Eternals Review

Chloé Zhao’s movies are beautiful. They feature incredible photography of natural landscapes, and ultra-naturalistic dialogue often delivered by non-actors cast off the street. Her films are deeply meditative and authentic and have the capacity to really touch audiences who are open to a different kind of movie. It made perfect sense that she swept last year’s Oscars with her gorgeous slow-burn Nomadland. What made less sense was the announcement that she would be helming her own Marvel blockbuster. Marvel makes colorful, splashy mega-movies based on comic books. Chloé Zhao makes personal indie dramas filmed against sunsets. Obviously, this was an unorthodox choice for both Zhao and Marvel, but the question we’ve all been wondering since the announcement of this partnership is “Will this work?” With the film releasing this weekend, early online reactions are… mixed, to say the least. So does it work? Well… sort of.

Eternals follows the eponymous team of ancient space gods who were sent to Earth thousands of years ago to help humanity develop and evolve. Unable to directly intervene, the group has been subtly assisting humans from the shadows and protecting us from The Deviants, another ancient alien race who feed on Earth’s inhabitants. Although they expected their mission to have ended several thousand years ago, The Eternals are still stuck on Earth, now blending into society the best they can. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, The Eternals must now regroup to defeat a new collection of Deviants and end the mysterious “Emergence” before it’s too late. 

This movie has a lot going for it. From its killer cast (featuring Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, and Angelina Jolie just to name a few), to its truly stunning visuals, there is a lot about Eternals that really stands out. Zhao has packed this movie with heady, thought-provoking concepts, the likes of which we really haven’t seen in a superhero movie. This film is filled with grand ideas about the nature of humanity, and the scenes in which the characters discuss their particular viewpoints on the topic are nothing short of captivating. Of course, it is still a superhero movie at its core, so there’s plenty of action set pieces jammed in there too, which is when the main disconnect appears most strongly. 

Chloé Zhao is not an action director. Prior to this movie, the most action-packed footage she’d shot had been of people riding horses. Marvel, on the other hand, loves a big fun fight scene and includes several in all of their releases. When it comes time for The Eternals to fight things, it is very clear that Zhao loses interest, and as a result, the audience does as well. These action scenes should be really high-energy and exciting, but in Eternals it’s all captured in long, slow-moving wide shots. Zhao’s Eternals are the most interesting when they discuss their differing ideologies. When they start to physically fight over them, the movie grinds to a halt. When the biggest problem with your superhero movie is that it’s boring when the superheroes use their powers, you have some serious structural problems. 

Of course, it’s not all as bad as the internet would have you think. There is a lot of fun to be had in this movie, from Kumail Nanjiani’s cocky Bollywood movie star character to the exciting chase sequences utilizing Lauren Ridloff’s character’s superspeed. In fact, there are so many stand-out characters on the team, it’s hard to choose my favorite. It is so much fun to watch this team interact, and so refreshing to see such wide representation in a superhero movie. Zhao’s visual style is certainly unlike anything we’ve seen in the MCU up to this point, and the effects are top-notch. It’s just a shame that all happens in the slowest moving movie Marvel’s put out. 

Eternals is by no means the worst Marvel movie (need I remind you the Ed Norton Hulk is still canon), but it is one of their weaker entries simply because of its slow pacing and less-than-fun action scenes. That’s not to say I want all superhero movies to be action packed. It’s more a comment on the commitment to action. For Eternals to successfully feature epic battles, they needed to be handled with much more care. If you’re going to enjoy this movie, it will be on a big screen. It is designed to be seen as largely as possible. That being said, it probably doesn’t have a very lasting shelf life after that. When it comes to Disney+, I doubt I’ll rewatch it as often as I do other MCU titles. Eternals is an interesting experiment that falls somewhere in the middle of the franchise.