Eternals (2021)

 

No, this is not the best Marvel outing in their pretty extensive filmography. It is also not the worst. But it does have its share of problems, the main issue being that this feels like an in-between story used to set up different storylines. And there are a few too many characters. And the leads have all the charisma of a wet paper towel. 

No really: the secondary characters are much more fun, much more interesting and much more memorable. Never a good sign.

But it is still enjoyable to a certain degree, if you like the lore, so there's that.

'Eternals' is about a group of nearly immortal beings, sent to Earth by a Celestial (an alien equal to a god) in order to progress the development of the human race and also to protect us humans from a bunch of creatures only known as Deviants. These Eternals have names that will allude to deities in several of Earth's mythologies and religions, but they just keep going from civilisation to civilisation, pushing us along as a race. But in the modern day, most of them have gone their separate ways, as at one point they decided to break up the group as certain members were no longer comfortable in not interfering when genocide and war was the case. 

And then a bunch of new Deviants show up, even though the Eternals believed them all to be extinct. It gets worse, as the former leader of the troupe (Ajak) is found dead. But maybe the machinations of the Celestial known as Arishem aren't what the group expected, while nefarious plots have been set in motion...

Okay, I just made it all sound more interesting than the film actually is. I do apologise. See, I can not loathe this project as it isn't horrible, but it would have worked better as a series than as a standalone movie. And they really should have chosen better actors or different actors to play the leads Sersi and Ikaris. I am sure Gemma Chan and Richard Madden can do great things, but here they both are incredibly wooden and uninteresting and they are the main two! 

No joke: the sidecharacters have better storylines and problems. Barry Keoghan as Druig, who has had enough of the wars and bigotry? Great. Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, who has found a quiet life and is one of the more engaging characters here? Wonderful. Angelina Jolie as Thena, who is going a bit cuckoo for reasons this film sort of explains? Good enough. 

But egad, the main plot of Sersi and Ikaris having been lovers and now being something almost different but not really and especially Ikaris having the range of a piece of cement? Nope. Doesn't work. At all.

The main villain is also pretty weak, but you can see several twists coming a mile away. 

Now, it's not a total loss, but again: this would have been so much more fun as a series. It could then have focused more on the historical pieces and on the separate Eternals and would have been pretty interesting to watch. But as it stands now, it's a rather forgetful entry and one you can easily skip and not miss a beat. Talk about a missed opportunity.