Review: Marvel's 'Eternals' is a crowded, underwhelming epic

Eternals
3 out of 5 Stars
Director: Chloé Zhao
Writer: Chloé Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, Kaz Firpo, Jack Kirby
Starring: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Brian Tyree Henry, Lauren Ridloff, Barry Keoghan, Kumail Nanjiani, Ma Dong Seok
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rated: PG-13 for fantasy violence and action, some language and brief sexuality.

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) – Synopsis: The Eternals, a group of immortal heroes who helped to shape the history of the Earth, reconvene when one of their kind is killed.

Review: While many of my colleagues were quick to write their reviews, I’ve let this one simmer a bit. Unfortunately, that hasn’t improved my opinion of “Eternals,” the latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I was apathetic when I left the theater and I’m apathetic now. I certainly don’t hate it. I almost wish I did. It would make writing this review much easier.

“Eternals” has a massive cast with thousands of years of backstory. Its primary characters have helped to shape the history of Earth by either participating or standing aside as major events unfolded. Though they once worked as a team, the Eternals have scattered themselves across the world waiting for the time when they can leave Earth and return to their home world.

This story makes Sersi (Gemma Chan), a woman with the ability to control and alter molecular and atomic structures, the center of its narrative. She was once the preferred company of Ikaris (Richard Madden), a man with abilities that include super strength, flight and shooting lasers from his eyes, but their love has cooled and her attention has shifted to Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), a mortal who is unaware that Sersi’s reticence of moving in with him has less to do with him and more to do with her undisclosed super powers. Currently, Sprite (Lia McHugh), a perpetually-12-year-old girl with the ability to create illusions, lives with Sersi.

Everyone else, which includes Ajak (Salma Hayek), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Druig (Barry Keoghan), and Gilgamesh (Ma Dong-seok), are off elsewhere doing various amounts of nothing to keep a low profile. Except for Kingo. Kingo is the king of Bollywood.

And then an ancient evil resurfaces that forces the team to come back together. It’s an awkward reunion.

There are too many new characters, I wasn’t given enough time with most of them to form any kind of connection. But the film’s greatest problem isn’t necessarily the number of characters. “Eternals” simply feels redundant. In many ways the filmmakers have made a film that is different from the rest of the MCU. In many ways the filmmakers have still made a film that is similar to the flawed, darker heroes that have been populating Zack Snyder’s films at Warner Bros. There’s a bit of Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and a few nods to “The Watchmen” in there.

Similar characters and stories are nothing new. The various comic production houses have been ripping each other off since the dawn of time. The challenge is to make superheroes that are equally known for their personalities and general disposition as they are for what their powers are.

To that end, Ikaris, a sullen and dark take on the Superman character, might be incredibly interesting if we hadn’t already met a sullen and dark take on Superman. Or his choices might feel more dramatic if I was given the opportunity to know the character outside of the soap-opera theatrics that dominate his storyline.

I don’t care if Sersi ends up with Ikaris or Whitman. For “Eternals” to completely work, I probably should feel one way or the other.

“Eternals” isn’t bankrupt of purpose, there are interesting ideas placed here and there. It also sets up an entire storyline set in part of the Marvel Universe that the MCU hasn’t visited because the characters were previously owned by Fox. No, I’m not talking about mutants.

“Eternals” feels like a movie that is more about what happens next than it is about what is happening now. It might be that I just don’t understand the scope of the landscape in front of me. Maybe what comes next will eventually make what happened here feel more significant. I absolutely prefer its implications over the path that “The Falcon & Winter Soldier” and the “Black Widow” post-credit scene suggest.