‘Eternals’ Brings All-New Style to the MCU but Overreaches– Spoiler Filled Review
‘Eternals’ is an art-house director’s film. And it works… until it doesn’t. Join us for a spoiler-filled review of the MCU’s Eternals.
It’s a departure from what Marvel Studios has done over the last thirteen years, which is both good and bad. This review of the MCU’s Eternals features a lot to love, and a lot that got lost.
Marvel’s The Eternals tells the story of immortal beings with superpowers that have lived among us for thousands of years. It arrived in theaters this weekend, and it has drama, action, and a surprising amount of romance.
Eternals is in theaters now. Haven’t seen it yet? Check out our spoiler free review!
Major spoilers for the movie and mid/post-credit scenes below the trailer.
The Good
The reason the movie was review bombed on IMDB is what makes it good. The diversity of the cast and characters is Eternals‘ biggest strength.
The movie’s heroes range in ethnicity, age, gender, ability, age, and body type. And they all bring something different to the table that makes the story better, which allows more people in the audience to connect to it.
There are realistic and touching looks at relationships. While Ikarus and Sersi’s romantic pairing and Phastos’ family may be the most prominent, there are some beautiful platonic loves in this movie.
Gilgamesh’s care for Thena is one of deep friendship and respect. You rarely get relationships like that from opposite genders even outside of comic book movies. It was great surprise to see them here.
via Marvel Studios
The movie also confronts some ethical and moral dilemmas that we see often in comic books, but haven’t been covered as deeply in the MCU so far. The story asks “What is the responsibility of those with ultimate powers?”
We got a bit of the moral dilemma during Civil War. In this film, it’s confronted multiple times from the vantage point of several members of the group. Druig (with his powerful mind-controlling powers) was the hardest hit by this. His internal struggle with what is moral and what is easy drives him to self-exile.
Along with representation of people and relationships, this movie has director Chloé Zhao’s signature use of gorgeous golden hour lighting and sweeping wide shots. Both work wonderfully for the otherworldly Eternals.
The Bad
It’s visually too dark at times, so you miss out on what’s going on in some scenes. It works well for VFX (which are just ok here), but not for storytelling.
This movie had a too-much-information problem, and yet it also had too little information. It becomes a bit of a mess when combining the structure of the movie with lots of flashbacks.
It’s important to establish how the Eternals have impacted humanity and vise versa, but there’s too much time spent there and not enough spent establishing the giant threat of the Celestials. It’s very much focused on the internal relationships of the Eternals and tries to confront too many things at that level. It makes for a movie that feels low stakes even though it’s really not.
And while the diversity of the ensemble cast is great, there’s so many players that not every character gets enough screen time. And others get a bit too much.
I can only hope that we’ll learn more the next time we see the Eternals on screen. The good news is that the end and the mid-credit scene made it clear we will see them again (along with Harry Styles as Eros) to find more of their kind and confront Arishem the Judge.
via Marvel Studios
The Ugly
The movie comes in at lengthy two hours and thirty-seven minutes. It could do with shedding 15 minutes and a generally tighter edit. The way the story is intercut, it somehow feels too short and too long at the same time.
The cuts through time give the movie a dreamy feel, but the lack of focus makes it less impactful and non-cohesive. When a story is all over the place, it’s hard to keep track of what’s good about it.
I’m not sure why Kro was included in the movie at all. It felt like he was tacked on to the story as fodder for Thena and a character to include on the trailers. But he wasn’t actually a real threat. Time spent developing his story could have been used on other things, and there were other ways of illustrating that the Celestials only look out for themselves.
via Marvel Studios
Overall, The Eternals strengths are greater than its weaknesses, and taking chances in such a large franchise should be rewarded. It’s not easy to kick the Marvel formula that’s made billions of dollars, especially to make something so human.
And the movie brought in $162 million globally this weekend, so it’s far from a failure.
In the long run, this may end up being phase four’s Thor, which was also directed by a person known for dramas and not action. These characters are going to be a part of the MCU moving forward. We’ll find out if they’ll be handed to another director like Thor was or if Zhao will be given another shot at the MCU.
Editor’s Note: global box office take has been updated to match revenue at publication.
