Movie Review

Film Review: ETERNALS (2021): Spectacular Visual Effects Undermined By Unusual Characterizations

Richard Madden Gemma Chan Eternals

Eternals Review

Eternals (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Chloe Zhao and starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Ma Dong-seok, Harish Patel, Bill Skarsgard, Haaz Sleiman, Esai Daniel Cross, Harry Styles, Alan Scott and Hannah Dodd.

Director Chloe Zhao’s Eternals is a visually extravagant Marvel film that suffers from its lengthy running time and the fact that its characters are simply not heroic enough to overcome their unusually written character traits. The movie jumps back and forth in time a lot and shifts to different locations making the plot one that you will need to pay close attention to in order to follow it. There are monsters in the film known as the Deviants. These creatures are remarkably created with close attention to detail given to their appearance. When you find yourself in awe of a picture’s bad guys more than the heroes, there’s a problem. It’s certainly not Zhao’s fault that the movie is hard to relate to. She tries her hardest to give the movie her unique style which was so prevalent in her Oscar-winning picture from last year, Nomadland. Eternals will most likely be mentioned come Oscar time but for its visual effects rather than for its writing and directing.

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Angelina Jolie stars as Thena, the movie’s most appealing character but she’s really part of an ensemble cast this time out and she isn’t given nearly enough to do in this movie. This is a problem which manifested itself in this year’s Those Who Wish Me Dead as well. Jolie works her magic as the immortal Thena who has emotional issues but can fight better than any of the men in the picture. Whenever she’s fighting a Deviant, the audience will not be able to take their eyes off the screen. A scene very late in the picture where she’s asked what her superpower is can definitely be considered one of the film’s most crowd-pleasing moments.

Gemma Chan as Sersi is really the character given the most screen time in Eternals. She’s involved with an everyday man named Dane Whitman (Kit Harington in the film’s most interesting performance) but spends time with a man named Ikaris (Richard Madden) who has superpowers that project lasers which come from his eyes. Ikaris is absolutely the most troublesome character in the entire movie. Zhao seems to define him as a hero in the early scenes but, later on, his motives become questionable especially in regards to his interaction with a central character known as Ajak (Salma Hayek). Ajak dies at one point in the film which makes Sersi the next in line to lead the Eternals, a group of characters who are immortal except under certain circumstances such as those in which they display their vulnerability to the Deviants. Ikaris is probably projected the same way he is in the Marvel comics but I’m not sure. In the movie, he gets to the point where even his fellow Eternals get tired of his shenanigans and he’s hardly a heroic character in the later scenes in the movie.

Another problematic character is Sprite (Lia McHugh), a younger character who wants to grow old and live a normal life and would try to kill another hero in the movie to get to live a regular existence. I’m not sure that qualifies as a heroic character in my book. In fact when Druig (Barry Keoghan) puts her in her place late in the film, the theater was supplied with applause from the audience. So, basically, Sprite is a character almost everybody in the audience wanted to see put in her place. I don’t understand why Sprite is portrayed as a hero after she does something to a key character in the movie. But, then again, I haven’t read the comics.

A major bright spot in the film is the character of Kingo (the always entertaining Kumail Nanjiani) who gets some of the film’s funniest lines. Kingo is a Bollywood movie star. Nanjiani deserves a lot of praise because he stands out like a sore thumb here and eventually is able to create one of the most enjoyable performances the film has to offer. When I say he stands out, it’s because I’m used to seeing him in comedies and, yet, he manages to add his unique comic touches to the otherwise much more intense movie that is Eternals. Nanjiani steals the film whenever he’s given the opportunity.

Brian Tyree Henry plays Phastos and Lauren Ridloff portrays Makkari while Ma Dong-seok serves at the rather interesting character of Gilgamesh. All three of these supporting turns are decent and add some flavor to the otherwise hard-to-define characterizations in the movie.

There are some intriguing surprises for those Marvel fans who make it partially through the credits and even more fun for those who make it past the entire closing credits.

The visual effects in Eternals will be honored with an Academy Award nomination if there is any justice in the world because they’re simply amazing. There’s a lot of detail put into every piece of the creation of The Deviants. They are so perfectly created and make for some strong villains although by the time, the film gets towards the end, I wanted nothing more than to see some of the Eternals fall victim to the Deviants.

Eternals was a good project to introduce director Chloe Zhao to more mainstream Hollywood movie-goers. Perhaps, true Marvel fans can make more sense out of the way the movie portrays its heroes and will enjoy it more than I did. It’s certainly not a bad film, but it could have used more fully defined heroic characters throughout it’s two-and-a half-hour-plus running time.

Rating: 6/10

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Thomas Duffy

Thomas Duffy is a graduate of the Pace University New York City campus and has been an avid movie fan all of his life. In college, he interviewed film stars such as Minnie Driver and Richard Dreyfuss as well as directors such as Tom DiCillo and Mark Waters. He is the author of nine works of fiction available on Amazon. He's been reviewing movies since his childhood and posts his opinions on social media. You can follow him on Twitter. His user handle is @auctionguy28.
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