This new entrant in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the origin story of a group of extraterrestrials known as "Eternals", who have been on Earth for millennia, sent here to protect humans from a deadly threat known as "Deviants", which are beasts that prey on them. Then things get complicated. If you've been watching the MCU entries and wondering why you haven't seen or heard of them before, well, the film does explain that, which you may find more or less plausible. Or not. The Eternals look like humans but they just have superhero kinds of powers. And they never age, which kind of makes sense, given that they're called...
The breadth of this film is epic, covering the dawn of human civilisation to the present day, I suppose you'd call it or, at least, after "The Blip", which occurred in "Avengers: Infinity war". That being said, as an origin story, there is no need to be familiar with previous MCU films in order to feel confident watching this one, as it's a stand-alone outing.
An interesting aspect to this film is how it offers an alternative myth to the rise of humans as well as implying that myths and legends which exist in our actual history are wrong. The names of the Eternals play on this notion, with characters called Ikarus (played by Richard Madden), Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Gilgamesh (Don Lee) and Thena (Angelina Jolie) to name but a few. Given how American Christians have protested against 'Satanic' heavy metal music or even Harry Potter, for goodness sake, I'm surprised that they haven't protested against this film for challenging biblical accounts of the nature of the universe!
Now, seeing how these Eternals are depicted as advancing human civilisation over millennia, I suppose that could make one roll one's eyes in disappointment. Maybe I did this initially but I just submitted to the myth and went along for the ride. At the back of my mind, however, was the thought that this depiction patronised humans. If Marvel's counter-myth, which short-changes the ingenuity of humans offends, well, at least be calmed by the knowledge that the works of William Shakespeare aren't attributed to any of the Eternals!
I can't say that seeing this film was something that I was keen to do but I did come across some information somewhere that it was (or would be) directed by Academy Award winning director Chloé Zhao, a woman who grew up in China (she is the first Asian woman to win an Academy Award for direction). Even though I hadn't seen any of her previous films, that titbit was enough of a lure for me to see the film, out of curiosity at least. It was a punt which I'm glad I took, in contrast to a similar scenario, which was also in the MCU, where another Academy Award winning director Ang Lee (a man who was born in Taiwan) directed "Hulk". That Lee film was quite a disappointment to me (I'd say that I saw that before I began reviewing films on the original "The movie show" website and then moved to this site when SBS closed their website). It was conceivable to me that I would also find Zhao's film pretentious and underwhelming but she's done a solid job here. Seeing a trailer for this film recently, it didn't look promising on the comedy front at least, with that scene where an Eternal breaks a table. It looked like humour aimed at very small children. However, I can say that I did laugh other times, so the humour improved (I especially liked the inside humour about online video creators).
If you've seen the two most recent "Avengers" films and the opinions of supervillain Thanos gave you pause for thought, well, you might like the direction that "Eternals" goes into, as it takes this to a whole 'nother level, perhaps, with the character of Arishem.
Anyway, I enjoyed this film but I don't think that I'd make a point of seeing it again and I might not be interested in seeing any sequels (unless, maybe, Zhao also directs it and...the Avengers aren't in it, perhaps). This MCU outing had a diverse cast and diverse characters. A minor gripe for me though was finding it hard to understand dialogue on some occasions, either because of accents or the use of audio effects, like that used for the voice of Arishem.
The following are just random observations for my own benefit:
* Is it weird that Eternals are extraterrestrial in origin yet are otherwise like humans? I mean, I assume that humans can interbreed with them!
* Is it weird that the extraterrestrial Eternals have sex in the missionary position?
* Is it weird that these supreme Eternal beings include the deaf amongst their ranks?
* One Eternal, "Sprite" (Lia McHugh) reminded me of a similar character in "Interview with the vampire" (I think...my memory could be faulty here). Why is there such a young Eternal? What's that all about?
* I was also wondering about the point of the Deviants but if I imagined them to be the inspiration for the concept of "demons", they didn't bother me so much.
* One of Ikarus' superpowers reminded me of Superman...this is referenced later on in the film.
* One part which I found to be unbelievable was where early humans take up arms against obviously much more powerful Eternals...which have just helped them. That didn't ring true to me...for those two reasons.
* Product placement and endorsement by Eternals was quite marked. I counted two such scenes. How about you?
* One scene was presented as being in Australia...I had my doubts about this, for some reason.
* Climate change is brought up in the narrative.
* Lastly, I found the Eternals' frequent ruminations on what makes humans worth saving insipid.
* Lastly, lastly, my scoring for this film was tracking at 75% (7 out of 10 stars here), then 75+% (8 out 10 stars) then my final score of 77.5%.
The breadth of this film is epic, covering the dawn of human civilisation to the present day, I suppose you'd call it or, at least, after "The Blip", which occurred in "Avengers: Infinity war". That being said, as an origin story, there is no need to be familiar with previous MCU films in order to feel confident watching this one, as it's a stand-alone outing.
An interesting aspect to this film is how it offers an alternative myth to the rise of humans as well as implying that myths and legends which exist in our actual history are wrong. The names of the Eternals play on this notion, with characters called Ikarus (played by Richard Madden), Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Gilgamesh (Don Lee) and Thena (Angelina Jolie) to name but a few. Given how American Christians have protested against 'Satanic' heavy metal music or even Harry Potter, for goodness sake, I'm surprised that they haven't protested against this film for challenging biblical accounts of the nature of the universe!
Now, seeing how these Eternals are depicted as advancing human civilisation over millennia, I suppose that could make one roll one's eyes in disappointment. Maybe I did this initially but I just submitted to the myth and went along for the ride. At the back of my mind, however, was the thought that this depiction patronised humans. If Marvel's counter-myth, which short-changes the ingenuity of humans offends, well, at least be calmed by the knowledge that the works of William Shakespeare aren't attributed to any of the Eternals!
I can't say that seeing this film was something that I was keen to do but I did come across some information somewhere that it was (or would be) directed by Academy Award winning director Chloé Zhao, a woman who grew up in China (she is the first Asian woman to win an Academy Award for direction). Even though I hadn't seen any of her previous films, that titbit was enough of a lure for me to see the film, out of curiosity at least. It was a punt which I'm glad I took, in contrast to a similar scenario, which was also in the MCU, where another Academy Award winning director Ang Lee (a man who was born in Taiwan) directed "Hulk". That Lee film was quite a disappointment to me (I'd say that I saw that before I began reviewing films on the original "The movie show" website and then moved to this site when SBS closed their website). It was conceivable to me that I would also find Zhao's film pretentious and underwhelming but she's done a solid job here. Seeing a trailer for this film recently, it didn't look promising on the comedy front at least, with that scene where an Eternal breaks a table. It looked like humour aimed at very small children. However, I can say that I did laugh other times, so the humour improved (I especially liked the inside humour about online video creators).
If you've seen the two most recent "Avengers" films and the opinions of supervillain Thanos gave you pause for thought, well, you might like the direction that "Eternals" goes into, as it takes this to a whole 'nother level, perhaps, with the character of Arishem.
Anyway, I enjoyed this film but I don't think that I'd make a point of seeing it again and I might not be interested in seeing any sequels (unless, maybe, Zhao also directs it and...the Avengers aren't in it, perhaps). This MCU outing had a diverse cast and diverse characters. A minor gripe for me though was finding it hard to understand dialogue on some occasions, either because of accents or the use of audio effects, like that used for the voice of Arishem.
The following are just random observations for my own benefit:
* Is it weird that Eternals are extraterrestrial in origin yet are otherwise like humans? I mean, I assume that humans can interbreed with them!
* Is it weird that the extraterrestrial Eternals have sex in the missionary position?
* Is it weird that these supreme Eternal beings include the deaf amongst their ranks?
* One Eternal, "Sprite" (Lia McHugh) reminded me of a similar character in "Interview with the vampire" (I think...my memory could be faulty here). Why is there such a young Eternal? What's that all about?
* I was also wondering about the point of the Deviants but if I imagined them to be the inspiration for the concept of "demons", they didn't bother me so much.
* One of Ikarus' superpowers reminded me of Superman...this is referenced later on in the film.
* One part which I found to be unbelievable was where early humans take up arms against obviously much more powerful Eternals...which have just helped them. That didn't ring true to me...for those two reasons.
* Product placement and endorsement by Eternals was quite marked. I counted two such scenes. How about you?
* One scene was presented as being in Australia...I had my doubts about this, for some reason.
* Climate change is brought up in the narrative.
* Lastly, I found the Eternals' frequent ruminations on what makes humans worth saving insipid.
* Lastly, lastly, my scoring for this film was tracking at 75% (7 out of 10 stars here), then 75+% (8 out 10 stars) then my final score of 77.5%.