"Eternals" is the kind of film that should have been epic in every sense of the word but simply falls flat when it came to its narrative and character impact. This was beautiful to look at, beautifully paced, but left us wondering if its two and a half hour runtime was really worth it. It's definitely different from your typical Marvel Cinematic Universe film but this kind of different could have been executed a lot more swiftly and efficiently.
A team of ancient aliens, callling themselves Eternals, have been living on Earth for thousand of years secretly guiding and protecting the humans through the centuries. They have been tasked by a Celestial to vanquish Deviants - monsters who target and kill humans. When they were able to eliminate all Deviants on Earth, they decide to part ways and integrate with humans. But suddenly, Deviants have once again appeared for some reason and they are more powerful than they remember them to be. Once again, the Eternals must team-up to stop the Deviants once again.
"Eternals" was definitely different from your typical MCU film and the biggest would be its humor or lack thereof. Outside of Kumail Nanjiani's character, there wasn't any witty remarks that typically balance out a modern superhero film. But for us, this wasn't really the problem in "Eternals". In fact, we appreciated it because it provided a different kind of experience that should be done more often. We would like to see superheroes as flawed and nuanced and the superheroes here have their own agendas and temptations that made them more interesting. But "Eternals" just couldn't go full blast on this aspect for some reason (maybe because of Disney?). It felt like it was holding back and playing it safe with its more mature premise and this severely impacted how each Eternal developed was developed. Most of them, if not all, just came off as wooden, flat, and soulless. And it was a stark contrast between the nuanced pacing, the artistic setting and cinematography, and its big-time cast. There's no denying though that "Eternals" was still a grand experience and it had its twists and turns to make the experience interesting but it lacked exceptionality on an already crowded genre.
Rating: 3 and a half reels
Why you should watch it:
- it's slow, steady, and beautiful to look at
- has an interesting take on how Eternals shaped humanity's history
Why you shouldn't watch it:
- the characters came of as wooden and soulles
- the runtime could have been a lot shorter given what we got from the experience
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