Rating: 8.9
I loved Eternals. Holy crap the critics REALLY got this one wrong. It’s a solid masterpiece of a movie and one of the most beautiful, unique and innovative films that Marvel has ever produced, thanks to Chloe Zhao’s visionary talent. It isn’t your average Marvel movie, hell it doesn’t even feel like one. And that’s why I love it! It’s a breath of fresh air and shows the MCU taking bold, new risks, instead of just using the same type of storytelling. I love the creative choices that were made and how they all make it stand out in such a special way from the rest of the MCU, from the dense mythology, gorgeous visuals and more emotional, character driven storyline. It really taps in to the work of Jack Kirby, from a story and even visual perspective. This movie is still blowing my mind, its one that is getting better and better the more I think about, process and digest it, and I’m sure it will only get better with more viewings! (And god I cannot wait to see it again!) The film is ambitious, but handles everything so perfectly, which Chloe Zhao deserves every praise for! Her direction is stunningly beautiful, incredibly strong and she brings her very nuanced style to the MCU. I love how she puts story and character above the action, and while not one of the action is as big as some sequences from other films, what we get really works for the story! The film has a scope that is so ambitious and epic, feeling a lot like Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which for me is a great thing. Zhao’s script is also really well done, the mythology is rich and complex, the story is emotional, pure and heartfelt with so much humanity imbued into the characters. The characters were really fantastic and I fell in love with all of them very quickly. I really liked how the movie made every character feel important and valued, and with a cast of 10 main characters I found Zhao balanced their screen time and actions/conflicts really well. One of the best parts of the film is the dynamics and interplay between the characters. The Eternals are all essentially gods, but Zhao, alongside her stunning cast, did such a good job at bringing the humanity to each of their personalities and stories. It’s a complex story with differing character motivations and ideologies, and I loved how the end battle was essentially a battle of ideologies as the Eternals sought to develop their own sense of autonomy from the Celestials. I also thought some of the dialogue at the start was a little iffy, but as the movie got going it got better. I loved the humour throughout, there were many really funny moments for sure! And like I said, the cast was perfect, each of the actors brought a warmth and sense of life to their roles. I especially loved Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Madden and Brian Tyree Henry, but it was clearly Gemma Chan’s movie. Barry Keoghan was also such a surprise! Kit Harington had a smaller role than expected but I am so excited to see where his character goes moving forward! And that’s another thing I loved about the movie; it reinvigorated my excitement for the future of the MCU and showed me how different and new it could get! The world building in the film is excellent, it really fleshes out the cosmic side of the MCU in such a rich and intricate way, making the MCU feel much more grand and complex. The movie essentially is what Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus” wishes it was, and tells that sort of story but from the perspective of the engineers, which in this movie were the Celestials. I loved how they handled the Celestial scenes, especially in how they showed the physical scale and massiveness of Arishem compared to Ajax and Sersi. The visuals themselves, throughout the entire movie, are absolutely stunning and gorgeous. Chloe Zhao is truly gifted with a sense to capture the perfect shot, with stunning lighting and colour. Its easily the best looking MCU film, and I loved the natural feel that the on-location shooting did for the film. Its truly a feast for the eyes and felt so visually rich because it wasn’t all CGI environments and was so brightly lit. I really admire the effort put into the cinematography for this film, and even the CGI looked stunning! The costumes also looked excellent and were nicely colourful! The design of the deviants was really cool, but unfortunately the characters themselves are somewhat wasted and served as better plot devices than villains, but luckily the story has a clever twist later on in the film. The overall villains of the movie are a lot more ambiguous than in a usual comic book movie, and that really worked for me. I really enjoyed the hell out of this movie, and I have to say it is definitely one of the best films that Marvel has ever produced. It doesn’t feel like a Marvel movie, it is very much a Chloe Zhao film and that is easily its biggest strength! Please go see it and form your own opinions, I can see how some may see it as divisive, but I was completely swept away by it! It’s a triumph; a slow burning story that is epic in nature, beautiful in character development, and has gorgeous visuals. It’s something the MCU hasn’t seen yet, and has major implications for the future. I respect it alone for the bold creative risks Marvel took in making this film, and hope we see more experimentation from them like this! Not only that, but wow Chloe Zhao is truly a force of nature and proves she can handle a blockbuster! I loved it, its so fresh and really something truly special and transformative for Marvel, and wow it only gets better with time! (And woah, those end credit scenes were pretty exciting!)
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IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 49%
RT Audience Score: 83%
Metacritic Score: 53
CinemaScore: B
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Marvel Studios
Directed by Chloé Zhao
Produced by Kevin Feige & Nate Moore
Screenplay by Chloé Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo
Story by Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo
Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Kit Harington, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee
Runtime: 2hr 37min
Rating: PG
Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
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Following the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years, out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
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Fun Fact: Marvel considered The Eternals to be a "perfect transition" into its next phase of films along with projects such as Captain Marvel (2019), as it allowed the studio to cast a diverse group of actors to portray the various Eternals. In February 2019, Feige reiterated that Marvel was interested in the characters due to Kirby's "immense, amazing epic with Eternals that spans tens of thousands of years" in the comics; because they wanted to create more ensemble films "from the start" like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), rather than building up to an ensemble crossover as they did with The Avengers (2012); and to introduce "characters that the majority of the world has never heard of" as they did with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers.
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