Eternals is an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name. Directed by Chloé Zhao and released in the USA on November 5, Eternals is the 10th highest-grossing film of 2021.
The plot is about a race of Eternals, immortal beings who have been on Earth for thousands of years protecting mankind from the ancient threat of Deviants which look a lot like cable and wireframe lizard wolves….
The movie has a star-studded ensemble which includes; includes Angelina Jolie as Thena, Salma Hayek as Ajak: Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, and Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos and Kit Harington as Dane Whitman.
The Good
Eternals has exceptional cinematography, with sweeping landscape shots that capture the natural essence of planet Earth. It also blends nicely into the MCU and there’s plenty of easter egg references to MCU canon.
The casting and characters have been hailed for their diversity and inclusivity, for example in the way Angelina Jolie’s character battles mental health, and Lauren Ridloff as Makkari has a hearing impediment, Phastos is the first gay superhero character and Sprite is somewhat androgynous…
The Eternals have different skillsets and part of the fun is in figuring out what their superpowers are, from mind control and transmutation to conjuring weapons from thin air and super strength.
The Bad
There are a lot of characters and there is a lot of back story that needs to be covered for the plot to make maximum impact. That’s a lot of material, and at 2 hours and 35 minutes it’s a long movie and you will feel every minute it.
The back and forth in connecting up the backstories can get a bit a jarring and downright confusing as the first half of the movie is somewhat non-linear hoping from present to past back to present.
The Ugly
For an ancient race that was supposed to be specially skilled to fight deviants they didn’t seem particularly equipped to handle them. Ikaris had some superman vibes going on since he flies and shot lasers out of his eyes which at best seemed awkward in actual combat.
I felt Angelina Jolie’s character Thena was somewhat sidelined and while being part of the more central characters never actually lived up to the rep of Goddess of War.
There were other characters who also deserved more screen time or at least more coverage of their backstories and there were interesting plot points that could have been further developed but instead just used and discarded as plot gimmicks.
Eternals tries to do so much and be so much but ends up spread too thin.
Final Thoughts
Its another MCU production, beautiful cinematography that tries to be so much more and ultimately doesn’t tick all the boxes. If you are not a Marvel fan and haven’t seen the other movies then wouldn’t recommend this one even though its a somewhat standalone installation. Eternals is set soon after the events of Avengers Endgame…. And by the by if the Eternals have been around for thousands of years where were they when Thanos was doing his thing hmmm.
Have you watched Eternals… is it something you would watch?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
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