{"id":9017,"date":"2024-11-27T13:33:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9017"},"modified":"2024-11-27T13:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T18:33:32","slug":"eternals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/27\/eternals\/","title":{"rendered":"Eternals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Eternals <\/strong>(2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marvel\/Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 157 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (fantasy action and violence, some language, brief sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chloe Zhao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chloe Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo and Kaz Firpo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ramin Djawadi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ben Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 5, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Bill Skarsgard (voice), David Kaye (voice), Haaz Sleiman, Esai Daniel Cross.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $164.9M (US)\/$402.1M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I knew it would happen sooner or later. I wish it hadn\u2019t, but it did. Marvel finally overplays their hand with Eternals<\/strong>, the latest installment in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. It\u2019s dull, dreary, convoluted and with a run time of 157 minutes, it feels like it goes on for an eternity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Before I get into the film\u2019s multiple problems, I\u2019m going to provide background info on the Marvel property. I wasn\u2019t aware of the comic book until recently, around the time I first saw the trailer for the movie adaptation. The Eternals are a race of immortal beings from a planet called Olympia. They were created by the Celestials, essentially the rulers of the universe, and sent to Earth circa 5000 B.C. Their mission is to protect mankind from the Deviants, hideous alien creatures that attack and kill. They are not allowed to interfere with human affairs under any circumstances. They\u2019ve been hanging around for the past 7000 years fighting Deviants and waiting for their leader Arishem to call them home.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are ten Eternals including team leader Ajak (Hayek, Hitman\u2019s Wife\u2019s Bodyguard), each one endowed with a specific special power. They might not age, but they\u2019re not immune from personal drama. Two of them, Sersi (Chan, previously seen in the MCU in Captain Marvel) and Ikaris (Madden, Game of Thrones), are a couple. Sprite (McHugh, The Lodge), who looks like she\u2019s about 13, has a crush on Ikaris. There\u2019s also an unspoken thing between mind manipulator Druig (Keoghan, Dunkirk) and super-speedy Makkari (deaf actress Ridloff).<\/p>\n

\u00a0They thought they killed the last of the Deviants in the 16th<\/sup> century. That\u2019s when they all go their own separate ways, settling in different parts of the world. Sersi and Ikaris split up as well. After a new Deviant pops up in London, Ikaris returns just in time to help Sersi and Sprite fight it off. Faced with impending annihilation, Ikaris decides it\u2019s time to get the band back together.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You know what, let\u2019s just cut right to the chase. They have to stop something called \u201cThe Emergence\u201d, a cataclysmic event involving the birth of a new Celestial at the expense of all life on earth. First, they have to reunite the team. That\u2019s where Eternals <\/strong>hits a snag. A great deal of the movie consists of Sersi, Ikaris and Sprite tracking down their old colleagues and convincing them to fight alongside them again. With this comes exposition, a lot of exposition. It pretty much slows the movie to a crawl when it doesn\u2019t stop it altogether. The most ironic thing is with all the exposition, there\u2019s a curious lack of character development.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are a lot of problems with Eternals<\/strong> starting with its slow and clunky pace. There\u2019s just too much talking. It doesn\u2019t get much better when we finally get to see some superhero action. All of it is old hat. The fight scenes are tired and flat; the effects are hardly special. It\u2019s all been done before and better. The only praiseworthy aspect is the visuals. Some of them are quite striking even if a pallor of gloom hangs over the entire film.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the story, it\u2019s a mess. It\u2019s ambitious in its efforts at building a new world within the MCU, but it fails where other Marvel movies succeed- e.g. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It\u2019s all over the place in terms of narrative and time. It shifts between time periods so many times, you keep waiting for our heroes to bump into Connor MacLeod at some point. And why not? The movie\u2019s structure shows the director obviously has a thing for Highlander. Therein lies its next problem. Chloe Zhao, winner of last year\u2019s Best Director Oscar, is clearly out of her comfort zone here. She\u2019s used to small-scale, intimate dramas like The Rider and Best Picture winner Nomadland. She doesn\u2019t do a terrible job with Eternals<\/strong>, but putting her at the wheel of a movie this big is like asking a grade schooler to take the SATs. She\u2019s just not ready for such a daunting challenge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting isn\u2019t terrible either (the dialogue, on the other hand, is). It\u2019s not bad at all, in fact. Nanjiani (The Big Sick) is amusing as Kingo, an Eternal who\u2019s now a huge Bollywood star. He joins the mission with his sycophant manager (Patel) who\u2019s never without a camera. Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider) is pretty good as Thena who can form weapons out of cosmic energy. She\u2019s left mentally unstable after being zapped by a Deviant. Eternals<\/strong> has a good cast, but nobody actually stands out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll give Eternals<\/strong> credit for being unusually inclusive. One of the heroes, brilliant inventor Phastos (Henry, Godzilla vs. Kong), is gay. Makkari has the honor of being the MCU\u2019s first deaf superhero. Plus, there\u2019s an actual sex scene (kept within the bounds of PG-13, of course), a first in the series\u2019 history.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Aside from these details, Eternals<\/strong> is a case of same-old, same-old. I wanted to enjoy it, but I didn\u2019t. I was mostly bored by it. Also, it\u2019s not fun like the other Marvel movies. It\u2019s too self-serious. When it tries to be fun, it feels markedly forced. Overall, Eternals<\/strong> left me feeling cold and disoriented. I wasn\u2019t sure what I just witnessed. The girl my wife overheard in the ladies room afterwards sums it up most succinctly; she said to her friend, \u201cWhat the f*** was that?\u201d Yep, I\u2019d like to know wtf too.<\/p>\n

P.S. There are two bonus scenes, one mid-credits and one at the very end.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eternals (2021)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marvel\/Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 157 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (fantasy action and violence, some language, brief sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chloe Zhao\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Chloe Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo and Kaz Firpo\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Ramin Djawadi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ben Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 5, 2021 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Eternals-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9370,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9017\/revisions\/9370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}