Spoilers Ahead
Though I’m not incredibly familiar with all of Zhao’s work, I am a huge fan of her film “The Rider”, an achingly beautiful portrayal of a man lost in his own land. She is an incredibly talented filmmaker, capable of bringing out strong and authentic performances, with a signature visual style that frames her characters in the backdrop of beautiful, vast, and empty vistas.
When I heard she was making a $200 million Marvel film, I hesitated a bit because her deliberate, documentary-esque, and character-driven way of storytelling is quite different from the action heavy, CGI-laden, crowd-pleasing Marvel movies. I don’t even think Zhao has ever filmed action fight scenes, much less worked with CGI. That being said, it is quite incredible what she has been able to produce here. Going from making $5 million indie films to helming a multi-character $200 million comic-book blockbuster film is not easy work.
I liked “Eternals”. Though I had hoped this would be more of a Zhao film than a Marvel film, and maybe I’m a little naïve for expecting that, I walked out of the theater having seen a comic-book movie that is a bit different from the rest.
I admired this film for its ambition, scope, and desire to push boundaries, even though it doesn’t quite reach the heights it aims for. Zhao’s penchant towards centering characters in the backdrop of sweeping vistas is still here, and she infuses the entire film with a warmth and humanity, arguably brought on by filming in real-locations, that is often lacking in Marvel. Furthermore, the whole idea of a group of foreigners trying to find home and humanity in an everchanging landscape is inextricable tied to Zhao’s work.
I think the biggest issue with this film is that it tries to do too much in too short of a time. Not only is this film building up a new cosmology featuring three different intergalactic beings each with their own motives (Celestials, Eternals, and Deviants), but it also has a sweeping story that attempts to build up its imperishable characters through centuries, spanning the history of humanity to present day. Couple this with a cast of 10 characters (11 is you count Kit Harrington), and the difficulty of pulling something like this off is astronomical. Inevitably some characters and ideas get short-changed over others.
While Gemma Chan’s Sersi is at the crux of this film, Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari and Salma Hayek’s Ajak don’t really have much to do and you don’t really feel for them. While significant time is given to developing the love angle between Gemma Chan’s Sersi and Richard Madden’s Ikaris, the same can’t be said between Ikaris and Lia McHugh’s Sprite or between Makkari and Barry Keoghan’s Druig. Not only that, but the Deviants seem to have a kind of humanity to them that isn’t quite fleshed out either. I could go on and on, but the point is some things in this film end up being much more developed and clearer than other aspects, and this leads to a bit of an uneven product.
Also, as is inevitable with science fiction films of this kind, I really didn’t buy the fact that these intergalactic beings came to Earth speaking English or the idea that Earth would be the only planet, out of millions of other planets with intelligent life, that these Eternal’s loved and wanted to protect.
The Indian wedding scene and the Bollywood dance sequence also seemed more like a Westerner’s interpretation of Indian culture rather than something you would actually see, but I digress.
When enough time is given to something here it does turn out to be fruitful. The love story between Sersi and Ikaris really hit home. Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos has some really interesting moments and Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo is a gem (the scene where he explains his century long stint in Bollywood without aging, chalking it up to Nepotism, is dead on accurate). I loved seeing the film travel through history, we see the Gupta Empire and the conquistador invasion, among others. I also admired how the film features heroes of various body-types, races, and sexuality. And the idea of these foreign beings falling in love with a world they were meant to protect, struggling not to interfere, was great too.
The music by Ramin Djawadi is fantastic, there is a combination here of vocals and orchestra that really works for this film. The costumes and production design seem other-worldly and fit the film well.
The critic reviews for this film (currently its the worst reviewed Marvel film) makes it seem much worse than it actually is. I have seen much, much, worse Marvel movies. Though at times the film feels strained, there is a lot here that made me smile. I’m glad Marvel took a chance with this film and with Zhao, and I hope they continue taking chances and trying to further push the envelope of the kind of films they make. Things may not have turned out as well as I would have hoped them too, but it’s still a likeable film that I can see myself going back to. And I would much rather have a film that tries to be different/ambitious and fails, than a film that doesn’t try at all.
