It feels like it’s been an eternity (lol) since the first announcement of Eternals over 2 years ago. My main source of excitement was always going to be Kumail Nanjiani as a superhero, followed closely by Brian Tyree Henry (is he my favorite working actor right now? I think he might be). Other than a stacked cast, I had no idea what Eternals was, and I kind of still don’t.
Pros:
- Gorgeous visual effects and design. I love the gold ink style of the Eternals and the iridescent, shifting paper strip muscles of the Deviants.This visual world feels distinctive and unique within the MCU, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by much else besides Doctor Strange and Thor: Ragnarok.
- I also am so happy that the fights between our protagonists and antagonists aren’t the usual Marvel fare – twinsies but one is evil OR swarm of mindless alien/supernatural/robot hordes that all look the exact same. This is a refreshing change of pace, wherein each fight is visually distinctive and interesting and I can actually keep track of who is fighting whom. Novel!
- This is the most philosophically interesting entry in the MCU by far. Are the Eternals good guys? Bad guys? Apex predators? I’m not sure! That’s pretty interesting for a billion dollar tentpole movie!
- Solid performances all around, and each character gets room to have an arc or at least an interesting interpersonal dynamic or two. However, there are 10 Eternals to develop and get us invested in, and that’s a tall order, even for the movie’s bloated 2 hr 36 min runtime.
- Vistas. Chloe Zhao knows how to shoot a fucking vista. Vistas are the star of the show here.
- There is a Very Good Dog who appears briefly and is unharmed!
- Features maybe my favorite exit out of any conflict in the MCU, which essentially amounts to “I’m just gonna fuck off into the sun forever.”
- Two very big deal end credits scenes that I promptly had to Google to decipher the meaning of, because if you’re not Googling at the end of the movie, do you even have a franchise, bro? Related note – there are two new characters that show up and both are played by famous people. I *freaked out* about one of them, and it definitely was not the one played by an international pop superstar.
Cons:
- There’s a weird, very tame sex scene on a beach – why? Who wanted this?
- I hated the ending which wasn’t an ending, but rather a cliffhanger.
- It’s just trying to do A Lot, to middling results. I was interested the whole time, but I just can’t imagine ever putting this movie on voluntarily on a Saturday afternoon for a rewatch or catching it on TV and keeping it on in the background while I make scones (in my fantasies, I’m a together adult-type person who makes scones on the weekends). This is Thor: The Dark World territory in that I will watch it as part of a marathon but will likely only within that very specific context.
Watch it, and watch it in theaters because I think the grand scope of Chloe Zhao’s direction will be best felt on the largest screen possible, but temper expectations. I’m still thinking about this movie days later, so if anything, it’s maybe the most interesting in the MCU – take that how you will.
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