Academy Award Winner Chloe Zhao’s “Eternals” is not good, but unlike the slew of increasingly tiring and formulaic Marvel fare there are some bright spots.
The film follows immortal characters entrusted with guarding humanity against ‘Deviants’ for seven millenia, and registers the burden of their power, influences, and immortality. Zhao’s visual style embraces the textures of the physical world more than anything we’ve seen so far in the regularly augmented MCU reality.
The ginormous celestial being Arishem dispatches the Eternals to protect planets around the galaxy infested with monsters known as Deviants. The team entrusted as guardians of Earth are Ajak, their healing and stoic leader played Salma Hayak. Thena, the weapon-wielding warrior, played by Angelina Jolie. Sersi, the matter alterer played by Gemma Chan. Ikaris, a flying, eye-layering, Superman substitute, played Richard Madden. Kingo the finger-gun, power blasting – Kumail Nanjiani. Sprite the shapeshifter played by Lia McHugh. Phastos, the master inventor played by Brian Tyree Henry. Makkari, the Flash-like, mute speedster, played Lauren Ridloff. Druig, the mind-controlling puppet master played by Barry Keoghan. And Gilgamesh, the brutish, yet sweet, hammer fisted Ma Dong-seok.
As the Eternals come to terms with completing their mission, they must reflect on their purpose, on their impacts and ask, are they pawns in a larger intergalactic game.
One of the main issues that come up with immortal characters or impervious characters in the ilk of Superman is how they’ve been able to cope with their place in the world. If we’re meant to accept the Eternals role in the MCU (charting from 5000 BC to present), they have lived through and been exempt – somehow – from the effects of Thanos’ universal reset.
So even though this is a standalone entry, there’s almost an obligation that the characters address it. How did this ready-made superhero team stand by during the swathe of destruction levelled by the Mongol and Roman Empires, the Spanish Inquisition, two World Wars and the dawn of the nuclear age? Credit goes to writers Zhao, Patrick Burleigh with Ryan and Kaz Firpo and they not only address it, but it becomes pivotal to the mission catalogue of the Eternals.
One scene in the film features Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos and Salma Hayak’s Ajak appraising the fall out of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Phastos is inconsolable, questioning every moment in his time on Earth that his suggestion has fostered a leap in human technological evolution. Ajak attempts to console him, but the barren ashen chasm, once a vibrant cityscape filled with humanity, is crippling. It’s either a positive and moving example of comic book movies accessing real existential quandaries or a callous example of the depths of corporate greed that uses profound tragedy for pseudo-entertainment. The answer? It’s probably both.
Zhao’s dominant style in “Eternals” ties to proximity, capturing how light embraces her characters and how personal space relates to intimacy. It’s refreshing to have her lyrical, Malick-acolyte style finding its way into the glib, banter-laden exchanges of this crew of superheroic individuals being thrust together.
The “Eternals” are blank slates at the beginning of their mission; they’re ‘born’ with no previous memories of the trauma of the past – their personalities and chemistry are formed on the mission, but their purpose – for better or worse – is innate. There’s also more deliberate formal symbolism in Zhao’s work that is quite refreshing. For example, the use of sunrise and sunsets throughout the film to chart the time of the Eternals on Earth – sunrise for beginnings and sunsets to imply the end drawing near.
Sadly though, the movie around these blind spots is a dour slog. The focal characters – Chan’s Sersi, Madden’s Ikaris and Lia McHugh’s Sprite are all charmless and boring. They and the majority of the crew don’t register any chemistry.
That’s a far cry from the press tour where you can see that the more time this ensemble have had together parrying off questions about sequels and diversity, the more they look like they’re having fun. In particular, Salma Hayak has dived in front of co-stars like a secret service officer diving in front of a prospective assassination bullet. None of that exists in the film.
Also, there’s not a laugh in or around this movie. The earnestness is crippling. One would hope that a coping mechanism of watching the human race destroy itself ad infinitum for seven millennia would maybe result in a character that resorted to gallows (or any) humour.
A good example of this frustration is that we’ve had a year of comic and writer Kumail Nanjiani shelling out Instagram thirst traps seemingly pushing a narrative that his character Kingo would use muscles. Instead, he’s relegated to comic relief that’s so contrived and on the nose that it genuinely causes one to ask – is this stereotype too much?
The times that the “Eternals” embraced an MCU adjacent “Only Lovers Left Alive” feeling, the more I found myself leaning forward, hoping for Chloe Zhao to create something miraculous. Then suddenly, I hear my subconscious whisper, “Forget it, Blake, it’s Marvel-Town”.
