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The Marvel Cinematic Universe tries something a little different with Chloé
Zhao’s Eternals, injecting the filmmaker’s trademark humanist drama into
cosmic-level super heroics. There are plenty of things to like with this new
approach, but much of it fights tooth and nail with the dullest iteration of
Marvel formula; Eternals’ weighty themes are lost in a story that is lopsided,
overstuffed, and overlong.
It isn’t hyperbolic to say that Chloé Zhao is most likely Marvel’s biggest “get”
since the casting of Robert Downey, Jr. as
Iron Man. Hot off of winning both
Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards for last year’s sublime
Nomadland,
Zhao seems like the perfect choice to infuse something new into the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, a painstakingly constructed Disney empire now a
little long in the tooth and a little too comfortable in its own formula.
Eternals is nothing if not ambitious: Aiming to combine Zhao’s specific brand of
intimate, humanist drama with the galaxies-spanning scale of Jack Kirby’s cosmic
creations, the film is the MCU’s attempt at bridging the auteur with
wide-appeal. Does it work? Not particularly, but Eternals does give Marvel a
fascinating failure - a gutsy mess that’s intriguing to parse.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has long had issues trusting its most impressive
hires: Edgar Wright parted ways from
Ant-Man over creative differences, as did
Scott Derrickson with Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and indie
acquisitions such as Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck - who helmed 2018’s
Captain
Marvel - typically get their flair stomped out by the Marvel template. Even this
year’s biggest hits for the studio lack their filmmakers’ unique voices; Cate
Shortland’s
Black Widow never really feels like a Cate Shortland movie, and
Destin Daniel Cretton’s
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - even with
its refreshing kineticism - barely captures Cretton’s voice. So color me
surprised that Eternals, at many junctures of its interminable runtime, does
feel like a Chloé Zhao movie: From its deeply humanist themes to its South
Dakota stand-in to its sprawling magic hour photography courtesy of
cinematographer Ben Davis, Eternals fits right into Zhao’s wheelhouse. But
Eternals doesn’t have a Chloé Zhao problem, it has a Marvel problem.
At any given time, Eternals has plenty of interesting things going on, but any
departure from rote super heroics is always fighting tooth and nail with Marvel’s
formula, which has never been duller than it is in this film. Centered around a
cadre of millennia-old super beings, Eternals pits its titular heroes - at the
word of their omnipotent Celestial overlord Arishem - against the monstrously
flavorless Deviants, CGI beasties long-thought extinguished. The film finds
itself at its best and most fascinating mining hefty existential pathos from
these immortal beings, wandering without purpose and squabbling over the merits
and worthiness of humanity, but its primary conflict has the consistency of
indigestible cud. Even the film’s surprise big bad - in an effective reveal that
is fair, telegraphed, and even sympathetic - gets his storyline usurped by the
bland Deviants.
The Eternals themselves are portrayed by a murderers’ row of talent, rarely used
at full potential because of one simple fact: there are too many of them. A
crowded lineup rarely afforded room to breathe, the Eternals represent an
admittedly fascinating spectrum of attachment to humanity: There’s the empathic
lead, Sersi (Gemma Chan), who has developed a deep bond with her charges over
thousands of years; there’s the dutiful Superman pastiche and love interest
Ikaris (Richard Madden); and there’s the hedonistic and flamboyant Kingo (a
newly muscled Kumail Nanjiani), injecting comic relief and a fleet Bollywood
dance number. There’s also the jaded engineer Phastos (Bryan Tyree Henry), the
dementia-riddled warrior Thena (a severely underserved Angelina Jolie), the
requisite heavy Gilgamesh (Don Lee), the perpetually childlike Sprite (Lia
McHugh), the deaf speedster Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), and bitter mesmer Druig
(Barry Keoghan), all led by the maternal Ajak (Salma Hayek). It’s a mouthful of
a roster that leads to an awkward revolving door: characters disappear for long
stretches of time, inexplicably sit out of climactic battles, and simply just
don’t have enough to do.
It’s also a shame that one of Eternals’ weakest links is its leads. There’s a
thin, fragile line between somber-slash-contemplative and tired-slash-lifeless,
and Gemma Chan’s Sersi and Richard Madden’s Ikaris consistently find themselves
on the wrong side of the demarcation. As immortal beings having spent eons as
lovers and partners, there’s shockingly little spark or chemistry between them
(in fact, none of the Eternals really feel infused with any sort of wisdom or
prowess that thousands of years on Earth would grant). Eternals might boast the
MCU’s first actual sex scene, but with its sterility and lack of passion, it’s
pretty much a non-event not worth the hubbub surrounding it. Gemma Chan, in
particular, is capable of much more than the dry, enervated material given to
her, showing more verve and bite in her starter MCU role in
Captain
Marvel than
she does as Sersi.
The Eternals operate under the directive of their Celestial master, Arishem, and
are strictly prohibited from interfering with Earth life unless Deviants are
involved. It’s a rule that’s played with fast and loose - and sometimes not at
all - and it gives Eternals some of its best moments, despite its obvious
inconsistencies. Comics legend Jack Kirby’s original Eternals were meant to be
the originators of Earth’s myths, legends, and religions, and even though the
film jettisons much of Kirby’s signature bombast and eye-popping colors, it
finds power in the quieter moments outside of comic book violence. From early
civilization to ancient Mesoamerica to the Amazon Rainforest, watching the
Eternals bristle against or nudge humanity brings a refreshing dose of
weightiness and existential ponderings, even if it does lead to an overwrought
and on-the-nose sequence in Hiroshima, Japan. But these humanist leanings clash
particularly hard with Eternal’s ugliest and most weightless aspects: Any time
we even get a morsel of the good stuff, we’re jaunted back to the present for
another shoot ‘em up with some faceless baddies. It’s a frustratingly choppy
pattern, especially across a bloated runtime.
On paper, Marvel’s latest has all the requisite ingredients for a smash hit: An
Oscar-winning director, megawatt star power, and a cosmic Jack Kirby veneer. Mix
those together with a palpable gumption to finally do something adjacent - if
not completely outside - of the the typical superhero formula, and you just
might have the shot in the arm the MCU needs. Unfortunately, Eternals is all
promise without the know-how of assemblage, sandbagging its most potent threads
with bloat and generic formula. Chloé Zhao is trying to make the film she so
wants to make within the Marvel universe while battling a frustrating inability
to deviate from the 30-property-deep entity that is the MCU. It’s a frustrating,
occasionally fun, at points brilliant, frequently tiresome journey that never
manages to reach any of the potential it so clearly had. It’s a lopsided mess
and Marvel is far from finding the right balance between auteur and blockbuster,
but Eternals has enough slivers of greatness for one to hope they never stop
trying.
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