Eternals

Tonight, I finally got the chance to check out “Eternals,” released last month, and I will let everyone know my thoughts.

What used to be an anticipation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was how certain directors could, inside the limits of the superhero realm, move around with different genre – which is how we got Joe Johnston making a war movie (“Captain America: The First Avenger”), the Russo brothers making a political thriller (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) and Taika Waititi making a comedic fantasy film (“Thor: Ragnarok”).

However, it’s not often that a director’s look is really at odds with the audience demands of a big-budget blockbuster like what happens with Chloé Zhao and Marvel’s “Eternals.”

Sean P Means said in his review, “Zhao is a wizard at mood, creating beauty out of the prosaic details of van life in her Oscar-winning “Nomadland” or the rodeo circuit in “The Rider.” Nobody this side of Terrence Malick can evoke such a sense of wonder out of something as simple as a sunrise.”

Means continue, “Putting a passel of otherworldly super-beings in front of those sunrises — and staying true to both Zhao’s sensibilities and the requirements that those superheroes, you know, do something — is another matter altogether.”

The Eternals, created in the comics by Jack Kirby in the 1970s, are 10 beings who arrived on Earth at the beginning of history, assigned by their godlike creator, a Celestial named Arishem, with two missions: To push humanity slowly toward progress, and to defeat an evil monster species, the Deviants, that look like they want to destroy all human existence.

The Eternals do this with a combination of powers. Ikarus, played by Richard Madden, flies and, more often, floats, and fires lasers from his eyes (Cyclops). Sersi, played by Gemma Chan, can change inanimate matter, and has an empathic connection to humanity. Sprite, played by Lia McHugh, is a shape-shifter (Mystique), but normally looks like a teen girl. Kingo, played by Kumail Nanjiani, fires bolts of energy from his fingers. Druig, played by Barry Keoghan, can control humans’ minds. Phantos, played by Brian Tyree Henry, is an inventor, slowly introducing technological innovations to the humans. Gilgamesh (Don Lee) is the strongest of the team, while Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) is the fastest (Flash or Quicksilver) along with being deaf. Thena (Angelina Jolie) is a tremendous fighter, while Ajax (Salma Hayek), is their leader, the force of the Celestials.

With 10 heroes, “Eternals” has room for representation – Black, Latina, south Asian, east Asian, deaf and, as we find out later, LGBTQ, which can only be a good thing as Marvel’s realm tries to copy our own.

The script (credited to Zhou, writing alone and with Patrick Burleigh, and Ryan and Kaz Firpo) sends these Eternals to different times in Earth’s history, starting about 7,000 B.C., fighting Deviants without changing human history significantly. We later are explained that they did not interfere in Thanos’ plan to rid of half of existence because it wasn’t Deviant-related – but Ajax and team loved the humans’ flexibility and ability to fight back.

However, in the 21^st Century the Deviants are thought to be extinct, and the Eternals have spread out to build their own lives. That’s how we find Sersi in London, working at a museum (strangely, the same job Diana Prince has in “Wonder Woman 1984,” just in a different city) and having an apparently normal romance with a human colleague, Dane Whitman, played by Kit Harington. However, when a Deviant attacks in London, and Ikarus and Sprite appear to fight it, Sersi must return to her old mission.

That’s when we get to the “getting the band back together” montage, which has its fun moments, like finding Kingo is now a Bollywood movie actor, and Phantos is happily married to a guy in Chicago (Haaz Sleiman) and fixing their kid’s (Esai Daniel Cross) bike. Means mentioned, “Other revelations, like Druig’s fiefdom in the Amazon or Thena battling the superhero version of Alzheimer’s, are less cheery.”

As the movie continues, the Eternals find out a frustrating fact about the Celestials – and each must decide how to respond.

Zhou and cinematographer Ben Davis (whose Marvel work includes “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Doctor Strange” and “Captain Marvel”) make some beautiful looks of superheroes posing heroically on beaches and near erupting volcanoes. Zhou focuses on character, mainly Chan’s Sersi finding her emotional voice through her compassion for humanity, in ways Marvel movies often don’t.

This is what Marvel movies are supposed to have, action, where “Eternals” doesn’t quite keep up. Means said, “The action set pieces have a robotic sameness to them, serviceable but not dynamic, like a director’s afterthought rather than an organic part of the whole.”

“Eternals” isn’t a terrible Marvel movie, just an average one. Looking at the talent here, and the potential of such a world-changing team of heroes, it could have been a lot more.

I don’t get why people are bashing this movie. It’s not as bad as everyone made it out to be. It’s an entertaining, fun ride that I’m glad I went on. I will say that there are problems, like when they skip around time, like people complained about Nolan’s “Batman trilogy” or “Man of Steel,” and Nanjiani is completely useless in the last action part. However, I still think this is worth seeing and before the 45-day exclusive theatrical release is up, go see it. If not, then wait until some time next month for it to come out on Disney+.

Spoiler alert: the mid credits scene shows Thanos’ brother, Eros (Harry Styles) and his assistant Pip the Troll (Patton Oswalt) appearing to offer their help. The post-credits scene shows Dane opening an old chest passed down from his ancestors that has the legendary Ebon Blade when an unseen person (Mahershala Ali) asking if he is ready for it.

Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what I will review next in “Disney Month 2021.”