Eternals

 

Thousands of years ago, the god-like Celestial Arishem (voiced by David Kaye) sent the super-powered Eternals to earth to wipe out the predatory Deviants and watch over humanity without interfering in human affairs. Over the years, the Eternals drifted apart, but a new Deviant threat has caused former lovers Sersi (Gemma Chan) and Ikaris (Richard Madden) along with the perpetually pubescent Sprite (Lia McHugh) to reunite. Together, they seek out the others despite debates over their mission and purpose that divided them years ago.

 

The newest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of its riskiest ventures, but not for the reasons you might think. In comic book lore, the Eternals were born from Jack Kirby’s desire to keep exploring mythological epics. He created what amounted to bootleg versions of the Greek Pantheon rebranded as an alien race that inspired the myths, a nonsensical proposition given that the “actual” Pantheon existed in Marvel’s world as well. Even after attempts at streamlining and modernization by Neil Gaiman and others, the team seemed an unlikely candidate for the big screen and an even unlikelier film for director/writer Chloe Zhao, best known for more low-key, personal, naturalistic fare. Then again, these same criticisms could have been levied against Guardians of the Galaxy – obscure characters and idiosyncratic director – and that proved to be one of Marvel’s biggest successes. This was not the risk, nor was it the film’s inclusion of deaf and gay heroes: Marvel has not exactly been a stranger to diversity. Rather, the gamble here was in trying to make a film that is the inverse of everything in its shared universe yet still fits within it.

 

Marvel movies are often derided by critics for being predictable entertainment. This falsely presumes a homogeneity and shallowness that several films within the oeuvre can easily challenge, but let’s take the criticism at face value for now. Its antithesis, therefore, would be a provocative slog, and that is largely what the Eternals amounts to, something that would be considerably more forgivable were not the writing so poor.

 

To the film’s credit, Eternals boasts visual panache and handsome production design. While some of the cosmic visuals are goofy and the rendering of Deviants as generic monsters disappointing, the film makes good use of its globe-spanning settings, depicting everything from ancient Babylon to the contemporary Amazon. Ramin Djawadi’s score isn’t terribly memorable, but it’s certainly not a liability here.

 

Beyond that, Eternals at least grasps – even if it doesn’t always hit – at a number of weighty issues. The film’s central conflict is a familiar one of ends vs. means, but there are a number of other ideas raised and grappled with. The engineer/inventor Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) is confronted with the horrors of the technological progress that he enabled while Sprite’s angst at not being able to age and being stuck in a body that doesn’t suit her can be read as a trans allegory.

 

However, these virtues come at a considerable cost. The film is slow and poorly paced, bloated with an excess of exposition early on and marred by a nonsensical conclusion that allows for previously unexplained abilities to manifest as the plot demands. Along the way, there isn’t much characterization to speak of. Chan has plenty of screen time, but her character feels underwritten, especially outside the context of her past (Ikaris) and present (work colleague Dane Whitman, played by Kit Harrington) relationships, a sharp contrast to the extrovert of the source material. The talents of big-name stars Salma Hayak and Angelina Jolie are largely squandered as their characters, the thoughtful leader Ajak and the fearsome but damaged warrior Thena, simply aren’t given much to do. Druig, a cunning manipulator in the comics, is toned down and played by a miscast Barry Keoghan as a petulant cynic. Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo, who has used his agelessness to start a successful Bollywood dynasty, has a few amusing moments, but the film goes out of its way to treat him and his valet Karun (Harish Patel) as designated comic relief, cheapening the performance. Even Madden, who delivers one of the better performances as an anguished and detached quasi-Superman, is undermined by his character’s predictable trajectory.

 

While not a failure on all fronts, Eternals is a disappointment. In a way, it is more of a DCEU film than an MCU one, sacrificing pacing and character development at the altar of stylish myth-making.