Artnewspress :
This review contains major spoilers for “Eternals.”
Marvel’s “Eternals” opens with the biblical words, “In the beginning…” and what follows is a 157-minute film that reframes human history and life on Earth as the birth pangs of a godlike Celestial named Tiamut. Our overpopulated planet is a cocoon for Tiamut, and when he’s born, Earth will be destroyed, but the death and rebirth cycle of Celestials will ensure that new worlds live elsewhere in the cosmos.
“Eternals” retrofits the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a new creation myth whereby armored space angels (really, synthetic beings) have come from the planet Olympia (#NotARealPlanet) at the behest of another Celestial named Arishem. These angels, these heroes, these heartthrobs, the Eternals, are locked in a centuries-spanning conflict with demon-dog Deviants, who themselves are capable of evolving into at least one bipedal, CG-dud villain with the voice of Bill Skarsgård.
As always, the fate of the world, not to mention the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score, hangs in the balance. “Eternals” has received the most mixed reviews of any MCU film; critics are split right down the middle, while the audience hovers in the same 85% positive range that it usually does.
There are parts where even the most dedicated fan (raises hand) is likely to feel bored or impatient with the movie. Yet for all that, “Eternals” is more interesting and establishes a more unique identity than a homogenous sequel like “Thor: The Dark World.” Its visual effects, while shoddy in places, aren’t as abominable as the ones that brought the Abomination to life in “The Incredible Hulk.”
If it sounds like I’m damning with faint praise, that’s the exact register that “Eternals” hits.
The Zhao of It All
At this point, Marvel is scraping the bottom of the barrel for new heroes while we wait for the Fantastic Four and other former Fox characters to join the MCU. The 26th film in the MCU has a plot — and plenty of it — but it often subordinates the plot to its characters, of whom there are many. Director and co-writer Chloé Zhao is more interested in exploring the group dynamics and character drama of the Eternals in sidebar conversations than in staging action.
Zhao won Best Director at this year’s Oscars with “Nomadland,” a drama about houseless people that offered graceful visions of wide-open, magic-hour vistas across America. I was lukewarm on “Nomadland;” it’s one of those movies where I could appreciate the artistry of it without being all that entertained or moved by it. However, Zhao brings that same artistry to “Eternals,” making the movie her own and wearing her influences on her sleeve.
The portentous opening, with its lush space backdrop of a fiery sun and its Monolith-like spaceship arriving on Earth, harkens back to such science-fiction films as “Interstellar,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival.” Zhao leaned on Villeneuve for support through the making of “Eternals,” and if there were ever any doubt that she wants “Eternals” to be her “Dune,” look no further than the inclusion of Pink Floyd’s “Time” on the soundtrack. In its marketing, “Dune” made prominent use of a Hans Zimmer cover of Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse,” from the same ’70s album, “Dark Side of the Moon.”
Saloomeh Farhadian
