With "Spider-Man: No Way Home" coming out this week, I feel it's appropriate to review the last MCU film to come out today. Because of a borderline disinterest, I didn't watch "Eternals" when it came out and was actually planning to review the new Resident Evil film instead. However, due to a change of plans, I did manage to watch this in the weekend and got what I was expecting to get. Is it just as bad as the other MCU films that came out this year? Kind of...
Positives:
- The acting as a whole. While the characters have their issues for sure, the performances are pretty solid and you can tell that the actors and actresses are doing their best in handling this material.
- Chloe Zheo's direction. The Oscar-winning director does truly lend her talents to the MCU in regards to the commitment to on-location shooting and a polished, cinematic feel that is overlayed on a film that looks like an Oscar-bait attempt.
- The cinematography by Ben Davis. From the wide, establishing shots to the creative angles and zoom lens, Davis does a great job at making this film look as visually pleasing as it is.
- The score by Ramin Djawadi. While not his best work in regards to memorability, Djawadi does try to make this score feel as unique as possible when contrasted to other Marvel films, offering a lot of choir, orchestra and a dramatic scale to the film and its emotional moments.
- The visual effects. Not every effect is convincing, but the CGI is well-rendered and does look like it matches the movements and gestures of the characters onscreen.
- The action sequences. Although the action is hampered by the pacing, it looks pretty good mainly thanks to Davis's camerawork and the visuals. The fight with Ikiris and the ambush in the Amazon are the best sequences that the film offers. While not holding a light to "Shang-Chi", it at least is better to watch than any of the action presented in "Black Widow."
Negatives:
- The story. The premise of a group of immortal beings being on Earth for thousands of years and not partaking in the mold of human history is a neat, albeit complicated, concept. While the idea of the supposed heroes actually being villains in regards to their purpose being to monitor and destroy worlds for their cosmic creators is interesting, the story itself falters by the type of franchise it is in along with the various characters and sub-plots it throws in. Exposition is another big problem as the film literally opens up on a wall of text rather than showing the viewer the backstory. Even the story doesn't feel necessary to the MCU as all of the characters get pulled out of the galaxy and the world can continue on not acknowledging the events of the film much at all. I will expand more on how the story ultimately doesn't work as I continue through.
- The pacing. The film is two-and-a-half hours long and it feels much longer. The issue is that the story is set up to bring the gang back together for the climax. This type of narrative isn't so bad on paper, but the editing completely screws up the execution. The use of flashbacks overstay their welcome and the attempt to introduce the characters and their lives on modern-day not only gets repetitive, but slows down to the point that they have to introduce the final character by unearthing their ship, which raises a ton of questions and feels a bit unsatisfying. The worst part about all of this is that scenes and sub-plots take up too much time and don't amount to anything, which makes the film even more padded than it really is. This problem is doubled down on when other sub-plots and elements don't have much time to elaborate on, particularly certain philosophies and romances.
- The tone. This is the most uneven tone I've seen in a MCU film. The film tries hard in making an otherwise serious and introspective story, but is forced to endure the cliche MCU comedy. The comedy itself rarely hits the mark and should have been reserved to one or two characters than all of them. As for the serious nature and themes, these elements alone could have made the film one of the best in the MCU, but it botches that up by not really going all the way with its ideas. While ideas such as the consequences of immortality, powers that one can't really use, human design, universal plans, and even the larger question of letting one world die to make hundreds more are mostly downplayed upon, making the characters mostly align to one shared view by the end.
- Sersi as the protagonist. Gemma Chan is a great actress, but her talents can not save this blank slate of a character. Sersi has no notable personality traits and her reasons to love humanity and defend Earth is so basic that it begs the question why was she chosen as the lead character for this film. The worst thing about her character is the romance between her and Ikiris not being fleshed out. The film never explains why she grew distant from Ikaris romantically despite being together for thousands of years and it makes her feel like a deus ex machina by the end because Ikiris gives up his conquest after refusing to hurt Sersi.
- The villains. Ikaris, played by Richard Maddon, is well-acted and does have the potential to be a threatening villain, but the aforementioned romance with Sersi brings down his credibility since his life-long goal can easily be derailed from a lame romantic sub-plot. Ikaris also being another evil Superman archetype is pretty lazy as well. But the worst offender have got to be Kro, voiced by Bill Skarsgard. The Deviants are already pretty lame monsters that the Eternals have to battle, but the film shows a bit of potential as the leader of the Deviants begins to evolve by taking the powers and intellect of the Eternals he has killed, eventually vowing revenge on the Celestials and Eternals for what they have been doing to his kind. This could have been interesting by the climax as Eros could have joined forces with the Eternals to defeat Ikiris and stop the birth of another Celestial, which would be a satisfying arc and conclude the arcs of Thena and the Deviants perfectly. But nope, Eros is killed by Thena, despite being able to heal his wounds throughout the film and he just served as a lame villain at the end of the day.
- The other characters. I will try to get through all of the other characters as brief as possible. Kingo is meant to be the comic relief of the film and does shine in a few moments, but the character ultimately doesn't serve much purpose as he actually refuses to participate in the climax, which makes him a bit of a scumbag. Sprite's child-like appearance allows for an interesting debate and potential arc for this spiteful, envious Eternal, but her villainous deeds get randomly rewarded by Sersi for no reason. Her crush on Ikaris also goes completely nowhere as the film wouldn't even allow Sprite to kiss Ikaris on the cheek, let alone have Ikaris admit any feelings whatsoever. Phastos is pretty likeable and manages to be the unsung hero by the end of the film, but his motivation and philosophy is so on-and-off that it slows down the film and even hurts the character a bit. Makkari has her moments with the action and her charming personality by being a deaf hero, but her deafness doesn't actually factor in towards any conflict or philosophy and her being the final hero to recruit is lazily thrown in at the last minute as just being in an underground ship for the entire life out of boredom, making her a pretty pointless character in regards to the themes of the film. Druig is just an unlikeable asshole who, despite stating that he will use his powers on humans after leaving the group, doesn't do anything but make a village with some human puppets, which downplays the potential villainy or heroism of the character and just makes him the character you're supposed to dislike. Gilgamesh barely has time to define himself, other than that he cares for Thena and is a comedic, kind-hearted guy with no philosophy or perspective to share, not even a question of if Thena is a burden to him. Ajak is the leader of the Eternals and really should be the protagonist of the film due to her development and personality, but is killed by Ikiris before the film really starts, forcing us to deal with Sersi as the lead. Thena is just the badass female warrior whose mental illness could spark some interesting ideas to the rest of the team and the overall messages of the film, but it just acts as a minor hinderance and plot device. Lastly, Dane Whitman just serves as the current boyfriend of Sersi who knows the true nature of the Eternals and disappears from the majority of the film, despite the fact that he could easily be a great human perspective character/protagonist of his own. The point is, the entire cast of characters failed to completely win me over or justify their purpose in the story.
"Eternals" is the definition of style over substance, despite their attempt on the latter. While the actors are great, the camerawork is fantastic, Djawadi's score has its unique flair, the effects being visually interesting, the action being pretty entertaining in their short bursts, and the direction by Zheo offers the best-looking and cinematic film of the franchise with the on-location shooting and the creative visionary of making a superhero film feel like a potential Oscar-winning one. However, the film simply fails at its most important elements. The story lacks impact and relays too much on exposition, the pacing and editing is dreadful and almost keeps you hostage for two hours and a half, the tone is poorly uneven with lame comedy and the seriousness coming off as melodramatic and underdeveloped, Sersi is a boring protagonist the viewer is forced to root for, the villains lose their creative potential and are either defeated by lazy writing or needlessly included to prolong the film and leave no impact, and the rest of the side cast are filled with characters who don't fully develop, accomplish or even establish their conflicts or philosophies. While it is better than "Black Widow" thanks to the filmmaking being unquestionably better overall, it falls short from "Shang-Chi" in regards to keeping the story and characters engaging enough, regardless if the film wastes their potential or not. It is shocking that so far, all of the MCU films released this year are among the top five worst films I've seen in 2021.
Verdict: 4.5/10. This is what we call a polished turd. Can Spider-Man break this bad streak once and for all?
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