Eternals
Run time: 2 hours and 37 minutes
Rating: PG
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Summary:
7000 years ago, a group of Eternals were sent from Olympia down to Earth. Their purpose, protect humans from the deviants and allow society to continue to grow. They were directly instructed not to interfere with any human progress, both positive or negative. Although the Eternals had the power to create a utopia, they stuck to their original mission and defeated all of the deviants. It isn’t until deviants start to re-emerge in the present day that the Eternals start to understand the true danger Earth is in.
Characters:
There are 10 Eternals, and they all play a major role in the movie. Sersi has the power to turn one material into another by touching it. She had married Ikaris in the past, and they are forever connected. Ikaris has the same powers as Superman, laser beam eyes, super strength, and the ability to fly. He is known as the strongest Eternal. Thena is the god of war and is extremely skilled with any hand-to-hand weapon. Ajak has the ability to heal people and is the group’s connection back to Olympia. She has been in charge since the beginning. Kingo can shoot magic out of his fingers. He has been a Bollywood movie star for the last 4 generations. Sprite has the ability to bend visual reality. She is stuck in the body of a 14-year old girl and is quite frustrated by her inability to be taken seriously by humans around her. Phastos is the mechanically inclined member of the Eternals. He is able to invent new things that are generations ahead of human development and is the cause for many technological advancements. Makkari has super speed and is also deaf. Druig is able to control anyone through their mind. He does not understand the Eternal’s mission and believes humans should be living in harmony. Gilgamesh is quite strong and has the ability to create gauntlets which allow him to hit deviants and others even harder.
Review:
Eternals throws us back into the MCU for a movie for the first time in a couple of months, and it is awesome. The characters are really cool, and I was really impressed how deep they all are for such a long protagonist cast list. They all have different powers, and while they aren’t all unique, the cooler ones are. The entire world that was built at the start of Eternals really set the stage for a good movie, but it also set the stage for the most problematic parts.
I thought the plot of Eternals was really good, but I also thought it was a lot. There are a ton of moving parts, and because it is an original story it is being told from start to some kind of a finish. There are a ton of underlying storylines and crossing character arcs that make things a little bit more complicated than needed. When taking on a story with 10 really strong characters, it can be hard to dumb that down and stay true to your characters at the same time. I thought it wasn’t as well done as we’ve seen in the past, and I would have loved a little bit more focus on the larger storyline.
The characters were awesome, and their powers were next level. What really impressed and shocked me was that they were powerful, but not over the top. After watching Eternals, I am no longer worried they are going to break the MCU, or take away from some of our other awesome characters. New heroes being added is always a little bit scary, but I thought Eternals did a great job.
Overall, this is a pretty solid movie. Is it the best marvel film around, not even a little bit. Grand scheme it is a pretty darn good movie, and even if you haven’t seen a lick of the MCU, I would go check this out.
Favourite moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment was when the team came together to fight Ikaris. It was a really cool scene, and seeing all of their powers working together was awesome. It was also cool to really see how strong Ikaris is.
Review:
Eternals is the MCU’s latest film entry and I can safely say that overall, I enjoyed this film. To start off I would say that the characters as a whole were pretty good and that’s a big compliment as there are 10 main characters in the film and for the most part, they are well balanced through a few sadly are left to the side. I would say my favourite characters were Kingo, Phastos, and Makkari. I felt that each actor gave a good performance trying to convey the characters’ emotional states throughout all the different time periods. The action in this film is pretty cool as well though it’s not as present as some MCU films when we do get action scenes, I thought they were pretty cool. The way the Eternals were integrated into human history also really interested me as a history nerd and the ways they helped humanity evolve and progress was fascinating. There were also some big twists and reveals in this film that changed the whole thing and I liked the twists as I never saw any of them coming so they made the story unpredictable which I appreciated. My only real negative is that this film has a lot to explain and this can be overwhelming at times with some of the explanations being vague as well.
All in all, this is a solid MCU film that I will happily watch again when it comes to Disney Plus. It’s not my new favourite but I can see how it is going to have big implications on the future of the MCU.
Favourite moment (Spoilers) :
When Makkari and Ikaris had their fight I thought it was super cool because she actually was winning for most of the fight because her speed was just too intense.
Review:
If there’s one phrase that I would say that wraps up all of The Eternals is that this movie bites off more than it can chew. Looking at each individual parts, it’s clear to see that this would be an entertaining. There is a wide cast of unique characters, an action heavy plot, stunning visual effects, and even a nice plot twist. All of these aspects are building blocks to a great movie, but The Eternals misses the mark a bit. Let me explain.
First thing’s first, as much as I enjoyed a large cast, the pacing of this movie didn’t really let us enjoy any of the characters individually. I wish we could’ve gotten some more backstories on all the characters. Besides one flashback that gives us barebone descriptions of the character, it would’ve been nice to have a bit more, or to feature less characters but expand the screentime so we can get used to them. There were a few scenes in the movie that I feel were supposed to be emotional, but it missed the mark for me since I didn’t really know the character. The other area that was disappointing to me was the ending. To me, they started too many sub plotlines that, by the end of the movie, everything didn’t wrap up nicely and felt a bit rushed.
On the good side, I did enjoy the premise of the movie. The Eternals, as characters, were unique and something brand new. It was fun watching them interact with both each other and the puny humans they swore to protect. However, I do wish they were given more time to show how strong they are. For some reason, I felt a bit underwhelmed about how strong they looked. To me, there were a few instances where they looked quite weak. But besides that, I did enjoy the buildup for the plot and thought that that part was well done. It’s too bad that the ending couldn’t capitalize.Overall, The Eternals was still a fun Marvel movie that brought a whole new type of being into the MCU. I’m excited to see how they are later on in the MCU. If you’re a fan of Marvel, besides the feeling of too much stuff happening at once, it was still a fun movie to watch.
Favourite Moment (Spoilers):
My favourite moment had to be when the team fought the Deviants at Druig’s village. The brutal fighting and darkness was a nice touch and watching Sersi convert a Deviant into a tree was cool.
