There’s been a lot of furor over this movie. While it has its definite flaws, I enjoyed it a lot. It adds a neat new angle for the MCU, does things the franchise hasn’t really tried before, and introduces a host of new characters played by an ecletic mix of talented actors.
7,000 years ago, the godlike Celestials sent a group of powerful Eternals to Earth to protect its inhabitants from the ravenous Deviants. Through the ages, the Eternals have shepherded humanity, but their work apparently ended centuries ago, and they’ve been waiting on Earth ever since for the Celestials to call them home. Scattered across the globe living their own lives, a sudden reemergence of the Deviants prompts these ancient beings to come together once more.
That’s a very simplistic summary for a very involved movie. It’s a long film that introduces ten completely-new major characters, plus extras, and adds a good deal of mythos to the existing MCU. We jump back and forth through time, catching snatches of the Eternals’ missions on Earth throughout the millennia. On first viewing, the film has a slow, exposition-heavy start, and it takes a while for things to really start clicking. But once it finds its momentum, I was drawn into the story and really interested to see where it was going to take us.
Much has been made of this being a Chloé Zhao film. The Oscar-winning director of Nomadland brings some of that same look and feel to the movie, shooting our new ancient heroes amid stunning landscapes and sweeping vistas. There’s of course plenty of action and some trademark Marvel humor, but there’s also a gravity to the story and an undercurrent of melancholy threaded through the proceedings. Critics and nerds alike have whipped themselves into a frenzy debating whether any of this works. For me, it ultimately holds together and I appreciate the different take on what a Marvel movie can be, even as I acknowledge the places where the plot drags and we get bogged down in exposition.
Where the film really works for me is in the characters and the performances. With ten Eternals, there’s too many to go through in one paragraph, so I’ll spend the rest of this review hitting some high points and then go more in-depth on some of my favorites in subsequent posts. As a group, all of the actors do a great job conveying the longevity and depth of their relationships with each other. Much of the film is dedicated to the whole group being brought back together, and each Eternal brought back into the fold adds a different feel to the group dynamic. What remains constant is that these are beings who’ve known one another for millennia, and despite having been apart for hundreds of years, they comfortably settle back into old patterns as soon as they see each other again.
At the center of the film is Gemma Chan’s Sersi and Richard Madden’s Ikaris. For my money, these two have a tougher job than most of the other actors, as their protagonists aren’t really written as vibrantly as the rest of their fellow Eternals. Still, I like Chan’s gentleness and Madden’s understated bravado. Young Lia McHugh as Sprite keeps up with her older, more famous costars quite handily, feeling like a millennia-old powerful being and also still feeling just a little bit like a kid. Kumail Nanjiani is great as Kingo, a rather self-serving character who’s spent decades stroking his own ego but who steps up when the situation calls for it. Nanjiani handles both the comic and dramatic bits well. Salma Hayek’s Ajak is group’s leader, and while I find her part to be a bit underwritten, Hayek really shines in the scenes that convey her deep ties to the other Eternals, the way she’s almost their mother.
The less prominent Eternals don’t get as much in the way of screentime or plot, but each actor does a bang-up job making their character feel fleshed-out and whole, taking full advantage of every chance they get. Angelina Jolie brings a dignity to warrior Thena, and her connection with Don Lee’s steady Gilgamesh is a thing of beauty. Barry Keoghan’s Druig is kind of the black sheep of the group, but Keoghan keeps the humanity of the character at the forefront of his performance. Brian Tyree Henry is stellar as Phastos, an irrepressible genius brimming with ideas for how to help humanity advance without necessary thinking of the implications of his assistance. And Lauren Ridloff as Makkari is a firecracker, fierce and impulsive with a clever glint in her eye. The film also features Kit Harrington and Haaz Sleiman, who I’ll always remember from The Visitor.
Warnings
Comic-book violence, sexual content, drinking, language, and strong thematic elements.
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