Eternals Movie Review

“Eternals” makes a splash on the big screen, with a world-class director and the densest storyline since “Endgame”. However, with the potential to make a tidal wave, this movie struggles to make it to high tide. All the multitude of characters and the story stretched out over 7,000 years just makes for a muddled mixture of awe and flaw. The subtle introduction of very diverse characters does not count for much, if you wind up not caring for them.

The Eternals begins with the seriousness of the Bible. No, really — “In the beginning”. Hmmm, where do you suppose that came from? The origin of the world (many worlds actually) is told as a story of the ‘Celestial’ beings who create these worlds. On the Earth, when humans are created, these god-like creatures send in ‘Deviants’ — apex predator type monsters to destroy newly evolving people.

But then — they send in the ‘Eternals’, who are designed to fight the Deviants and save the human race. They Eternals cannot interfere with the development of mankind, they are only here to battle the Deviants. These Eternals have been around so long that they have quite an affection for the people of Earth.

The Eternals (ten in all) have different abilities. Each one has a unique use in fighting the Deviants. They are: Ajak (played by Salma Hayek), Sersi (played by Gemma Chan), Ikaris (played by Richard Madden), Kingo (played by Kumail Nanjiani), Thena (played by Angelina Jolie), Gilgamesh (played by Don Lee), Druig (played by Barry Keoghan), Phastos (played by Brian Tyree Henry), Sprite (played by Lia McHugh) and Makkari (played by Lauren Ridloff).

Their various skills are: Powerful Healing of Ouchies, Changing Some Stuff into Other Stuff, Being Someone who is mostly Superman, Cosmic Powerbolts from his Hands, Cosmic Weapons from her Hands, Big Dude who can Hit Things, Powerful Mind Control Guy, Guy Who Can Make Cool Gadgets, Kid-Sized Illusionist, and Someone Who Goes Really Fast.

In the modern day London, some of the Eternals are living as everyday humans. Sersi and Sprite are attacked by a new Deviant. They thought they had got them all back at the turn of of the 5th Century. Sersie has a boyfriend named Dane Whitman (played by Kit Harington). An old friend Ikaris happens to come by and fend off the monster. Dane is confused and Sersi decides to get back to find Ajak — who is the Prime Eternal.  But a Deviant got to her first and now she is dead. So, ‘Eternal’ up to a point, right?

Sersi becomes the new leader, and they all go off to find some others. Kingo has become a Bollywood movie star. Gilgamesh and Thena are living off the grid. Druig is in a place even more remote. Phastos has given up on the Eternals and has gotten married to some other guy (and they have a child). Makkari was hiding out in the old Eternals spaceship.

But there is continual back story about Sersi and Ikarais, and how they had a powerful love and were married. There is some story about the difficulties that Thena has occasionally where she decides to attack the other Eternals. She and Gilgamesh hide away because he is strong enough to fight off her rare attacks. Druig has always wanted to use his power to stop people from fighting and causing wars.

Phastos is upset because his inventing made humankind discover the atomic bomb. Sprite is just plain pissed off because she looks like a young teenager for centuries. Ajak has some special knowledge of the true mission of the Eternals and Deviants. But when an event is about to happen, something called the ‘Emergence’, she wants to put the plans of the master Celestial on hold.

“Eternals” has quite a lot to unpack. There are lots of emotions dialed up to eleven, and many beautiful shots of the golden sunsets around exotic locations. There are some action sequences, but there are way more emotional baggage unloading sequences. The story attempts to give the ten main characters an equal shot, but that is not how it works.  The story covers several thousand years, but there is not much explained about why that needs to happen like that. Especially for over two and a half hours…

Chloé Zhao is an Academy Award winning Director. She directed “Eternals”, and was also one of script writers. There is a lot of new territory covered in this movie. There is a gay superhero that is treated as a normal character. There is a deaf superhero. There are very strong woman leaders as main characters. There is an emphasis on character development and emotions. But this all seems to come at the expense of the main story.

“Eternals” is tough one to sell. Perhaps Marvel figured that an award-winning director would be the best selling point for the movie. Perhaps that will turn out to be correct. But for the people who sit in the audience, perhaps making them sit through the entire movie (including a mid-credits and an end-credits scenes) maybe that length will seem “Eternal”….