ETERNALS

Eternals Assemble!

ETERNALS (2021). Directed and co-written by Chloe Zhao. 

The Eternals are a group of immortal super-powered beings who allegedly come from another world and have been on earth for thousands of years. Their original adversaries were monstrous creatures called Deviants, who were supposedly destroyed but who are popping up again in modern times. The Eternals have scattered but now their leader, Ajak (Salma Hayek), calls them together. The Eternals, who were sent to Earth by a towering, mysterious race known as the Celestials -- in particular Arishem -- discover not only that they are "synthetic" beings, but that a new Celestial is even now birthing inside the Earth, and when he emerges the Earth will be completely obliterated. The rationale (?) for this is that it will create new celestials and new worlds throughout the universe. Having lived on earth for centuries, having lives and companions, the Eternals try to do what they can to keep this new celestial from awakening, but one of their number, Icarus (Richard Madden), objects, and the battle is on ... 

Richard Madden as Icarus

Eternals is based on characters created by comics legend Jack Kirby for a 1970's Marvel comics series. A lot of changes have been made -- the Eternals were actually an Earth race, not aliens -- especially in regards to ethnicity, sex and personality. Sersi  -- aka Circe -- (Gemma Chan) was originally an edgy sort of witch, hardly the earth mother type of the movie, and she and Icarus, who was her lover in the past, didn't even like each other. The Deviants were ugly-looking but they weren't all giant monsters as in the movie. The Eternals are basically supposed to be one family, but Eternals is relentlessly multi-cultural whether it makes sense or not. A gay couple (black/mid-eastern) is included -- of course they have a child, a new stereotype -- and all that's missing is a non-binary transsexual, but maybe in the sequel ... (There's nothing wrong with being all-inclusive, but it can come off like tokenism if it goes to the extreme.) 

Angelina Jolie as Thena

Eternals is much too long and convoluted and the jumps back and forth in time aren't helpful to the narrative structure. The movie does boast some impressive special effects and striking cinematography, as well as an effective musical score. For such an expensive movie, I couldn't believe how under-lit the nighttime sequences are -- you can hardly make out what's happening (although one hopes this was less of a problem on the giant screen in the movie theater). The acting is generally good, with best-known Angelina Jolie [Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow] making an effective Thena (a variation on Athena), but the movie is stolen by Richard Madden (of The Bodyguard series), a Scottish actor of great intensity and presence who gets to strut his stuff in the film's second half, when finally there is some dramatic conflict between the characters. Madden has acting ability and "it" but I don't know if movies like this will turn him into the major star he deserves to be. 

Richard Madden

Frankly, Eternals almost made it into my semi-annual or quarterly list of "Films I Never Quite Finished" because it takes quite a while to get going, and there's no real story until about an hour has gone by. The script is full of typical flip remarks and dumb comedy relief (such as an utterly unnecessary character who keeps carrying around a camera because one of the Eternals has become a Bollywood star and he wants to film him). This is a shame, because there are moments of splendor and excitement in the movie, as well as some wonderful visual moments. Although at the end it is announced that "Eternals will return," I don't think that's likely. Movies like this, with so much technical wizardry involved as well as cosmic storylines, need a very firm hand to guide them to success, but Chloe Zhao doesn't seem to be that hand, more's the pity. The action scenes in this are not well-crafted, the script is under-developed, and while all the multi-culturalism is very nice -- I'm not one of these people who goes on about something being too "woke" (recognize there are other types of people on the planet besides yourself, for Pete's sake!) it doesn't mean a damn thing if the movie itself is no more than mediocre. In addition, there is no real respect for Jack Kirby's original intentions. 

Verdict: Half a good movie here. **1/2.