The first line uttered is, “It’s time.”
Living up to its title, when an eternal assault of special effects that goes on for 2hrs 35 mins finally ends, the line you want to utter is, “It’s time.”
It’s a big leap to find director Chloe Zhao, who got the Oscar for her sparse Nomadland, landing amidst the clutter of characters and noisy wars of the MCU.
The marathon may be summed up in one worrisomely tiresome line: the earth’s gonna end with destructive Deviants on the loose and a bunch of celestials called the Eternals are gonna save it. There’s the old Skeeter Davis number, ‘It’s the end of the world’ playing in the background in case you haven’t got the point yet.
The lengthy running time is largely due to Marvel’s laboured display of diversity in its line-up of the Eternals who’ve merged in with the humans but must now emerge to save the world they’ve got mushy about.
With Ajak (Salma Hayek) leading the pack for a while and Ikaris (Richard Madden) gallantly stepping back for Seris (Gemma Chan) to take over the captaincy, the bending to gender dictates sticks out a mile. From a Peter Pan-like Sprite (Lia McHugh) who never grows up to an ageing Thena (Angelina Jolie), the mix of ages is calibrated. With Phastos (Bryan Tyree Henry) as a gay super hero who does a full kiss too for complete inclusivity, a mixed-race romance around Seris and Ikaris, a wedding ceremony with a south Indian priest, and an assortment of Caucasians and Blacks, every colour on the globe is covered.
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There’s even a splash of Bollywood with Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), the big superstar and super brand. A cool dance number and Kingo’s nonchalant reference to his dynasty of superstars provide a chuckle. For Indians, there’s another bit of the familiar with Kingo’s sidekick-manager Karun Patel (Harish Patel) and his ubiquitous camera capturing the heroes do their job of saving Planet Earth.
Zhao who co-wrote the script with Patrick Burleagh and Ryan Firpo, bestows a distinctive power on each of the Eternals which includes a speech-challenged Makkari (Lauren Ridloff). Inclusivity, diversity, representation, call it what you will, Zoe’s got them all. And she has the two mandatory Marvel teasers in place with the end credits.
So that’s how Eternals is layered. A basic overworn storyline of saving the Earth with the end thought: are these humans worth it? A pot-pourri of characters from all over the world. A mélange of cultures and characteristics.
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Top it up with one awesome set piece of action following another, from earthquakes and skies closing in to lasers flashing and waves of water rolling.
After that elaborate introduction of characters and CG work, forget about what’s going to happen in the obvious rollout of sequels. I’d love to know what’ll happen if one day special effects disappeared from the MCU and they actually have to go back to the drawing board to narrate a compelling story. A tale of super brains and super strengths without computer graphics.
Now that would be an interesting break from the clutter.
Watch Eternals Trailer here: