If the Marvel Universe really existed, I would truly feel so sorry for our planet. How many times has Earth been under attack with about an eighth of the planet being destroyed in just a single battle? Granted, we still keep getting back up, but it’s time to save our planet again!
This time, it’s in “Eternals” from Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) as she directs Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan and Ma Dong-Seok. This story is about a group of immortal aliens sent to earth 7,000 years ago by a group known as The Celestials to protect us from the Deviants and even defeated them. Since they are “eternal,” they kept on living and went their separate ways over time, but as the Deviants start to re-emerge it may be on again.
It’s no secret that this is Disney and Marvel which means big budget and CGI overload, and “Eternals” is no exception. The cast here is good for what this is, and if there is a shout out I will give it to Lauren Ridloff, a hearing-impaired actor who really did well in a major role which impressed me greatly.
I know Marvel films can be long, but this one was too long at over two and a half hours; there is easily twenty minutes that could have been cut here. I also had questions as it pertained to the existence of the eternals and whey this was their first appearance given the timeline of the MCU up to this point and felt the explanation there was not satisfying. This also made the story itself more complicated as these were all new (and not well-known) characters. I actually liked the fact that these are superheroes with their own kind of personality, but some got too almost comedic. Given the overall comic book films out there, this one just fell flat, so I will recommend “Eternals” as catching it on a streaming service.