Beyond the amazing visuals, Marvel’s Eternals carries a lot of heart.
Synopsis
Ten immortal beings, who have been scattered across Earth and protecting it for 7000 years from Deviants, reunite to prevent a looming apocalypse.
Overview
Despite mixed reviews leading up to its release, Eternals proves itself to be an engaging, beautiful film with fantastic character arcs. I genuinely had a difficult time choosing my favorite characters and abilities, due to the depth of each individual within the ensemble cast and the impressive ways they each used their unique power sets. In fact, my one big complaint is that some of the characters don’t get enough screen time because I wanted more of all of them! The story, while not entirely unpredictable, is captivating nonetheless due to the character’s struggles mixed with the stunning visuals. This may not be my favorite MCU film, but it immediately found its way into my top five.
**Spoilers below**
The Eternals
The best part about this movie is the Eternals themselves. Each and every one of them captured my attention and imagination. For a group of people who have all had to spend the past seven millennia with the same directive and backstory, an immortal race among a different species, they each still manage to have a completely unique character arc along the way as a result of their individual attributes or experiences. Anyone struggling with the same issues for several thousand years is bound to reach a breaking point eventually, and each Eternal encounter this phenomena in a different way.
Sprite (Lia McHugh), for example, is significantly older than everyone in the entire world aside from her fellow Eternals, but can never be taken seriously by humans because she looks forever young. More so than the other Eternals, who sometimes strive for romantic relationships but have to contend with their significant other’s mortality, Sprite doesn’t even have a shot at love because she’s older than those who appear her age, but would not be able to date an adult since she looks like a child. Even the immortal man she does love doesn’t consider her as an option. After eons of living like this, it’s understandable that she is jealous of humans and willing to give up her powers to become one of them.
Druig (Barry Keoghan) has the ability to control the minds of all humans in the vicinity. It’s really no wonder he decides to use it to stop conflict and attempt to improve the lives of a civilization by taking control over them. I would have expected such a character to become villainous over time, but instead, he clearly has a good heart and ultimately realizes he should not interfere on a grander scale than his small community. Granted, he still probably shouldn’t have controlled those people, but come on, like he’s not going to do something with his powers after five thousand years of being forced to hold back.
Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), who is the first major gay character in the MCU, has an altogether different struggle. With the power to invent complex and ingenious contraptions, it is all he can do during their time on Earth not to assist humanity too quickly in advancing their developments. And then Hiroshima happens. While Druig feels frustrated for not interfering enough, Phastos feels guilt for helping humanity reach devastating levels of power and destruction. Despite all this, he still is one of the only two Eternals who ultimately finds love with a human, and is the only one of the entire crew to raise a family. It’s wonderful to see that he is able to forgive humanity for the suffering they bring on themselves and find solace in recognizing the good that still remains within them.
Thena (Angelina Jolie) and Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok, as credited as Don Lee) are forced to live in isolation for the last couple millennia after Thena begins to lose her mind, sending her into unpredictable fits of mindless attack, with Gilgamesh being the only one who can calm her down. Undeterred by the unfortunate lot their lives have drawn, they make the most of their small, simple lives in Australia. Gilgamesh did not have to sacrifice living among society just because someone else is ill, but he chooses to anyway out of his love for Thena—be this platonic or romantic love, since no romance between Thena and Gilgamesh is explicitly shown on screen. As someone who has had to make personal sacrifices, myself, to improve the wellbeing of my spouse who navigates life as a chronically ill person, this decision rings out beautifully to me and I am so happy to see the joy he finds in the situation. Ultimately, it is his willingness to do whatever it takes to protect the one he loves that inspires Thena to fight back against Kro (Bill Skarsgård), an inspiration she then passes along to Sersi (Gemma Chan) to go against the mission and take the plunge to save Earth.
Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) is more than just the comic relief, although he excels in that role as well. Kingo’s arc is interesting, because he loves humanity, but ultimately chooses not to interfere to save Earth because he believes that Earth’s sacrifice will allow for 10x more precious people to have a chance to exist. It’s hard to fault him for his reasoning, since it’s a decision he makes out of love and foresight into the potential of what could be, instead of just focusing on what is. I hate that this decision makes it to where he’s not in the finale, but at the same time I’m fascinated by a character who chooses to bow out of the conflict altogether instead of stand with either side out of peer pressure. That’s not a choice typically seen in stories, and in this case it did not come across as cowardice, but as a decision to stay true to himself and his convictions.
