Eternals
review by Bobby Blakey
Fans have been chomping at the bit for their Marvel fix since it all got delayed due to the pandemic last year. Thankfully we had the Disney+ series WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to feed the need. One of the most anticipated and mysterious project is that of the Eternals starring Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Barry Keoghan, Angelina Jolie and Kit Harington with Nomadland director Chloe Zhao. Could this be yet another big hit for Marvel or will it be a story not worth the legacy?
Eternals follows a race of immortal beings who lived on Earth and shaped its history and civilizations. Following the events of Avenger: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
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During this long highly successful run of the MCU there have only been a couple films that were big risks. The Eternals might be the biggest risk yet for a few reasons most notable being the lack of most average viewers having no knowledge of the characters as well as the overall style of it all. While I didn’t hate the movie I will say it might be my least favorite Marvel film to date. Part of that might be my lack of fandom for the characters and I think it might connect more with repeat viewings, but walking away this time I was left underwhelmed.
Zhao brings her own look to the film that is beautiful and probably the least Marvel movie to date. I said something similar about Shang-Chi, but this one is all its own. The film looks and feels epic flowing through history successfully and never feeling convoluted. The issue comes in the characters and the villain. I loved all these characters and the actor’s performances, but there is nothing to really connect with them on. Despite trying it still feels like we have been dropped into a story we should already know and if you don’t you might not care.
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The designs for the Deviants and Celestials is pretty cool with the exception to the main Deviant at the end of the film that just looked too CGI for me. It doesn’t look horrible, but after what Marvel has given us in the past it seemed weak. The looks and powers of the Eternals is cool and exciting to watch despite some of them sidelined during the action. Thankfully everyone gets to get in on the action at some point and all these scenes are pretty fun to watch. While all these Earth shattering events are occurring you can’t help but wonder where the Avengers or other heros are to help out and that becomes an issue when world building like this.
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The entire cast is great and fun to watch and offer some great banter filled with laughs and heart, but it never gives them enough time to really connect with them. It leaves things with the obvious option for more adventures with the Eternals, but they might play off better as characters that are reoccurring in other adventures or a series instead to give them more purpose and time to build.
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Despite what it might sound like, I did not hate this movie. I enjoyed it a lot more than I had expected since the trailers weren’t really doing much for me and I look forward to diving into it once again, but something this big just needed more to it to fully deliver something to really stand out. Per usual there are a couple of after credit scenes that were fun and will make the hardcore fans excited to see where they might be taking things in the future.
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In addition to the film this release offers up bonus content including commentary, gag reel, deleted scenes, featurettes and more. Grab your copy of Marvel’s Eternals available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on February 15th from Disney and Marvel Studios.