Eternals (2021)
Directed by Chloé Zhao
The Eternals are a team of ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. When an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows, they are forced to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
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54 films that influenced Eternals
What critics say influenced Eternals
Though the second half of the film is better with great action sequences and beautifully constructed moments that feel out of "2001: A Space Odyssey" or the end of 1968's "Planet of the Apes," it doesn't make up for an oddly structured part one that feels like it was pieced together, taken apart, and then Frakensteined all over again.
Certainly, nobody goes to a Marvel film expecting 2001: A Space Odyssey , but one can’t help but wonder how invigorating it would be if these films – which have embraced formula to such an extent as to become rote – took some narrative and stylistic risks and let some concepts remain nebulous.
Like the monoliths of 2001: A Space Odyssey , they nudge us along at the key turning points of civilisation, and provide inspirations for ancient human myths.
Arishem needed to be the equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey ’s monolith.
The film frequently feels like Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," mixed with the free-flowing narrative ambitions of Terrence Malick, rather than any superhero film you've seen before.
Eternals is a ponderous sci-fi movie about the meaning of existence, drawing from heady cult classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.
Eternals goes out of its way to tell us how special and unique humans are compared to other species — a real “fuck you” to the MCU’s non-human heroes and characters despite Rocket’s arc in Guardians of the Galaxy delivering far, far more emotion than Zhao’s film can manage for all of its characters combined — but for all of the natural beauty that Zhao and cinematographer Ben Davis catch (and the CG wizards create), we see very little of humanity itself.
The last few minutes emit serious Guardians of the Galaxy vibes, and as much as I enjoy both of those two James Gunn–directed adventures, this is still a tonal shift I did not jibe with.
Chloe Zhao’s Eternals is Marvel’s latest foray into cosmic expansion, which started with the first Thor and continued into the Guardians of the Galaxy films, ultimately leading to the introduction of Thanos.
First seen and referenced in the two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the Celestials seeded Earth’s core millions of years ago with a future new one of their own.
It’s good that Eternals tries to take on a more serious tone than the other films in the franchise, but ultimately, while Guardians of the Galaxy is like an ‘80s-themed rager in outer space, Eternals is an overcrowded, vibe-less party held in the middle of nowhere that everyone wishes they could leave.
And so the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands in a way it hasn’t since 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” when joyous, self-deprecating humor propelled a merry band of misfits across the stars on their mission to save a star system.
An opening shot of a blazing sun, impressive on IMAX, looks borrowed from Malick’s creation sequences in “The Tree of Life.”
Eternals is Chloe Zhao’s The Tree of Life.
To these alternately ravished and glazed-over eyes, then, “Eternals” plays like an extravagant blockbuster riff on “The Tree of Life” — a connection that would feel deliberate even if a giant tree didn’t spring forth in one of the movie’s lovelier CGI epiphanies.
Eternals is a ponderous sci-fi movie about the meaning of existence, drawing from heady cult classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.
Where Nomadland evinced a clear Terrence Malick influence in its fluid, butterfly-in-the-wind camerawork and cutting, Eternals occasionally suggests what The Tree Of Life might look like with Kevin Feige micromanaging the awe and wonder over the filmmaker’s shoulder.
It’s like the Marvel version of The Tree of Life .
Cinematographer Ben Davis uses natural light, floating camera angles and wide shots that seem lifted from Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven.”
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Nonlinear storytelling has been used in superhero films such as Batman Begins.
This may upset those who hoped for something a little more in the vein of creator Jack Kirby’s artistic style (seen in Doctor Strange (2016) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017)) who crave that vibrant ‘70s style.
Not counting Lee’s outlier effort, the best of these seemingly odd combinations of filmmaker and material—I would submit Waititi’s “Thor: Ragnarok” and Coogler’s “Black Panther”—were due to the fact that the directors in question were able to negotiate the tricky balance between satisfying Marvel’s requirements for a product that would fit comfortably within their rigid parameters while at the same time retaining the kind of personal touch that presumably got their work noticed in the first place.
Taika Waititi, whose career trajectory is similar to Zhao’s (“What We Do in the Shadows” and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), scored well with his 2017 outing “Thor: Ragnarok.”
But the poster boy for the larval-to-Marvel transition has to be Taika Waititi, who not only made a decent movie in Thor: Ragnarok , but managed to infuse the studio product with a little of his own wacky sensibility.
Then came the auteurs and their looser, bolder takes: Taika Waititi's gleefully loopy Thor: Ragnarok ; Ryan Coogler's culture-smashing Black Panther ; Destin Daniel Cretton's breezy, balletic Shang-Shi and The Legend of the Ten Rings .
It all sounds quite exciting if a bit generic, but the execution has none of the pace and excitement of even one of the weaker previous MCU entries ( Thor: Ragnarok and Captain Marvel spring to mind) because the script is all over the place and the narrative is never allowed to build up any momentum.
They are abandoned angels, waiting on the will of implacable divine forces, tending in limited ways to humanity – so, basically, it’s Wings of Desire with more punching.
Los “Eternals” son, en esencia, los ángeles de Wim Wenders en Wings of Desire , y en esta analogía, la “Sersi” de Chan es simétrica al “Damiel” del gran Bruno Ganz, observando a la humanidad desde la distancia, deseosa de pertenecer ella, pero incapaz de serlo.
Not counting Lee’s outlier effort, the best of these seemingly odd combinations of filmmaker and material—I would submit Waititi’s “Thor: Ragnarok” and Coogler’s “Black Panther”—were due to the fact that the directors in question were able to negotiate the tricky balance between satisfying Marvel’s requirements for a product that would fit comfortably within their rigid parameters while at the same time retaining the kind of personal touch that presumably got their work noticed in the first place.
There was no big selling-out hoo-ha when Ryan Coogler, who made his name with the powerful indie “Fruitvale Station,” graduated to “Creed” and “Black Panther.”
Ryan Coogler’s artistic hand was unambiguously strong in “Black Panther,” as was Peyton Reed’s in the first “Ant-Man.”
Just like you can argue that Black Panther very much belongs to Ryan Coogler, I would argue that Eternals very much belongs to Chloé Zhao.
Michael Keaton's turn in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" or Michael B. Jordan's performance in "Black Panther" are equal to anything else they have done.
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Too many themes get parboiled in “Eternals”: creationism (think “Blade Runner” and Frankenstein), the notion of an altruistic greater good (that may not be so good, depending where you stand) and supreme beings above moral reproach, to name a few.
It’s seldom an encouraging sign when a movie begins by explaining what the hell anyone was thinking when they made it; while opening crawls do occasionally appear in great films ( Blade Runner !) this only happens approximately once per decade.
Homenaje de lagrimita al genio de los comics, la película de Chloé Zhao es extremadamente fiel a la saga formada por los primeros 19 números de la colección, incluso en un cambio tan radical que en vez de molestar a los puristas abre la puerta a la tragedia casi wagneriana o Blade Runner de estos Eternos en el universo Marvel.
Yeah, there’s a lot in those big bland tags, barely a notch above Decepticons and Autobots, but Celestials are universe-forming gargantuans akin to the Titans in Greek mythology (Thanos and Ego from earlier MCU chapters are similar in powers and scope), while Deviants are hellish beasties that look a lot like the Taotie from the 2016 Zhang Yimou miscue “The Great Wall,” a hybrid of wolf and dinosaur stripped down to sinew and bone and equipped with flowing tentacles that allow them to sap the energy of their target.