When a film series reaches more than twenty films things can get a bit stale. Despite focusing on different characters, and telling some different kinds of stories, the films in the MCU tend to feel like they follow a similar structure, and do sometimes become a bit interchangeable. Two of the more recent entries in the series have felt like they've done something very different, however, and have tried to make films that break a lot of those conventions. One was Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings which other than a handful of references throughout the movie, was just an amazing martial arts fantasy film. The other is Eternals, though I find it harder to narrow down exactly what kind of film it is.
Eternals tells the story of a group of alien beings, the Eternals, who were sent to Earth thousands of years ago by the Celestial Arishem in order to protect it from deadly creatures called Deviants. These beings, each with their own amazing abilities, spent centuries protecting mankind, helping them to survive against the Deviants, and even guided their early progression. Despite this, they were ordered never to interfere in human wars, and to allow the people to develop on their own.
In the modern day, five hundred years after the last Deviant was killed, one of the Eternals, Sersi, is attacked by a new, powerful kind of Deviant in London. She's saved by Ikaris, one of the most powerful Eternals, and they set out to reunite with the rest of their people in order to stop the deviants. Along the way they begin to learn more about the Deviants, their own origin, and a threat to Earth that will see the planet destroyed.
The plot of Eternals isn't too complex in its most basic form, monsters have started to appear, the heroes have to band back together and stop the end of the world. It's the smaller details, however, that make this a much more complex and engaging narrative.
The film spends a lot of time exploring the history of the Eternals, which it needs to do as audiences will have never seen these characters before, and their history is a major part of the story. This film has to be an origin story for several characters all at once, as well as telling the story set in the present day, and it's not an easy thing to manage. The characters share an origin, yes, but you still need to take the time to set up each of the characters, their personalities, their motivations, and the things that matter to them. For the most part the film does this well, and the times when we jump backwards in time to see the Eternals going through major events slot in nicely into the main narrative, and even help to inform the events in the present day.
Because of all of the time spent taking a look at the characters and their history the film goes for long periods without much action, and the film quickly becomes more of a character driven story over the expected super-hero action-fest. I honestly liked this approach, and kind of forgot that this was supposed to be a comic book film half of the time. I was happy to spend time with the characters, and simple things like watching them catch up after centuries apart, crowded around a table eating diner together were some of the more delightful moments in the film.
That being said, I really liked the action when it did happen. Eternals tries to do something different when it comes to the look of the action, and the powers of the Eternals are quite beautiful to look at. I loved the way Thena would form her weapons and shields from golden energy, and how the same effect would wind its way around Gilgamesh's arms when he fought. Sersi's power to transform one thing into another often looked very beautiful, and the double-decker bus she explodes into a shower of rose petals was a stunning moment. Even Ikaris, who is very similar to Superman in the way he fought and flies, felt like he was done well enough to stand apart from the DC icon. I also appreciated how Makkari, the Eternals speedster, was always shown as being fast. The film didn't do that thing that often happens with speedsters, where the world around them slows down so that we can see things from their perspective.
The visual flair wasn't just in the action of the effects of the Eternals powers though, as Eternals might have some of the best looking moments in the MCU to date. Director Chloe Zhao has an eye for beautiful moments, and there are so many scenes here that look phenomenal. I think that's another part of the reason why I enjoyed the film so much, it looked so different from other MCU movies. It has a style all its own, and whilst it feels like part of that world it's still doing its own thing and standing by itself.
I think Eternals got something of a rough deal from folks when it came out, as I saw so much criticism about the movie. People were saying things like 'the characters have silly names', 'the plot is too slow', 'it's filled with woke casting' or simply just complaints that it wasn't what people had come to expect from a Marvel movie. The MCU is so large, so vast that of course there's room for different films within it. Not every one of them needs to be the same plot, the same humour, the same characters, the same designs over and over and over. Eternals seemed to try and break away from that. It was different, and bold compared to most of the other entries. And that got it criticism and hate that was completely undeserved.
I really enjoyed Eternals. It felt like the kind of super hero movie that we'd never have gotten even ten years ago. It was bold in its design choices, diverse in its casting, and interesting in its approach to this kind of story. Out of most of the MCU films this is one of the few that was more than just entertaining, and was a film that I could see myself watching more than once to learn more, to delve deeper into it, and to enjoy even more the next time round.
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