Ajak (Salma Hayek) is not in the film very much, only in flashbacks due to being killed before the movie starts. However, what little we see of her is still intriguing. Not only is she the leader of the Eternals, but she’s the only one who’s memories have remained intact for millions of years, throughout several iterations of the mission. She has always served the will of the Celestials, but after all this time, humans are the ones to change her heart because of the impressive nature they showed in the face of Thanos. It takes a lot of guts to completely change an opinion on something you’ve blindly believed in for millions of years, but she decides to fight for her new convictions, at the cost of her life.
Ikaris (Richard Madden) doesn’t seem to have had much of a struggle in life on Earth, like some of the other Eternals, until a fateful moment in Babylon that goes on to shape his next 2000 years. He is the only one Ajak lets in on the secret of their mission – and it destroys him. For 2000 years, he closes himself off from love—both of humanity and his wife—to lessen the blow when the time comes. Having so much time to prepare for the “inevitable,” Ikaris is willing to kill his own leader and oppose his ex-wife to stick with the mission. Though he ends up helping Sersi and the others at the last minute, he can’t handle this decision and ultimately takes himself out in probably the most dramatic way possible. There are many instances in the comics where something gets yeeted into the sun, an aspect severely lacking in superhero movies—with the exception of Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern—but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone actually throw themselves into the sun of their own accord.
In the midst of an ensemble cast, Sersi shines as the overall protagonist. Spending most of her history coasting along and loving the people of Earth, the setting of the film is the moment where she is forced to find her voice, make the tough choices, and push herself beyond what she ever thought possible. Despite Arishem’s (David Kaye) claim that the Eternals are designed in such a way that they cannot evolve—something that has already been proven false by the other characters’ internal evolutions—Sersi, like Kro, is able to evolve her abilities in new and powerful ways, leading her to save the day.
And then there’s Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), as the one exception. I was so excited to get a deaf superhero, especially since they haven’t explicitly said in the MCU that Clint (Jeremy Renner) is hard of hearing (although he does seem to be wearing a hearing aid in the trailers for his upcoming show.) However, Makkari is barely in this movie—not even showing up in the present day scenes until the start of the third act. She’s clearly a badass, but otherwise I still don’t know much about her, except her budding romance with Druig. Her only personal struggle seems to be coming to terms with the news that her entire life has been a lie, but this is an issue all the other Eternals also deal with throughout the movie. She doesn’t really change or grow. I wish there was more of her because she has so much potential, plus I enjoyed all the times she did appear.
Abilities
While all of the Eternals have the same origin point, they each have unique abilities, though they are fueled by a similar gold energy. Altogether, they have a helpful mix of offensive and defensive power sets, though even those can be mixed and matched to some degree. Just as it’s difficult for me to decide which character I like best, I also like each power on its own merit enough to have trouble deciding the best one. If I had to pick, I’d say the top three would be Thena’s weapons arsenal, Phastos’ devices, and Sersi’s transmutations—largely because they are the least commonly seen elsewhere, as well as being wonderfully tackled here.
Visuals
This is easily the most gorgeous MCU movie—and one of the most beautiful movies even outside of that category. I’m not much of a visual person myself but even I was blown away, specifically by the gold design of the various abilities: Sprite’s illusions, the grandeur of the Celestials, and Sersi’s transmutations. Even if the rest of the movie had actually been as awful as early critics seemed determined to make it out to be, the spectacle alone makes it worth watching.
Flow
In some ways a mystery story, the film plays out by intermixing flashbacks spanning the history of the Eternals with present day content. There’s a sense along the way that something isn’t quite right, but it’s difficult to put your finger on precisely why, until bits and pieces are gradually revealed. I knew something was up when Ajak died off screen, but I still didn’t fully predict the true nature of her death. All in all, I can see some viewers potentially getting confused by the bouncing narrative, which may have caused some of the negative reviews, but it works well in this type of story.
Issues
As much as I love this film, there are a couple things that could have been done better. More Makkari, for starters, and Phastos is only in it marginally more than her as well. It’s difficult to balance a group of ten, plus Dane (Kit Harington) who is being setup on his own upcoming journey, but it could have worked if groups of people were brought in together more often, instead of one by one in most cases. It also would have been great to have Kingo included in the final battle, not to mention bringing purpose to the footage his valet (Harish Patel) shot along the way. Sure, much of it got destroyed, but at least some of the film documentation survived.
Conclusion
I had an absolute blast with this movie. Between the fantastic characters and their struggles, as well as the brilliant visuals, this is already one of my top MCU films. Granted, there is something about it that plays more as a fantasy film than a superhero movie, but it’s certainly not the only one in the franchise to lean that direction. As a whole, great movie with only minor complaints.
Score: 9/10
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