Eternals leaves ‘temporary’ impression on sleepy audiences

The beginning of November welcomed the release of Marvel’s latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Eternals. Many new characters and recognizable faces took their maiden voyage on the SS MCU, including, Sersi (Gemma Chan, Crazy Rich Asians), Thena (Angelina Jolie, Maleficent), Ikaris (Richard Madden, Cinderella), Dane Whitman (Kit Harington, Game of Thrones), and more. Even a post-credit scene appearance by Eros, Thanos’ brother, (Harry Styles, Dunkirk).

Eternals begins with an opening reminiscent of Star Wars, featuring a brief explanation of the Eternals and their history. Viewers have yet to see these mere 7,000-year-old --not god, not mortal-- heroes due to restrictive control from another new group of mighty beings called the Celestials. The Eternals were not allowed to interfere with mortal affairs, instead, they were believed to have been sent to Earth to protect humankind from the ever-evolving Deviants, a failed creation of the Celestials. As a result of having to watch centuries of wars and chaos, some started to rethink their absent nature and their true purpose.

Not only do the names hail from Greek and Roman Mythology, but their abilities do, too. Some are as easily recognizable as Sersi/Circe. It’s even mentioned in the movie, the parallels between Thena and Athena, goddess of war and wisdom, and how the story of Icarus (Ikarus) was made up by Sprite (Lia McHugh, Songbird). Others take a hint more deducing. Take Makkari (Lauren Ridloff, The Walking Dead) and the God Mercury, for example, Makkari has superhuman speed (watch out the Flash), while Mercury is the Roman god of speed (amongst other things). There’s also Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry, Godzilla vs. Kong), who has a keen understanding of mechanics, like Hephaestus, Greek god of fire and the forge.

The movie cuts between the past and present, showing their greatest moments, piecing together what they’ve been up to since their arrival. One particular mission marked a dramatic turning point in their story, and the group split apart. These immortals have known each other and fought side by side for eons. Despite this, their interactions felt inauthentic and relationships disconnected. They didn’t seem to care about each other, with the exception of a couple of duos within the group. Most of the Eternals weren’t fazed at all when they separated and were equally unaffected when reunited.

The movie never builds up reasons to be attached to the characters or the events unfolding. Especially with all the new characters introduced, they didn’t receive enough time for it to seem remotely feasible. On the other hand, those that did get screen-time, like Sersi, weren’t given engaging storylines to make them connectable.

Sersi has a tumultuous romance with Ikarus throughout the movie, but there was never an establishment of their connection or an explanation as to why they fell for each other. They just did, further enforcing their dull characterization.

Sprite had a similar situation as she was jealous and held a crush on Ikarus, but there were no implications, just characters flat out stating how she was feeling. Eternals committed one of the biggest storytelling sins, telling and not showing. But, there’s no reason for this problem to have arisen, given how Eternals holds the title of the second-longest MCU movie, with a run-time of 2 and a half hours.

Instead, most of the movie was filled with underwhelming action scenes. Action is one of the main reasons a person goes to see a Marvel movie and Eternals fails at that. The trailer for the film gives the impression of grand and spectacular fights (these are supposedly powerful immortals after all), but their heroics are greatly humbled and the thrill was lost. Some of the Eternals don’t even have powers that are helpful in battle, which is peculiar since their purpose is to fight deviants. The others are quite disappointing, with some fancy spins and kicks for spice, in Thena’s case. Even the final battle was a bore, though Sersi was able to have her “grand” fighting moment.

Makkari is the MCU’s first deaf character, though only a couple of the Eternals used sign language with her, especially during the battles, where Makkari was left confused because she didn’t know what they said to her.

Another milestone made by the Eternals movie is the MCU’s first gay character, Phastos. During the group’s time separated, Phastos was living amongst the humans and married Ben (Haaz Sleiman, Breaking Fast) with whom he shares a ten-year-old son named Jake.

Alex Ritman, from Hollywood Reporter, touched on this topic. “Homosexuality is still officially illegal across the Gulf, and films containing anything related to LGBTQ issues are frequently pulled from release. Last year, the Pixar title Onward was banned across Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia over a single line referencing a lesbian relationship.” 

Eternals is the latest movie to be added to this list after being banned in multiple of the same countries by dint of a kiss between Phastos and Ben before Phastos left to save the world. Although they were willing to rethink the ban (in the event Disney made some editing changes), Disney refused.

The MCU has been making more strides like this recently with Loki canonically confirmed to be bisexual and genderfluid in the titular series, Loki. As well as with Tessa Thompson confirming that her character, Valkyrie, is also bisexual. While Eternals had the first kiss between a gay couple in the MCU, the kiss was void of emotion, as is true for many of the moments in this movie.

The attempt was there, especially with Thena and Sprite, though said moments were often cut short by poorly timed insertions of comedy. This gave a sense of mockery to the characters and what they’re going through, as well as filling the scene with a sense of awkwardness.

Speaking of poor timing, Harry Styles’ entrance into the MCU raises some suspicions regarding the quality of his performance, given the brevity of the post-credit scene and his acting career as a whole. Alas, only time will tell. Marvel post-credit scenes have been a topic for discussion for many years, enticing eager audiences for upcoming movies and storylines. Though it doesn’t stop at just the post-credit scenes.

This has especially been present this past year or two, with some of the most recent MCU additions (WandaVision, Loki, and the upcoming Spider-Man movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home) all appearing to be setting up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

While not inherently bad, if a fanbase spends most of the time excited for what’s next, forgetting about what’s happening right now, then where’s the payoff? If the audience just wants more and more, grander and grander, when will they ever be satisfied?

Final grade: B-

by Addison Isely

Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 3

November 29th, 2021