‘Eternals’ Spoiler-Free Review
An elite ensemble cast forgets about sticking the landing
Chloé Zhao helms the most ambitious Marvel movie since ‘Avengers: Endgame’. Featuring 10 remarkable individuals, who each have a power they’ve been endowed with by an even greater mysterious master. Audiences have a front-row seat to watch the group fight to protect Earth from creatures known as Deviants.
But it’s not all bright spots in this film. The characters must struggle to remain a cohesive team despite their checkered past.
There was palpable anticipation leading up to this movie. Whether you are a die-hard Marvel fan or a casual moviegoer, you were aware that this movie was coming out. Let’s dive in to see if the anticipation was worth the wait…
“Marvel Studios’ Eternals features an exciting new team of Super-Heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.” — Disney Fandom
Spoiler Free Review — Barry’s Bites Score = 7.5
Eternals fulfilled its promise of being a star-studded superhero movie. Chloe Zhao directed a cast that’s brimming with talent and superseded their scenes with exceptional use of ascetically pleasing graphics. But it also tests the limits of superhero cinema by straddling the fence between being a strong solo movie, while building into the larger Marvel phase 4 plan. With this many characters, it’s hard to set a backstory for each without having the audience get stuck in the weeds.
The first half felt clunky as the movie is laying the back story for this group of exceptional people. With a cast this deep, the filmmakers are responsible for laying a sizable backstory to catch the audience up. It’s an uphill battle since the audience is coming into the movie starting at zero. Unlike the ‘Avengers’ movies where the audience was already familiar with the majority of the characters.
However, it was interesting to see how the movie warped historical figures to match with the Eternals squad. It adds a layer to the characters and attempts to efficiently explain their pasts to the audience. Plus, with a cast this talented it’s not hard to generate engaging scenes. It should almost be illegal to have this much talent in a movie.
‘Eternals’ biggest flaw is the lack of rhythm. It lacks the proper flow between character building and the plot advancing. It tries to solve the riddle of balancing the characters and story by trying to alternate between both. This leads to a choppy first 75% of the movie.
The reward for such a long build-up for the audience is supposed to be the ending result or last battle. However, the resolution felt rushed and seemed like it cared more about the larger Marvel elements than it did the individual character’s story. If you spend 75% of the movie leading up to one certain fight, the filmmakers have to make it worth the audience's time.
We may look back at this Marvel phase and see this movie differently. However, it’s hard not to notice that all of the current Marvel movies seem like pieces of a larger puzzle compared to the first series of Marvel movies, which felt like they could stand alone and still be strong movies.
Having said that, I think this movie is still entertaining. You get to experience a more intimate marvel movie than usual, while also retaining some of the funny banter that has become a quirk of Marvel. Despite its flaws, I would recommend this movie for a weekend watch.
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