Post Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has exploded into more stories and characters than ever before with multiple threads happening at once. We are also seeing the MCU introduce new characters into its ever growing universe with the biggest new addition being the Eternals. For a quick explainer on who the Eternals are, they are heroes created by the Celestials to help with the progress of humans and to protect them from monsters called Deviants throughout history.
One of the things that had me the most excited for Eternals was this being the debut of Academy Award winning director Chloe Zhao who we last saw directing 2020’s Best Picture Nomadland. You see her influence mostly in the visuals, using more real locations than CG sets. This pays off in the most visually striking Marvel movie the MCU has ever had. Zhao was also a co-writer for this movie and this is less impressive. It seems that there was a struggle to balance between traditional, quip-filled MCU dialogue and more slowly paced conversation. I like most of the things that Zhao went for movie, especially when it comes to the visuals, and even though not everything seemed to hit like they wanted it too, the effort was greatly appreciated.
One of the biggest hurdles for this movie was having to debut and introduce this massive group of characters that most people, like me who would consider themselves Marvel fans have no idea who they are. For the most part this movie does a pretty good job of doing this task. The two stand outs from this group are Sersi (Gemma Chan) and Ikaris (Richard Madden), who do a great job of playing characters who’s relationship status is “Its Complicated”. With this many moving parts, you can’t help but want more time with a lot of these characters especially Makkari (Lauren Ridoff), whose signing speedster character is a standout, even with her limited screen time. I wish every Eternal got the time that Sersi and Ikaris got, but I guess that is what the MCU shows are for.
One of the many things going on in Eternals are the underlying themes for this movie that have to do with morality and free will. The mandate from the Celestials was to not interfere in human affairs unless it involved Deviants (this is also how they get around them not interfering with Thanos). It wrestles with morality that stretches beyond just one person or idea. With the Eternals being abandoned by the Celestials till the events of this movie and learning the true purpose of why the Celestials sent them to Earth in the first place. It’s a movie that is worried about conveying scale about bigger forces that move on a timetable that is larger than just one human life.
All of these things plus the traditional MCU action gives us a movie that is overstuffed, getting pulled into different directions, and kinda buckles under the weight of trying to fit so much into its already long run time of 2hrs 37min. Eternals tries to get us to consider where we are, where we have been, and what in our world has changed us, but that is hard to do in the traditional trappings of the MCU.
While I hope that Zhao gets another shot at making a Marvel movie, whether it is Eternals or something else, if this is her only one then I appreciate the effort to try and make something that feels different from what we expect with the MCU even if there were more misses than hits with Eternals.