Eternals (2021) Review

After what feels like forever, Marvel Studios newest characters The Eternals have come to the big screen and I have watched the film today and here is my review for it. The premise of the film documents the story of thousand year old powered individuals and their fight against their sworn enemies The Deviants. 

Main Character

Gemma Chan plays Sersi and she is the main character here and she is fine. Chan does an effective job in the role and she is just a decent character. She is by no means the best Marvel lead protagonist but considering this is a real ensemble cast she fits in very effectively. Richard Madden plays Ikaris and I thought he was great, it took me time to get on board with his character but he really starts to thrive as the film progresses and you learn more about him and his motivations makes him stand out from the rest of The Eternals. 

Supporting Characters

Angelina Jolie plays Thena and I thought she was effective here. She is basically the films Wonder Woman and thus has some good action scenes but she has an interesting character that is somewhat developed and obviously Jolie can pull this off well. Kumail Nanjiani and Brian Tyree Henry are more of the comic relief and they are really good at it and they are just fun additions to the cast. Lauren Ridloff is really good too and she is really important as the first deaf actress to play a superhero and it feels like an important moment here. Barry Keoghan as Druig is a really effective character, he plays it really well and I really liked the twists and turns that were given to his character. Salma Hayek & Kit Harrington are also good in their smaller roles here and I kind of wish we could have spent more time with Harrington in particular. 

Story 

The individual stories for each member of The Eternals are well done, Ikaris, Thena and Druig in particular have really good arcs and make them interesting characters. The whole romance dynamic between Ikaris and Sersi is also really well done too and made it a romance that I actually cared about in The MCU. It has nuance in its storytelling and the motivations of different groups and people is well handled and made me care. But this film has a few too many characters in it and it does slow down the story telling, I also thought the whole ending sequence was a bit lacklustre and fails to deliver completely on the epic levels it should have. 

Script

The script has some chuckle worthy moments and some complexity too it when it comes to a few of its characters. But it falls short of doing enough to really make you care about the overall situation, it seems so large scale but at times the dialogue is rigid and it digs its heels in, especially in the past scenes. 

Style 

The film looks brilliant. The CGI is breathtaking and the action scenes are fantastically made and flow incredibly well. The film is 2 and a half hours and it didn't feel too long for me and it felt like an appropriate length. But the pacing of the film gets let down due to its editing of the plot, it jumps all over time periods and it feels very choppy which did make the film feel disjointed with its feeling. 

Overall

Overall, Eternals is a good film. It has a hard job of introducing so many new characters and story elements to an established universe, it has issues but overall I saw this as a pretty positive experience. 

Overall - 7/10