Eternals (2021) Review

"I'm a big baby."

-Gilgamesh

A group of aliens, known as Eternals, are sent to Earth at around 5,000 B.C., to protect humans from a species of predators called Deviants.  Eventually, they wipe out the Deviants and go their separate ways.    In present day, the Deviants return and the Eternals have to assemble and fight their newly evolved enemy.

What Works:

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much from Eternals going in.  Nothing about this film interested me and I walked into the theater feeling nothing but apathy.  I'm glad I went in with such low expectations because I really enjoyed myself.  I like that this movie is so different from all of the other MCU movies.  I've been saying for awhile now that Marvel really needs to take some big swings in Phase 4 to keep my interest and this is the first time they've really done that.  Sure, not everything they try to do here works, but a good amount of it does and I really respect the attempt.

I know some people aren't a fan of the structure of the film.  There is a good amount of jumping back and forth between the present and the past.  It actually never bothered me and all of the flashbacks felt natural and good places to reveal more information.  It actually made the story feel much more grand, which wouldn't have worked with a simple linear narrative.

The acting is solid across the board.  I liked almost everyone in their roles.  Gemma Chan is a solid lead, Richard Madden is much more complex than I initially thought, and Brian Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, and Don Lee are all awesome.  This is a great group of actors and they all have great chemistry.

Finally, probably my favorite group of superheroes are the X-Men because, a lot of the times, their movies are about clashing philosophies.  Watching the mutants fight amongst themselves is far more interesting than a generic monster.  Some of my favorite scenes in the Avengers movies are where there is conflict between our heroes.  That's where superhero movies get interesting to me.  We get that is spades in the Eternals.  We have 10 characters here, each with their own distinct personality, philosophy, and temperament.  They don't all agree all the time.  That makes them interesting.  My favorite scene of the movie takes place just before the final showdown, where conflict erupts between the Eternals.  I will always take the small, tight, personal fight over a big, dumb, epic battle.

What Sucks:

Speaking of a big, dumb, epic battle, that's exactly what the 3rd act of the movie is.  Most of the action up until the end is very restrained, and I actually realized that I really wasn't missing the action.  This 3rd act is loud and dumb and goes on for too long.  While the conflict between the characters is good, the action is too much and grew tiresome quickly.

I get that that are 10 different Eternals in this film and not all of the can be equally developed, but I was shocked at how little development Angelina Jolie received.  Honestly, you could have plucked her from the movie and it wouldn't have changed much.  She's one of the biggest names in the cast.  Give her something of significance to do.

Finally, I didn't really enjoy Kumail Nanjiani's performance.  He is the comic relief and he does have some funny moments, especially the more subtle stuff, but most of the time, he's far too over-the-top and it didn't work with the rest of the movie.  This is one of the more serious MCU movies and while there needs to be some comic relief, for sure, this was too much and distracting.

Verdict:

Eternals is a much better movie than the reviews would suggest.  It takes some big swings, and not everything is a home run.  I think it needed to be even more subdued than it was and Angelina Jolie needed more to do, but it's a very interesting story and I loved the structure and most of the characters.  It has flaws, but it's definitely got it going on.

 7/10: Good