Eternals is a visually stunning masterpiece and a fresh story for this latest Marvel Cinematic installment. However, did this movie fulfill it’s premise? Let’s find out!
This vast story is spreading across thousands of years, in which the immortal heroes are sent to Earth by the Celestials, to stop creatures called the Deviants from wreaking havoc!
Here is a very brief summary for some of the abilities and names of Eternals characters played by Gemma Chan (Sersi: has the ability to transform objects into other substances), Richard Madden (Ikaris: basically has abilities near enough similar to Superman and Cyclops combined), Kumail Nanjiani (Kingo: is able to project cosmic energy).
Lia McHugh (Sprite; mostly shown are her illusions throughout), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos: has such an incredible ability to create and could advance technology for entire civilizations, if he wanted to!).
Lauren Ridloff (Makkari: one of the fastest speedsters… out of who are alive!), Barry Keoghan (Druig: has the ability to control minds), Don Lee (Gilgamesh: very cool cosmic punches), Salma Hayek (Ajak: has the ability to heal herself and others)
and Angelina Jolie (Thena: a fierce warrior with cosmic weapon manifestation). Lastly, not an Eternal, there is Dane Whitman, who is played by Kit Harington, due to spoilers, Dane will still be known as a History Professor.
These characters are of course very advanced cosmic beings and the director: Chloé Zhao, does a great job at presenting these Eternals as relatable and grounded as possible by giving them an ‘everyday life’ feel and so much emotion expressed in multiple scenes both in the present and how they react to their surroundings in the past with their roles.
There are brief initimate scenes; these build up more empathy for the characters and their relationships with eachother. There are relationships that are rocky between them all, disagreements, especially the love triangle between Sersi, Ikaris and Dane. The akwardness is easily felt in the beginning upon their meeting just after an action sequence in Camden Lock. There didn’t feel like much great romantic chemistry for Sersi and Ikaris. Dane was clearly a better love interest.
Eternals is a movie that focuses heavily on building up context for all of the characters, that is used throughout to drive the plot. As the time passes by, with the frequent use of flashbacks; this covers themes well for connection, betrayal, deception, heartbreak and chaos! Surprisinly, this manages not to be a chronological mess! As scenes are being placed at just the right moments to inform and bring shocking surprises for certain characters’ intentions.
The focus on time is also expressed through audio, with a soundtrack at the beginning, of the song Time by Pink Floyd. This is also a common structure for Marvel movies playing classic hit songs in their sequences too.
There were multiple antagonists in the movie, especially a character that Bill Skarsgård voices called Kro, it’s clear that he can pull off a great villainous voice. The antagonists do have very blurred lines for why they have bad intensions, with plot twists along the way! This helps set up so much and their actions leads to a grand scale of consequences at the end of the movie.
This is definitely a movie that has progressed further in terms of natural story telling and with a much more self-referenced sub-context and pop culture referenced humour than ever before! A supporting actor and unexpected ‘comic-relief’ Harish Patel who played Karun; a valet for Kingo, did such an amazing job at bringing light-hearted funny moments during the darker tones and intense action scenes of the movie. It also makes the Marvel Cinematic Universe more realistic now, when ordinary people are all aware of the strange things that are happening and choose to just accept there being other-wordly beings and superhumans with huge threat issues happening around them, plus half of the population already experienced the blip.
Getting to how the film looks, from the costumes to the increbible cinematography of landscapes, the warm and vibrant tones are pleasing to the eye. The new way of showing speedster abilities felt completely original with the sun changing positions in the sky while running, enables the physics to look more realistic.
This movie also incorporates and builds upon the beautiful visual legacy of movies such as Avengers Infinity War/Endgame and Shang-Chi and Legend of the Ten Rings, especially in the way powers are presented, that seems to be fitting very well with this new style of MCU. All while keeping it’s own fresh content on the plate. This is a highly recommended film to watch!
The lengthy runtime is also fully justified with the main cast recieving suitable screen time, and the pacing is perfect, for most parts in order to keep up with so much that is happening. This is in no way at all a rushed movie. There is a lot of revealing moments when teasing more about future projects as well. This movie fulfilled it’s premise and offered so much more than expected!
What are your thoughts on this movie? Let us know @chatterboxfilm on Twitter.
