By Jack Deegan
Correspondent
Marvel Studios’ newest film “Eternals” is finally here.
Directed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao, the film promised to change the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it, giving us a look at how the entire universe came to be. We focus on the Eternals, a team of ancient aliens who have secretly been living on Earth for thousands of years and swore to not interfere with humanity unless their sworn enemy, the Deviants, were involved. After an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows, they are forced to reunite to stop the Deviants once more. The film boasts a star-studded cast including Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan and Kumail Nanjiani among others.
I have been waiting a very long time to see this movie, and after what felt like endless delays, it is finally here. “Eternals” is everything that I could have wished for and more. Despite the main talking point around this movie being that it’s the lowest-rated MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes, the film exceeded my already high expectations.
The story of this movie genuinely surprised me. I thought I knew what to expect going into it, but there are so many big twists that keep everything exciting and makes the entire movie so much more enjoyable. “Eternals” is not only a surprising movie that gives us new and interesting concepts to digest, but also does things that have never been done in a Marvel movie before.
“Enternals” is quite an ambitious movie as it jumps throughout time to tell the story, having flashbacks fill us in on important details that add to the world to deepen our understanding of the characters. We go from learning about the creation of the universe itself to present-day life, making many stops along the way. The constant jumping around can be a bit jarring at times and might be hard to follow for some people who aren’t as invested in this universe, but it helps to put into perspective how long these characters have been around and makes everything feel bigger.
There can be a lot of exposition at times and some slower moments, but it's paced well, and once that groundwork is all laid out in the first half, the second half benefits a lot and makes for such an amazing time. What could have been a very standard run-of-the-mill movie where the good-aliens-fight-the-bad-aliens dynamic was turned into a much more complex and dynamic story.
It's very hard to balance introducing 10 new characters in one movie while keeping them all interesting and making it feel like they have a purpose for being there. Every single Eternal is an interesting character, and they are all different from each other to keep the group dynamic fresh. They all have their different ideologies about mankind and their own purpose. The Eternals have to come to terms with what it means to be an Eternal and their role as a god-like protector of the planet who isn't allowed to protect the planet from 99% of problems. We get to spend time with each Eternal and see how they all live and why they think the things that they do, and they all have a purpose in the movie.
Sure, some don't play as big of roles as the others, but they still show us different perspectives and give us different ideologies to consider. All of the characters are interesting and great, but Sersi, Ikaris, Phastos and Kingo are the standouts for me since they’re given a lot more development, they’re complex and they stand out from the already great group of characters.
Chloé Zhao is one of the best directors working today. It was very exciting news when she signed on to helm this movie because she brings in a unique visual style that would be very interesting to see in a superhero blockbuster as opposed to her smaller indie films. “Eternals” is without a doubt the best-looking Marvel movie. Each shot is carefully crafted and designed to be the most visually interesting way to show us something. The way Zhao uses light and silhouettes is beautiful; it makes for some of the best-looking shots in the entire MCU.
While it isn’t perfect, “Eternals” was everything I wanted to see out of an MCU movie. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Marvel’s newest cosmic characters.
