Eternals Review: Critics are Eternally Grumpy.

I really thought I wasn’t going to like Eternals. It had been advertised for months as the ‘next major team up’ of the MCU but having never heard of any of these characters (I haven’t read the comics; I basically just go off what my cousin tells me) I truly thought Chloe Zhao was going to lay it on thick and fast. I wasn’t sold. However, after much consideration and a while of sitting on it, I think I’ve decided it was an intriguing and gripping cinematic masterpiece. I can’t be faulted that Marvel is impeccable when it comes to visuals, the aesthetic and circle motive of the Eternal’s costumes were divine, and the shots were simply stunning. The deviants were equally creepy and fascinating. And oh my god Thena’s (Jolie) weapons were so cool.

I came out of the cinema with the word ‘meh’ in mind. Some parts of the movie felt forced, some of the performances were lacking for me. There were a lot of minor things that niggled at the back of my mind, things I didn’t mind. It wasn’t like I disliked the plot; it was interesting and there were twists I wasn’t expecting in the slightest. And the fight scenes were incredible. But there seemed to be a lot going on, and I suppose you should expect that from a movie with so many characters we haven’t met before. My friend described it as if she had seen ‘four movies combined into one’ and in a way it really did feel like that. You could probably have made entire movies from the different characters lives, and I would have watched them all quite happily. There were bits added that were unnecessary: the montage of Sersi (Chan)and Ikarus’s (Madden) relationship seemed too long, where we could have spent much more time with Ikarus and Ajak (Hayek). The time spent in the past didn’t seem to add much to the storyline. We never saw why it was that Ikarus was ‘the loyal soldier’ and why he was willing to risk so much for the Celestials. Considering Ajak was the leader of the group, we didn’t learn enough about her to see exactly why it was her who was chosen to lead or get attached to her like we did with some of the other characters.

Where there were flaws in the plot, I think the characters made up for it (bar Ajak). They were all complexed and fascinating and you definitely felt strongly for each one in one way or another. Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely sold by Sersi and Ikarus, while Chan and Madden played them well, they didn’t have the lovable personalities that made me fall in love like the others did. Being the central focus romance wise also, it was underwhelming to find the other duos like Makkari (Ridloff) and Druig (Keoghan) and Gilgamesh (Lee) and Thena were far superior chemistry-wise. It wasn’t even just the main characters that I adored: Karun (Patel) definitely falls into ‘side character that stole the show’ territory right along side Trevor (Shang-Chi) and Luis (Ant-Man) and Kit Harrington is always a delight to watch.

You can’t help but be proud of Marvel for this movie, not only for pulling off a team up that wasn’t a total flop considering Tony Stark never showed up (and mentioned only once), but for the diversity they put into this film. Diversity seems to always come across forced and unnatural in projects like this, like they are adding gay characters just for the sake of making the audience happy. But they managed to represent the LGBT+ community, the deaf community, and have characters of various ethnicities in their ensemble and make it feel natural. There was no stigma, no warning, it was just there like it had always been, like it should be. It’s no wonder the critics have decided this film was a disaster.

It’s one that’s definitely worth a watch, it marks a turning point in MCU history even if it does leave you utterly confused. Cliff hanger after plot twist after cliff hanger. It’s one you have to properly pay attention to (talking to you person sat in front of me scrolling through Instagram with your brightness all the way up the entire way through) and it’s one you can’t truly despise. No matter how much you loathe the idea of Harry Styles being in the MCU, but that’s a rant for another day.