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Eternal it manages to deliver thrilling and captivating action scenes, but it leaves doors too wide for the future and fails to explore all it has to offer. THE Marvel clearly finds itself in a moment of changes, of finding what will be the formula to be followed by the next 10 years of the franchise. During the Avengers: Endgame cycle, the format has always been clear, with comic relief — even when it didn't need to — and with every movie focused on being connected.
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was the last film in the MCU's chronological sequence and very little escaped the protagonist formula with a comic relief partner. That's why Eternals is a breather inside the MCU, with a script that gives the feeling of watching Joss Whedon's Justice League, only good.
Who are the Eternals?
The film wastes no time in introducing who the Eternals are: they are beings created by a Celestial called arishem, who were sent to protect humanity from the Deviants, a race of predators. The eternals are from the planet Olympia and follow Arishem on his mission with unshakable faith. There are 10 Eternals sent to Earth, over 7 years ago, each with eternal life, different powers and abilities.
Sersi — performed by Gemma Chan — is our unlikely protagonist, the shyest of the bunch who has the power to transfigure any inanimate object, like the walls of a wooden house about to be destroyed by iron walls. Sersi deserves special attention for being the character with the most screen time during the film and, therefore, one of the only ones to have proper character development. And curiosity: Gemma Chan has already played Minn-Erva from Captain Marvel (2019)
In addition to the protagonist, the group is formed by: Druig, able to control the minds of humans; phastos, the smartest of the bunch, inventor and builder of whatever combat equipment the team needs; Sprite, an Eternal capable of projecting illusions into the real world, but who has the appearance of a 12-year-old for all eternity; ikaris, is an eternal capable of flying and shooting cosmic energy through his eyes – half Superman, no?
makkari, a super speedster, who is even the first deaf superhero in the MCU; Kingo, who is able to conjure up cosmic energies with his hands and shoot enemies; Gilgamesh is the strongest of all, capable of taking down large enemies with a single punch; the allegations, a warrior who can conjure any hand weapon with cosmic energy; And finally, Ajak, the leader of the Eternals, with the power to heal her companions and who serves as a communication bridge between the Eternals and Arishem.
Why protect Earth?
It's already pretty clear that the MCU has a vast galaxy of civilizations, so why protect Earth? The question is fair, but the Eternals project doesn't just have the 9 heroes we mentioned, but with many others spread across the galaxy fighting the Deviants, who are the villains… Right?
Right! Deviants are mindless predators that mysteriously appeared on Earth millennia ago. The film develops the story of the present with flashbacks to the past, from the time when the Eternals were battling together until they decimated all the Deviants on the planet.
Arishem's mission may seem simple, but the true purpose of defending Earth is not revealed until much later in the film and is one of the plot's points of interest. That's because only the leader Ajak - played very well by Salma Hayek — is the only one who communicates with Arishem and knows the true purpose of the Celestial being's plans.
After a few millennia and defeating the Deviants, the Eternals parted ways, awaiting orders from Arishem for the next step, orders that took more millennia to receive. Meanwhile, the only rule was: don't interfere in human conflicts, just protect them from the Deviants. And because of that, we don't see Eternals fighting Loki in New York, or Thanos — and that help would be most welcome.
The film
The film then starts in the present day showing Sersi and her romantic interest, Dane Whitman, who despite being just a human who works in a museum, the character is also the Black Knight in the comics, which can still be explored on the big screen.
Sersi and Sprite — played by Read McHugh — are a pair of Eternals who still maintain close contact and since the beginning of the film they have been trying to develop the character of Sprite, the difficulties of seeming to be a child forever, not being able to relate, but getting lost in the bigger events of the film.
Right off the bat, the problem is simple: The Deviants have somehow come back, stronger and smarter, so the Eternals need to get the band together and get back to playing. From that moment, the film begins to work with flashbacks to show what the Eternals lived in the period of battles with the Deviants while developing the plot in the present.
The flashbacks are the most crucial moments for me, they develop the relationship of the heroes, they bring non-verbalized information - profit in Marvel movies - and they manage, in addition to taking us for walks in historical places and moments of our planet, to bring a point of different view of what it is to be a hero.
After all, the Eternals couldn't help in anything that wasn't related to Deviants, so how are they heroes if they weren't there at times when humanity clearly needed it? Amidst the dilemmas and reflections, the Eternals must find a way to stop the Deviants once again and save the planet. But what then? In Marvel's own words: The Eternals will return.
Worth it?
Yes. It's worth it too much watch the Eternals. We are living in a new phase 1 of the MCU and it was very clear that these characters will be very important from now on. Also, the movie may not be the best in the franchise, but the combat scenes with the Deviants, the powers and special effects of the Eternals are very good and follow the high level of quality that we saw recently in Shang Chi.
The protagonist and script are the high point of the movie, along with the variety of interesting characters that throughout the movie you want more and more from each of the Eternals. Which leads me to say that the biggest flaw of Eternals is not knowing how to explore some arcs. Sprite's arc is very empty with a great ending, as is Ikaris, who is a standout throughout the entire movie and gets a thrown closure, lacking the emotion that Marvel clearly wanted to achieve.
A constant point of complaint with the MCU is the over-the-top comic reliefs, but the presence of Kingo — played by kumail nanjiani — is very well used and doesn't break moments of tension with unnecessary jokes, knowing the right moment to use humor, even yielding loud laughs in the session I watched the movie, something I haven't seen since Guardians of the Galaxy.
The big unexpected highlight for me was Thena, a character from Angelina Jolie. The character is one of the Eternals that most managed to develop and impose herself on screens in just a few moments, making it possible to create a bond with the character. Another character that can't be overlooked is Druig — played by Barry keoghan — one that we're sure to see more of and deserves special attention in the few scenes it has in the film.
To close, of course we have to talk about the scenes post credits. There are two, as is Marvel's standard, and this time, both open many doors for future Eternals-related MCU projects, so don't leave the theater until the lights go on, because I guarantee you it will be worth it. And, oh, some rumors about the post credits scenes were right, so if you're going to watch the movie, avoid spoilers, so you don't spoil the experience.
Conclusion
Eternals is a budget movie of 200 million dollars and lives up to the money invested. The long innovates, even if little, in the MCU formula, and manages to introduce incredible characters to the universe that deserve to be explored in future projects of the franchise. With the franchise's first gay and deaf heroes and a truly diverse Eternals cast, Eternals also earns a little star for doing the least.
So if you want an experience Marvel quality, I guarantee this movie will end up in the top 5 MCU movies of a lot of people out there.
Where and when to watch:
The film opens on November 4, 2021 and, like Shang-Chi, you will only be able to watch it in theaters and in the future it will be released on Disney+.
See also:
Check out our Shang Chi analysis!
