'Eternals' (2021)

I'd promised my eldest that we'd go to the cinema and watch 'Eternals' but I didn't fancy possibly being sat next to Omicron so I decided to wait until it was on Disney+ instead. I'm glad I did actually because two and a half hours worth of movie... 'Eternals' isn't a bad movie, more on that in a bit, but two and a half hours... We were able to watch it in two instalments, over the weekend, but I'd have fallen asleep in the cinema, especially if the seats were comfy ;o)

I've finally watched it though and 'Eternals' wasn't the best Marvel movie that I've ever seen but I've seen 'Thor: The Dark World' and the first 'Hulk' movie (not sure if that's MCU though but for the sake of this post...) so it's comfortably not the worst either ;o)

Seven thousand years ago, the super powered 'Eternals' were placed on Earth to protect human civilisation against the hungering Deviants. Five hundred years ago, the last Deviant was

destroyed and the Eternals went their separate ways, to live amongst humanity until called upon again. And that time is now... The Deviants have returned and an Eternal lies dead. The rest of the Eternals must reunite to face a new threat but they have no idea just what they are about to face...

I love a good superhero team up and I love it even more when there's an origin story to go along with it. 'Eternals' is both of these and does a pretty decent job of mixing the two with the origin story providing a solid foundation for the actual plot to do it's thing. I liked the 'murder mystery' angle and how it is gradually revealed that the murder itself is merely the prelude to something far bigger. Which kind of led me onto the exploration of good and evil that the movie goes into. I've still got a few Marvel movies to watch but until now, I haven't come across an MCU film yet where the whole 'good/evil' thing is so blurred. No-one is truly one or the other here. Celestials and Deviants are just doing what they were born to do (survive and thrive) while it's interesting to ask yourself, regarding the Eternals, if someone can be 'the bad guy' if the whole reason for their existence was hidden from them. 'Eternals' is a movie that gets you thinking then and it has plenty of action to back it up while you do. The 'Eternal/Deviant' fights look stunning as well (although you wouldn't expect otherwise, Marvel have had plenty of practice now).

So, what's the problem then...?

Well, two and a half hours worth of movie is not my thing at all and yes the movie did work but I couldn't help but feel like it would have worked better over two shorter movies rather than one long one. That's just me though, your mileage will vary.

I think what really got me though is that we were given an amazing cast who acted like they'd been told to be as wooden as possible (okay, I'm mostly looking at you Richard Madden). I get it, the Eternals aren't human so shouldn't act human but you're still asking me to spend two and a half hours with actors who can't engage properly because that's the whole point, they're not meant to.

To be fair, Gemma Chan's Sersi, Lia McHugh's Sprite and Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo rise above this and give solid performances. It was a shame though that the only time that Barry Keoghan's Druig could really shine was when he was with Laura Ridloff's Makkari and she was woefuly underused over the course of the movie.

On the whole, I enjoyed 'Eternals' and would definitely check out the sequel. I do have some misgivings though, we'll see how it goes.