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| Courtesy of Marvel Studios |
Fresh from sweeping Awards season earlier this year with Nomadland, Chloe Zhao looks to stamp her visionary style on the MCU with Eternals.
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Zhao's film undoubtably marks a departure from the previous entries in the MCU.
First of all, it is the first Marvel film to feature a sex scene. Albeit a brief, tender and very PG-13 one. It also has a same sex couple. Yes, no just someone talking about being gay but showing the couple together, interacting and even sharing a kiss on screen.
Its scope is much grander in scale, spanning centuries. Rather than driven by action, it explores the results of inaction. Here are a group of beings who have the power of Gods. Yet they do not use that power to rule, Rather they use their gifts to give humanity a little nudge here and there.
Under orders from the Celestials not to interfere, this leads to the central conflict between the characters. Some believe they need to do more (Druig argues he could use his mind control to end wars instantly), others feel they have done too much. In a scene taken wildly out of context on Twitter prior to the film's release, Phastos is seen mourning the devastation at Hiroshima, blaming himself for the tragedy. It should be made clear here as it is in the film, just not on social media, that he did not make or detonate the bomb. He merely has provided assistance to the human race in terms of technological advancement.
The "titular" group consists of ten characters. The ranks are filled with a cast more diverse than a 1980s United States of Benetton advert. From A-Listers like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek to rising stars like Korean actor Don Lee.
The nominal leads are played by heroes, and former lovers, Sersei (Gemma Chan) and Icarus (Richard Madden). Tasked with "getting the old gang back together for one final job".
Given the sheer quantity of characters to introduce, and then reintroduce, Eternals is a rather apt name for its 157 minute runtime. Despite the bloated length, the time spent on uniting everyone results in a rushed finale. All the individual actors are good in their roles yet not everyone gets their moment in the sun. Of the cast, Chan brings heart and soul as Sersei but the highlight is Kumail Nanjaini as superhero-turned-Bollywood star Kingo.
As one would from Zhao and cinematographer Ben Davis, the film looks fantastic. In fact, jarringly so. Until one realises that the initial reticene to the visual style is because it not reliant on over-production and CG enhancement. Instead using real locations and natural light where possible.
However once the film enters the third act and its contractual CGI-heavy battle, the two aesthetic styles fail to gel cohesively and the result is disappointingly generic and the effects ropier than usual.
The struggle to successfully incorporate Zhao's storytelling and visual style into the rigid and unflexible Marvel Studios mold is a sad but entirely expected state of affairs.
The issue with the Marvel Cinematic Universe now, twenty five films in, is that despite having limitless characters and storylines to draw on, narratively speaking they have backed themselves into a corner. Audiences have loved seeing their favourite characters team up to crack wise and crack skulls as the universe has expanded. However it has now reached the stage that the MCU finds itself at the pointy end of its own double edged sword.
The Eternals, by their very nature, admit to having been on Earth for 7000 years. So introducing them now, post Endgame, brings up the question from audience surrogate Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), "Why didn't you fight Thanos?". The wishy washy excuse of "We were instructed to only intervene when Deviants were involved" feels akin to The Doctor in Doctor Who rambling on about "fixed points in time".
When the Emergence begins, it is described a world-ending, extinction level event. One that bears a striking resemblance to Ego's plot in GOTG Vol. 2 by the way. It feels like the type of situation that would merit the attention of any superheroes or Avengers available at the time. Yet no sign of anyone. No Doctor Strange, no Spider-Man, no Hulk or Captain Marvel, etc.
It evokes memories of The Simpsons episode where Homer is added to the Itchy and Scratchy show as the voice of Poochie. When looking to increase his character's screen time, Homer pitches to the executives that "Every time Poochie is off screen, the other characters should be asking 'Where's Poochie?'".
Ambitious but flawed, Eternals is ultimately low to mid-tier Marvel. However that sounds harsher than it should because mid-tier Marvel movies are still a lot better than most Hollywood blockbusters... especially comic book movies. The problem is Feige et all, still haven't found that magic formula for allowing unique, distinctive directors to make their mark on the Universe.
3 stars
Eternals is in cinemas now
