Posted by Diverse team of aliens spending 7000 years on Earth have an identity crisis as they question their almighty maker.
The worst reviewed MCU movie. The first MCU movie to be labelled as “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes. Marvel’s first failure. We have to talk about Eternals.
But, before I get to that – can I just say thank you to the couple that sat behind me in this movie. Obviously on a first date, they decided to converse through the entire movie as they got to know one another.
“Do you like Star Wars?”
“Oh, these actors are from Game of Thrones, have you seen that?”
“Do you usually stay for the post credit scenes?”
Oh please just shut up! If you’re on a date, go for a meal! Walk through a park. But why go to a movie on it’s opening night? I’ve always been of the mindset the cinema is an antisocial place to go. Unless I know someone well enough not to talk to them during the movie, I tend to go alone. Maybe I’m just bitter in being made to feel like the third wheel.
Back to Eternals. I was intrigued by this movie based on the early reviews that were released. At the time of writing Eternals has a 48% Rotten Tomato score. Does it warrant such bad reviews? No. No it does not. This movie was like the anti-Dune to me. A movie that seems to be globally disliked, but one that I actually enjoyed. I’m not saying it’s the best MCU movie or anything, but it definitely does not deserve to be labelled the worst. I enjoyed this far more than The Incredible Hulk, Captain Marvel, and in terms of Phase 4 of Marvel movies I enjoyed this more than Black Widow. If I were to have guessed, I’d have said Eternals would get a Rotten Tomato score of 75% or something. So, the bad reviews were definitely a surprise to me. Also, I believe Rotten Tomato has recently become more a case of movie review scores where people jump on the bandwagon. In many ways this movie reminded me of reaction to Zach Snyder’s DC movies. Not as bad a movie as reviews stated. An interesting comparison that I will come back to later.
Eternals follows a team of aliens landing on Earth 7000 years ago – mythical heroes that have been instructed to not get overly involved in human evolution – and therefore human politics and war. 7000 years is a long time – trust me, I had to sit through Space Jam 2 and that was just 2 hours – so inevitably there comes a time where these heroes have their differences. The movie mainly follows Sersi (Gemma Chan), one of ten Eternals, that has issues with a past relationship with Eternal Ikaris (Richard Madden). The other Eternals are – Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Gilgamesh (Don Lee), Thena (Angelina Jolie), and leader Ajak (Salma Hayek).
As you can see that’s a lot of characters. I was going to go into what each of their individual superpowers are but I don’t think it’s necessary. With so many characters I was surprised that both Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek play supporting roles rather than leading. When you think of their status within Hollywood I would have thought they’d be the ones carrying the film but that’s not the case. That’s not to say their characters aren’t explored. I think director Chloé Zhao does an excellent job balancing each character’s traits. That isn’t easy, especially when you consider the first Avengers movies gave each of their major characters their own movie before teaming up. I particularly liked the strain the characters felt in having the same company after many millennia. The characters turn against each other several times, but also accept differences fairly quickly. Perhaps after 7000 years they learnt the art of moving past pettiness.
I enjoyed the diversity of the characters too, from race through to sexual orientation and even featuring the first deaf superhero in the MCU. I don’t want to make too much of a big deal about this, I believe we should be at a point in time where we don’t have to call out diversity. We are all equals on this planet and you shouldn’t be defined by your sexual orientation or gender etc etc. I know this movie has been banned in some countries due to a kiss shared by a gay couple, but the way I see it is simple – f*ck those countries! Accept it or find your own superheroes.
There’s a lot made about Eternals not following the MCU formula. I think this is a good thing, Eternals feels like a breath of fresh air. I enjoy the Marvel product, but if all movies continue following the same formula things will very quickly start to feel stale. It makes this truly feel like a stand alone Marvel movie which is a positive. I hear some complaining about this movie feeling too different, but then I hear the same complaints about Marvel following the same formula too. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Just enjoy it for what it is.
Speaking of different, this is the first Marvel movie that features a sex scene! That surprised me. I’m not sure why, sex is always implied in previous movies, whether it was Tony Stark’s one night stands or Peter Quill’s “Jackson Pollock” line in Guardians of the Galaxy. I guess once again it didn’t feel part of the Marvel product. In my opinion a bit of change is a good thing after 25 movies.
I haven’t seen Chloé Zhao’s previous movies. I heard Nomadland is a beautifully shot movie – it’s on my list of movies to watch. I’ve also heard Chloé Zhao lingers too long into those beautiful shots in this movie. I didn’t think this. I liked the long scenic shots, perhaps a result of not seeing Nomadland.
I didn’t feel Eternals was overly long. Not once did I look at my watch to see how long was left of the movie, something I’ve done several times in recent movies I’ve seen. It only felt long because I went to a late showing and it was very late when I left the cinema to return home. If anything, I was left wanting more at the end of the movie. It finishes fairly abruptly. The post credit scenes also introduce new characters that I’m not going to pretend I know. What I do know is I’m interested in seeing where the story goes from here. And I’m even more interested in seeing how Eternals fits in with the events of the Loki series. Who’s ultimately pulling the strings? The Celestials or the TVA/Kang?
It was interesting hearing DC characters mentioned in this movie. For those that may not know, Marvel and DC are competitors. Marvel own characters such as Ironman, Captain America, Hulk and Spider-Man, whilst DC own the likes of Batman, Superman and Wonder-Woman. Owned by different movie studios, it felt out of place hearing Superman as a character mentioned in this movie. Going back to an earlier point, I read Chloé Zhao was inspired by Zack Snyder’s take on his DC movies. Is it a coincidence the reaction to this movie is similar to those of Zack Snyder? It seems like both directors like to explore the mythical nature of their superheroes and characters questioning their place on this planet.
As mentioned, Eternals isn’t the best MCU movie. It has it’s flaws. Firstly – I’m not a fan of opening text crawls. The only time and place for this is a Star Wars movie. Anywhere else and I feel it’s just a quick way to play catch up for the vast amount of material you have to go through. Lord of the Rings handled this well visually. Then there’s the lack of humans in this movie. For a movie that relies a lot on the Eternals’s relationship with humanity, humanity is absent through most of the movie bar Kingo’s manager Karun. Oh I have to mention Karun – played by Harish Patel – brings about the best laughs in this movie alongside Kingo himself. Anyone that says this movie is too serious and lacking comedy is dead inside.
The climax also included some dodgy CGI. I found myself feeling like I was watching a computer game at times. Speaking of climax, the absence of one character choosing to sit out the final battle felt a bit odd to me too. It just didn’t fit in with the narrative and made me wonder if the actor playing this character just wasn’t able to make that day of shooting or something. Very strange.
Verdict
Ignore the negativity surrounding the Eternals and give it a chance. No way is this the worst MCU movie, let alone “rotten”. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable movie that is different from other MCU movies in a good way.