Eternals is a 2021 movie directed by Chloe Zhao, winner in 2021 of the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director (Nomadland). It is the new instalment in the MCU

The scope of the story is so ”big” that you need a talented director like Zhaho to tell this story. But even she cannot do miracles…

What is Eternals about ? Well, everything is in the title… We follow a X-men like superheroes; what I mean is that it is a group of different characters with different superpowers :

One is a Superman lookalike (he can fly, he shoots lasers from his eyes…)One has super-powerful punch .Another girl is the greatest warrior in the Universe (she is kind of the Athena of the Greek mythology… )|You get the idea.

The Eternals are alien-humanoids sent to Earth thousands of years ago to fight Deviants, monsters who represent a threat to the human race. They have one rule : they can’t interfere with Humanity’s evolution even when they see humans killing each other

The greatest quality of this movie (and also its greatest weakness) is the fact that the movie is trying to tell the story of characters who have lived for 5000 years

There is one main storyline in the present-day; not long after Thanos’ defeat in Avengers Endgame. There are also a lot of flashbacks, where we see the Eternals at different points in time : during the Babylon times, during the South American conquest by the Europeans; during World War II, in August 1945, in Hiroshima… Most of the time, those scenes show Eternals witnessing the worst in mankind, and they can’t do anything about it

These scenes are very interesting. But it is the main weakness of this movie. Because it is a 2h30 movie, and you can’t properly tell the story of 7 or 8 characters who have lived hundreds of lives in a 2 hour movie… You need a TV show, with a lot of seasons. It would be amazing actually when you think about it; we’d see the Eternals during the Roman Empire, during the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, etc… 

 There is so much to be told. Imagine a TV show about ”aliens” and their point of view about Humanity at different stages of its evolution…

In this movie, the constant back and forth past-present has a negative effect : the pacing is terrible, and it is sometimes hard to care about characters we don’t know much about.

The mission was almost impossible for Chloe Zhao and her team : they had to introduce characters we have never heard before, introduce a complete new ”mythology”, make a blockbuster movie with amazing battles, make references to the MCU greater universe…

In the end we only see a little part of this new ” branch” of the MCU, with the Deviants, the Celestials, the Emergence…There is too much and too little time ! 

And now that I think about it, there are also new MCU supporting characters introduced in this movie that are not part of the Eternals, and who appear in the movie just so they can get their own future movies or TV shows !

It is a shame because the whole cast of the Eternals do a great job. Gemma Chan, the main character, is an amazing and stunning actress…Richard Madden, who plays Icarus, is great…Angelina Jolie was a real surprise for me ( I was never convinced of her talents as an actress. Until now)

But again, there are too many characters, and not enough time Comedian Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick ) is one of my favourite recent movies. But he is in the movie only to be the comic relief, and his character’s choices at the end of the movie make no sense… What a shame.

The hope is that the MCU Boss, Mr Kevin Feige, has plans for three or four Eternals movies, or a Disney + show, or something…You could do a TV show about the Celestials, the ”gods” in the Marvel world who create and destroy worlds and galaxies, and it would be amazing…There is no point giving beings so powerful, so important, only ten minutes of screen time!

Those Celestials are the key element of this movie. The Eternals eventually find out that their mission is only making sure that the humans reach a certain number . And once this number is reached, a new Celestial will be born from the destruction of the Earth. It’s like a cycle. One planet and one species die; one Celestial uses the energy of this destruction to be born; this same Celestial start creating new planets, new galaxies…

But the Eternals, who spent a lot of time on Earth, think that Humanity doesn’t deserve to die. And some of them decide to challenge the Celestials and this cycle.

The philosophical debate in the Eternals – is Humanity worth saving ? – is fascinating. But, again, not enough time is given for the audience to care about this .

Potential. This movie has – or should I say had – so much potential. A bit wasted…

I want a movie or a TV show about each one of the Eternals. Even the ones who have less screen time than the main characters are interesting.

There is one who can control the mind of human beings. He is so powerful that he could control the mind of everyone on Earth; he could potentially prevent everyone from killing one another; so you can guess how frustrating it is for him not being allowed to intervene…And that creates great scenes of conflict within the Eternals…

I also liked another Eternal who is like the girl version of Flash from DC comics. She is super fast. She has one battle scene against Icarus; it only lasts two minutes ; but it is the best battle of the movie in my opinion. 

She is also deaf; and she shows so many emotions without saying anything ( another great performance, this time by Lauren Ridloff)

I repeat myself, but all Eternals deserved so much more time. One last example : Sprite, who looks like a 12-years old girl, and is stuck looking like a child for thousands of years. Terrible curse. It’s so sad when you think about it; she will never be able to have her own romantic relationships, her own family…

She has also this amazing superpower : she can create illusions; she is actually the one who told the stories of the Eternals to ancient cultures ; the movie is telling us that Sprite is the one who created all the legends and mythologies of Ancient times, like Greek or Roman mythologies…

Imagine a second a movie focusing on her journey…

I wanted more. I still want more from the Eternals. I hope we will get more: more stories, more character development, more movies, more TV shows.

But not more characters. Because there are going to be too many new characters in the MCU : a new Captain America, a new group of heroes/villains led by a ”bad” Captain America and a new Black Widow, different Spiderman and different villains from the Spiderman multiverse, a female version of Hulk, a female version of Thor, Adam Warlock, Kang the Conqueror, now the Eternals, etc …

Maybe the Eternals will be known as the beginning of the end for the MCU ( the superheroes fatigue is coming)…

Ok, now, last but not least, let’s talk about the post-credit scenes of the Eternals . Anti-climatic. Both of them.

First one : Thanos’ brother shows up in the Eternals’ spaceship, and says he is here to help them (because some Eternals have been captured by the Prime Celestial). That character had no charisma. Never heard of him before 

(apparently, he is an Eternal himself called Eros…)

And he is played by Harry Styles…Yes, Harry Styles is a superhero now…I’m not joking

Second one: Kit Harrington/Jon Snow was introduced in the movie as one of the Eternal’s boyfriend. But because it is the MCU, all characters must BE SOMEONE. He can’t be a ”normal” person. He has to be a character from the comics….

So apparently we learn in this post-credit scene that Kit Harrington is Black Knight, a superhero with a magical sword. I’ll let you imagine a future movie/TV show where the guy who everybody knows as Jon Snow will appear in the MCU riding a horse, with a sword…

A couple of years ago, ‘The Late show’ host Stephen Colbert imagined the ultimate crossover between two pillars of pop culture: Game of Thrones and the MCU. He was imagining the end of ‘Game of Thrones, and was saying that ”Jon Snow will have a son; he will call him Tony. Tony, of House Stark. Tony Stark, who will become Iron Man!” 🙂

The ultimate crossover?

 Kevin Feige, if you’re reading this, what are you waiting for? 🙂