Film: Eternals

 

GENRE: Action, Drama
RATING: PG-13 for violence, some language and brief sexuality
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 37 minutes
PLATFORM: Movie Theatre
STARRING: Gemma Chan (Transformers: The Last Knight)
Richard Madden (Game of Thrones); Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick)
DIRECTOR: Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)
WRITERS: Zhao (Nomadland); Patrick Burleigh (Peter Rabbit 2);
Ryan & Kaz Firpo (newcomers)
PLOT: A team of powerful heroes try to save the world when one of them is taken out.

FULL DISCLOSURE: My expectations were pretty low for a Marvel film.

STORY STUFF: My first question is why? Why do we need to be introduced to a whole new group of superheroes? While there were a couple fun characters, I’m not itching to see most of them interact with the rest of the MCU. A quick side note - I’m sure Eternals were first but Ikaris just reminded me of Homelander from The Boys. The story has some good action moments but gets bogged down with long emotional stares and too many flashbacks. I blame Zhao for the slow pace. I also saw a couple twists coming from a mile away. And because I don’t read the comic books, I had to do a bunch of research to figure out why I should care about the two post-credit sequences. My worry is the MCU is going to get too big where I find myself numb and not caring like I used to. I hope I’m wrong.

ACTING STUFF: Thank goodness for Nanjiani; he saved the film for me. His quick humour and keen moments of insight was a breath of fresh air. He can join the Avengers at any time. I also enjoyed the work of Chan and Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta). Was not a fan of Barry Keoghan as Druig or Madden – they just rubbed me the wrong way. It was nice to see a lighter side of Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones) though. I did not understand why Angelina Jolie was in this film. She didn’t add much and made things slower.

ARTISTIC STUFF: There are some great special effects throughout the film but I expect that of Marvel. The sinewy Deviants were well constructed and menacing. The forest scene, however, was lit way too dark for a Marvel film – it reminded me of DC schlock.

VERDICT: Two and half stars out of five
SEE IT IF: You want to prepare yourself for future Marvel films
UPCOMING REVIEW: Ghostbusters: Afterlife