Eternals

Official Australian release date: 4/11/21. Viewed: 3/11/21.
Director: Chloé Zhao
Actors: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh
Genre: Action / Sc-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Eternals’ is both a Marvel superhero film, but also not – unlike some other MCU films having lesser-known superheroes, this is almost a parallel universe, or a ‘What If?’ episode, with 10 new Eternals (good immortal aliens) introduced to us in 5,000BC that help save humans from Deviants (bad aliens), sent by Celestials (big aliens). The film spends most of it’s time in 2021, but has plenty of flashbacks over the previous millennia.

As they’re not mainstream heroes, they all seem to have a generic power, with no-one being too special. As with all ensemble casts, not everyone gets much screen-time and it takes a while to figure out who does what and how they fit in. For the record, Ajak (Hayek) is the leader, with Sersi (Chan; the heart of the film) and Ikaris (Madden) essentially acting as the leads/love interests. The next most screen-time goes to Sprite (McHugh, the “kid”) and Kingo (Nanjiani, a little comedic relief). Then there’s Thena (Jolie, barely used), Phastos (Tyree Henry), Makkari (Ridloff), Druig (Keoghan, such a punchable face) and Gilgamesh (Dong-seok). Once you figure out who’s who, it’s basically over!

There’s not really a “big bad guy” as such, and the whole Celestials thing is pretty laughable, but if you go with it, there’s still quite a bit that doesn’t really come together until the end. The final 30min or so is pretty exciting, but there’s certainly a sizeable lull in the middle. It certainly has it’s moments, with some good CGI, but the stakes never seem quite as high as they should and the tone is often a bit too dour, with not as much fun and effervescence as I’d expect. The post-credits scenes create more questions for the next set of films to answer.

Overall: Not bad, just a bit strained

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.