‘Eternals’ (2021) Spoiler Review – A Wonderful New Mythos of Superheroes

Straight off the back of her Oscar-winning feature Nomadland, Chloé Zhao presents Marvel’s ‘Eternals’, an intriguing new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film, which was released in cinemas worldwide last week introduces us to The Eternals – a race of immortal beings with superhuman powers who have secretly lived on Earth for thousands of years. The events of the film, known as the ‘Emergence’ brings our heroes together once again to battle the evil Deviants.

First and foremost, this film has been at the centre of controversy. Especially since the film currently sits at a rotten score of 48% on the popular review-aggregation site, Rotten Tomatoes. Many claim the film to have “no stakes”, some saying it’s “Marvel’s worst movie yet”, however, I would beg to differ.

Narrative Structure and Mythology

Telling a story about a group of immortal beings whose lives span 7000 years on the planet Earth would definitely be considered a difficult one, and the way of telling their stories with a solid narrative structure is perfectly achieved by Zhao. When gathering thoughts about the film after my viewing, I argued that telling this specific story in chronological order would have been an absolute mess. The structure of the film could be compared to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction – a personal favourite. The story is arguably the film’s weakest point perhaps, in terms of structure and the jumping between past and present – but don’t let this put you off too much.

Mythology is one of my favourite forms of fiction. From growing up learning about Ancient Greece through Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson, I am always a big fan of mythology being a big part of any form of fiction, whether it is an existing mythos or a brand new one – the thought of myths are an intriguing one for sure. Zack Snyder is a big ambassador for putting the idea of myths and superheroes together, and it’s very clear that Eternals takes something from that. One of my favourite parts of this film was seeing the Eternals being a part of history, seeing them in Babylon, Mesopotamia, even the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1521 AD.

A Stellar Cast

As for the Eternals themselves, I think they were all written and performed really well. Personal favourites include Sersi (Gemma Chan), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Kingo (Kumail Nunjiani) and finally, Thena (Angelina Jolie). Every actor brought something different to the film, which was incredibly welcomed, and I thought the film did the best way of introducing each Eternal separately in the best way it could, to be quite frank. Each character is different to one another, some more serious in nature, whereas more are a lot relaxed, and therefore provide some perfect comic relief.

One of the best parts of this film was the twist that the hero Ikaris (Richard Madden) was ultimately the film’s villain who even ends up flying close to the sun. Ikaris is one of the first Eternals we’re properly introduced to as well, as he mysteriously shows up at the same time as a Deviant attack in London. Throughout his history, we see him fall in love with Sersi, and it is this love that is his downfall during the closing moments of the film. Ikaris falls victim to love and can’t bring himself to become the true villain, attempting to fulfil Arishem’s master plan and preventing the Eternals from stopping the resurgence. Ikaris fails due to his humanity, and it is down to brilliant writing and performances from Madden which provides for one of the film’s strongest points, and a great villain twist for the MCU – Love, a fundamental human emotion is a downfall for a not so humane person.

The Future of the Eternals

I was a big fan of the unexpected ending. The sense of terror when three of the characters we’ve only just met and spent a wealthy amount of time with had had their memories taken away (which is what I took from the scene, anyway). Very exciting to look forward to the next iteration of these characters. Only time will tell what is next for our new heroes and I’m sure Feige has a master plan. With or without Zhao, it is definitely promising. If anything, it is praise on Zhao’s behalf for perfectly introducing this new roster of superheroes.

I would argue that like many of the films before this, Eternals fails to have many stakes and where there are lives at stake, these are in fact very low stakes, for sure. Characters die, which is expected but I’d strongly argue there was no sense of danger for me when watching this film. Yes, there are some misdirects where you assume it is the end for one character, but there was no sense that anything horrific would end up happening. We’re reminded time and time again that our leads are not meant to interfere, something extremely similar to the words of The Watcher…

Marvel’s Eternals is a triumph and a real game-changer for the MCU. Supported by stunning visuals, and a story so beautiful, driven by a diverse cast of interesting characters who don’t feel like they’ve been done before. This film is a must-see, and one you do not want to miss!

Be sure to follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot), Facebook (@TheCinemaSpotFB), and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_) to catch all the news and reviews of the upcoming MCU Phase 4 films and shows! And while youi’re at it, check out Josh’s other works at TheStreamr.com!