Is anyone feeling lost within the shuffle of Marvel movies? As I was heading home from my latest screening, I had a friend, from New York, telling me that she was planning to see the new “Avengers.” I paused and knew what she must have meant, thinking to myself, “There is no way that Marvel can release two films at once, even if they really wanted to.” It goes without saying that the studio has done a marvelous job (no pun intended) of not only cashing in on all of the popularity surrounding these characters, but also doing everything that it took to reach that level of popularity. Yes, even as I am a DC Comics guy, as many people my age were, back in the day, it is nearly impossible to deny that Marvel has cornered the market on quality movies inside of the sub-genre of comics films. Still, with the bar set as high as it is, there are bound to be degrees of success and value, right?
The latest addition for Marvel happens to be “Eternals.” If they remind you of gods from Greek or Roman mythology, well, I think you are more than justified. The film even had a few references to the legendary tales. How could it not? So, the start of the movie wastes no time in introducing the titular characters. They arrive in Mesopotamia, 5000 B.C. Does that sound sort of familiar? 
Right away, you can see the outstanding visuals and solid action sequences. However, you then find a story detail that becomes all too common in this film and it occurs a bit too often, in my view: a time warp to and from the past and present. Here, we jump ahead to London (present day).
The story slows down just enough to give us a closer look at the most important character in this movie: Sersi, played by Gemma Chan (“Let Them All Talk”). She is on her way to a classroom to give some sort of a lecture. When she arrives, it turns out that some people she knows are there, too: Dane Whitman, played by Kit Harington (“The Death & Life of John F. Donovan”) and Sprite, played by Lia McHugh (“Songbird”). Things do not stay normal for long. An earthquake seems to pave the way for a clash between Eternals and Deviants, or as I think of it, a “battle between angels and demons.” The Eternals had supposedly put a stop to these creatures before, but they have returned and are stronger than ever. With that, the Eternals must round themselves up, from all the corners of the world, and band together to stop them once and for all…
After some considerable story jumps, going back and forth between various times of world history and the present time, things stop in the land of Mumbai, where Kingo, played by Kumail Nanjiani (“The Lovebirds”), awaits his next move while producing a movie. Humorously, he has fooled those around him into thinking that he comes from an entire family of filmmakers. He then leads some of his fellow Eternals to a desert where some of the others have migrated to over the years. This is where Gilgamesh, played by Don Lee (“Start-Up”) and Thena, played by Angelina Jolie (“Come Away”), rejoin the team. 
Still, more Eternals remain on the loose, so the travel continues on to the Amazonian rainforest, where Druig, played by Barry Keoghan (“The Green Knight”) has settled down. This time, however, Deviants appear amongst the Eternals, and a great battle rages. Clearly, as things unfold, not everyone is what they used to be and it makes things harder for the whole group.
The final, two Eternals are none other than Phastos, played by Brian Tyree Henry (“Godzilla vs. Kong”) and Makkari, played by Lauren Ridloff (“Sound of Metal”). As you might have gathered, each Eternal has his or her own set of special powers, which combine with the others to make up a formidable and powerful team. The Eternals are not gods, but, rather, god-like humans among just normal beings if you will. Therefore, they are still flawed and have to wrestle with emotions and challenges like the rest of us. Keep all this in kind as the story gets down to the wire.
There are actually two, other Eternals which need to be mentioned, whom I see as going together and separate from all the others: Ikaris, played by Richard Madden (“Rocketman”) and Ajak, played by Salma Hayek (“House of Gucci”). Even though Ajak is mostly a forgettable presence within the constructs of the movie, a revelation, which involves Ikaris, is paramount to the rest of the tale. Depending on where you stand in your own, personal life, you might think that the roles of these characters are being portrayed upside-down from reality, but things will make a little bit better sense by the time you see all of the endings to the story. Yes, as per usual, there is more than one ending.
“Eternals” might have been better-served by a more linear story arc. Yes, there was a lot of story to unpack, but the constant shifting in the timeline became pretty repetitive after awhile and I was ready to just see the rest of the plot, long before it had even arrived. The backstories provided depth to the main characters, but perhaps not as much as you might think. I would say that much of what we learned could have been brought to us by other means.
In the end, I still enjoyed myself, but I think it could have been better. There will, no doubt, be sequels yet to come. I wonder if recent Academy Award-winning director, Chloe Zhao, (“Nomadland”) will stick around for the rest of the story. For the sake of continuity, I hope so, but could we please get off of this recent trend of making every film as lengthy as humanly imaginable, just for the sake of getting as much of the original story material included as possible? Do not forget that editing and pacing are an intricate part of the process, too.
Director: Chloe Zhao
Screenwriters: Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, Katz Firpo
Based on: “Eternals,” by Jack Kirby
Starring: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lia McHugh, Bryan Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Harish Patel as Karun, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date: November 5th, 2021
