Eternals (2021) Movie Review

Synopsis:

Following the Avengers’ restoration of the universe, a group of aliens called the Eternals must protect the Earth. They protect it against a threat known as the Deviants. As their adventure continues, major alliances get reforged, and others become fractured.

Review:

After watching this film’s trailers, an audience’s first thought may have been, Who are the Eternals?

In summary, the Eternals are a group of heroes who fight to defend planet Earth throughout the centuries.

While this concept may seem original, it’s also where this movie’s issues begin to arise.

First of all, Eternals jumps around various timelines and locations often. As a result, the characters have little room to breathe, making them hollow and flat.

There are a total of 10 Eternals in this film, which also raises other concerns.

An essential cornerstone of character development is the interactions that take place. This also includes their impact on a story.

For context, this film is almost 2 hours and 30 minutes in length.

Despite its extensive runtime, there are minimal interactions between each Eternals member.

This, as a whole, makes several pivotal sequences feel unearned. A culprit of this is Salma Hayek’s character, Ajak.

While she’s meant to be the group’s leader, her screen time is limited.

Also, a majority of scenes are her character delivering tiresome, endless exposition.

Take a pivotal moment that occurs between her and fellow Eternal, Ikaris (Richard Madden), as an example.

Given their rare interactions, it’s a scene that doesn’t leave as much of an impact as it should have.

This also applies to Gemma Chan’s Sersi. She's a character who develops a sudden romantic connection with Ikaris.

Eternals dedicates little to no time to the relationship beyond a couple of scenes.

Eternals dedicates no time to the relationship beyond a couple of scenes.

This leaves the minimal interactions between them feeling awkward and forced.

One other actress who does not hit their stride in Eternals is Angelina Jolie’s Thena.

Outside of a few brief action sequences, Jolie is more of a stationary background character.

She's the film's most recognizable star with an extensive portfolio. Despite this, she looks as if she’d rather be anywhere else.

Where this film finds a little success is with some of its visual effects and location shots.

Each Eternal, aside from a few, has unique powers that can influence an action scene.

Ikaris, for example, acts as Marvel’s version of DC’s Superman, with eye lasers and flight. Others may have mind control or super speed.

On occasion, the special effects help to display these powers with some creativity. Aside from this, the action is weightless.

There are no primary antagonists in this film for the Eternals to face. To punctuate an action scene, though, there are creatures referred to as Deviants.

Their designs are imaginative and resemble the sci-fi aliens, the Predators.

Beings called Celestials also make brief appearances and are significant in scale.

As a result, the film makes competent use of visual effects.

Conclusion:

As a whole, Eternals has many unique ideas that don’t often work as well as they should.

Its characters are passable, yet their minimal interactions with each other aren't meaningful.

Action can be entertaining due to the movie's visual effects, yet it’s often very standard.

In a potential future sequel, each of these elements could get more development. With it, audiences may get a more satisfying result.

Sam’s Action Reaction score:

Characters - 5/10

Story - 5/10

Action - 6/10

CGI and visuals - 6.5/10

Soundtrack - 5.5/10

Overall score: 5.6 out of 10