Eternals review

Eternals was always going to be a different approach for the MCU. New characters, unknown to most audiences. A director, Chloe Zhao, known for small art house fare, including the great Oscar winning Nomadland. Even the trailers made it plain that this was something new for the most successful movie franchise in the world.

Critics keep saying that the MCU is inferior because of how they stick so closely to a formula (as if that's a bad thing when the formula is this consistently good). So here comes a film that is very much a different beast in this franchise. The vibe of Eternals is very different. It provides most of the same things that other MCU films deliver, but in a package as unique as we have ever seen. And yet critics have slammed this harder than any MCU film. Add in the fandom menace dipshits who were always going to hate on this film due to 1. The director being a woman, and 2. The cast being this diverse, and you get the most hated MCU film ever, basically before it is even released.

Well fuck that. 

Eternals is great! A grand, epic story that takes big swings at deep ideas (and connects on most). That introduces a slew of new characters in a very clear and involving way. That is far less reliant on action or comic relief than any MCU film, yet still mostly excels at both when it counts.. That still manages to excite, and by the end pack an emotional wallop that nearly rivals the tearjerking peaks of Endgame.

This is a wonderful ensemble cast, a mix of known actors like Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, and Bryan Tyree Henry, and newer actors (to me at least) like Don Lee and Lauren Ridloff who make instant impact. The standouts for me are Henry, Lee, and the stunning and warm Gemma Chan, who really gives one of my favorite MCU performances. Each Eternal has their own powers and many their own separate stories once the group has splintered, but Zhao keeps all the plates spinning. There is a huge middle part of the film that is a "getting the band back together" storyline that maybe could have been shortened, but the character intros and interactions are all good.

The film also does some time hopping, both showing the Eternals in present day and in various points throughout history. I found this stuff consistently compelling. 

Yes, the film does acknowledge Thanos, and why beings as powerful as the Eternals did not intervene in that battle.

The third act does feature the requisite big fight scene, but it's also a really good one. And like the rest of the film it ultimately values humanity over pure spectacle, which I guess will piss people off. Even the way the good guys win is not by simply defeating anyone. It's more complex than that.

The Idea that this is some flop is preposterous. Time will tell how rewatchable this one is. But after one viewing this one is firmly middle of the MCU pack, which is a pretty fine place to be.