During the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, an ancient alien race that has lived on Earth in shadow for thousands of years, into the light to fight humanity’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao directs “Eternals”, a film that tells the story of 10 members of an immortal race who have spent 7,000 years defending Earth against creatures known as Deviants.
Director Chloe Zhao is not known to me at all. It’s very clear to me that this movie is not part of the same universe as Black Widow and Ant-Man. The effort to make it unique is appreciated. Yet, there’s too much going on and it feels rushed at times.
There are a lot of characters in this movie, but the movie is able to distinguish them well enough. The power sets and personalities of each character are well expressed. I understand that it’s simple, but it’s 2.5 hours with 10 newbies, evil monsters, and a Big Cosmic so it’s not a big deal. To date, this is the longest Marvel film, including the epic Avengers Endgame. There are definitely points where it feels long, but it never feels tedious. With so many characters being developed, we have a lot to pack into the runtime.
Although Eternals is touted as a “very different” film in the MCU, it in many ways is very similar to the films that have come before it. The Deviants, space dog-like creatures that are obvious ripoffs of Halo games from 20 years ago, are the film’s entire villain, and the climax is yet another derivative action scene we’ve seen so many times before.
The visual effects and scenes in the movie are excellent. Throughout the movie, everything feels so real and beautiful. It seems like the storyline of the film is a touch overbearing. That makes it difficult for audiences to absorb the entire film. It has a different style from that of Marvel movies. Eternals is a decent movie at best, but not a truly remarkable one. Despite the blockbuster status of Eternals, the story isn’t very good.
