all-time lowest Rotten Tomatoes score? Hell no. But it suffers from veering off the beaten path and giving audiences something different than the thrill-a-minute popcorn flicks we’ve been conditioned to expect.
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