Marvel doesn’t have a lot of love stories in their films, for example Shang-Chi was all about the main villain and his desire to bring back his wife from death. As for Eternals, it’s all about the love between Sersi, played by Gemma Chan, and Ikaris, played by Richard Madden. To be honest, I hated this movie. In my opinion it wasn’t very good, but both Chan and Madden play the role well as you can imagine.
Other characters include Angelina Jolie as Thena, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Laren Ridloff as Makkari, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Kumail Nanijiani as Kingo, Barry Keoghan as Druig, and Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos. The movie begins with a flashback showing you the Eternals arriving to Earth thousands upon thousands of years ago. They’ve lived here since the stone ages. It cuts to modern day after that where they get discovered by a Deviant, a creature who is essentially a monster.
The film is, for the most part, about immortal beings learning what it means to be mortal. It is also about inhuman beings learning what it means to be human. Essentially, these Eternals whom the film is titled for are not humans which is found out in the beginning of the movie. It serves as a big foreshadowing moment. The film has excellent monster designs, CGI, and a good set of powers for the main cast and where there are heroes there always has to be a villain.
The villain is very unexpected and I was shocked to find out who it was, horrified by the revelation. Honestly, the film got boring the moment you found out the big twist, which was a little after the 35-minute mark. The film was horribly paced and there are parts that I think should have been changed. But alas, the film is the way it is and we must judge it for what it is. It’s a mess. Poor characterization and acting that seems almost robotic. Ikaris is portrayed as a simple yes man, Sersi is portrayed as a caring individual from the start, and Sprite is portrayed as an immortal kid desiring to be human.
These characters are not human, yet they have adapted to human life. One thing they haven’t done is forgive themselves for all the things they’ve done in their past, such as Phastos, who’s tech ignited a bombing in Japan. While they mean well helping humans progress over the centuries, they don’t always think of the consequences of said actions. Another thing I’d like to touch on is that this film connects to the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, a certain Mad Titan connects to the Eternals in a way you wouldn’t expect, and his plan now makes sense from Infinity War.
I mentioned this being a love story between Sersi and Ikaris. Their love story is told very well, though their fate at the end of the movie is left ambiguous. While I don’t like the story in this film, I will say it makes a lot more sense than other movies I’ve discussed. While not as enjoyable as other MCU films it has its good moments. Overall, the movie is very flawed and has it’s problems, but to get the full context of the MCU it’s good to see it. That is the only reason I would recommend watching this film, but from a personal level I don’t recommend this film.