With the appearance of a new Captain America, variants of the mischief God Loki, and reality-warping chaos, 2021 was a massive year for Marvel with series like “WandaVision”, “Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, “Loki”, and many more contents to come. The Eternals, released on November 5, has been mh most anticipated film since Black Widow back in July. Directed by the first Oscar-winning female Asian director, Chloe Zhao, the film features lesser-known characters in the Marvel Comics Universe. The characters, featured in gorgeous repurposed historical locations, rock the silver screen with some of the best-designed costumes. For a non-Marvel fan, this movie would have been the perfect combination of fantasy, thrill, and self-discovery. Despite the success it found in its inclusion of diversity, for an avid comic fan, this movie is subpar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s standards.

The movie starts out with a Star Wars-like opening. A running screen of rolling words and letters introducing who and what the Eternals are all about. The scene changes to a sequence of introductions. Each character is introduced with their own unique set of powers, personalities, and appearances. Sersi, Ikaris, Makkari, Phastos, Kingo, Druig, Gilgamesh, Thena, Sprite, and Ajak make up the 10 Eternals. The Eternals are a race of immortal beings that were sent to Earth in order to protect the humans from monsters called Deviants. The movie actually opens with Sersi in London, going about her life like an everyday person on Earth. 

The story develops into a fast-paced plot, flipping from subsequent flashbacks to present-day moments. While it is fast-paced, it left me at a loss with minimal indications of what sort of scene that was playing. The most confusing part for a viewer is the amount of backstory that got smashed into the two-hour and thirty-seven-minute movie. By the time people processed what had happened, something else was happening on the screen. The awkward name-dropping—Tiramut? Celestials?—left me tilting my head in confusion. As a superhero fanatic, the first thought I had in my head when I saw these characters was, “spin-off Marvel Justice League?” Many of the characters are so similar to heroes in another franchise that the movie really does not seem original. Not only that, the plot is incredibly easy to predict, which is not Marvel’s usual style. 

Despite its lack of a good plot and characterization, the movie has its own winning merits. It provided one of the most diverse casts that have ever hit the Marvel screens, ranging from race, sexuality, and inclusion of disabilities. The aesthetic and overall look of the movie is breathtaking with some of the most beautiful graphics. In the climax of the movie, Sersi fails to stop the Celestial from emerging from the Earth, and the display of incredible computer-generated imagery took my breath away. Seeing the sci-fi element come to life in front of my eyes was amazing to see, especially to see how far the movie industry has come since the start of cinema. As a viewer, I enjoyed the movie more than I would like to admit. As a comic fan, I am pretty disappointed.

Rating: 3.5/5