The past few entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe [MCU] have been enjoyable. “Black Widow” was not the most-loved of all the Marvel movies, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as “Shang-Chi” and “the Legend of the Ten Rings.” “Eternals”, however, was a different story.
Directed by last year’s Academy Award for Best Director winner Chloe Zhao, “Eternals” was long, bland and irrelevant. The film tries to establish a new group of characters after the finality of 2019’s “Avengers Endgame” but fails miserably. Much of the film’s weakness comes from some aggressively weak dialogue, and equally weak acting. The film has a very strong cast, with many actors who have proven their skills in some much stronger films, but those skills are completely absent from this mess.
One of the most confusing parts of this movie is the lack of talent on display. For a director fresh off a win for both Best Director and Best Picture, Zhao does not do a great job in this effort. Much of the acting in the movie is clearly not well guided by proper direction, especially one character who is played by a child actor and is torture to watch.
Most Marvel movies have a decent amount of humor. Much of the little humor this film does have comes from Kumail Nanjiani, who spent most of his career in comedy television and film. Other than a couple of other one-liners the movie’s dark tone feels out of pace in a Marvel film, and would fit better in a film by Marvel’s competitor DC, who has always struggled in the film department with only a few decent films in recent years.
“Eternals” has one of the most diverse casts ever assembled for a superhero movie which has been a significant positive change towards the MCU since the film was initially announced. However, the movie presents an aggressively uninteresting and bland narrative, and its first major attempt to diversify goes to waste.
This may be the most unenjoyable installment in the MCU thus far, which is disappointing because this could have been a major step in the continuation in the MCU after Endgame. I can’t say I recommend this movie, unless you want to pay to take a nap.
