This film centers on ancient aliens called Eternals including Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Druig (Barry Keoghan), Ma dong-Seok (Don Lee) and Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. Following the events of "Avengers: Endgame", an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows to reunite against mankind's most ancient enemy, the Deviants, which were supposedly eliminated by the Eternals approximately 5,000 years ago. The story unfolds and spans, not only different eras in time, but many locales as well in searching out the Deviants in order of terminating them to save mankind.
Others to round out the cast are Kit Harington as Dane Whitman, Harish Patel as Karun, Haaz Sleiman as Ben, Alan Scott as Patrick, Hannah Dodd as Sandra and Esai Daniel Cross as Jack.
This was brilliantly directed by Chloe Zhao ("Songs My Brothers Taught Me" '15, "The Rider" '17, "Nomadland" '21) plus shorts. As with "Nomadland", this filmmaker has proven she knows her way around the director's chair. The pathos, intense emotions and staging is absolutely amazing. What's more amazing is that with the limited theatrical film experience she has, with each film, she proves she is a natural which, in this day and age, they don't come by very often. She will continue to be offered more work. This was written by Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo and Kaz Firpo, based on a story by Ryan Firpo and Kaz Firpo, which is based on the Marvel comics by Jack Kirby. Where the direction was extremely spot on, the writing, however, was not. It was an effective effort, but the story kept jumping around and became choppy in several places. I've mentioned prior, and I'll say it again, typically, when there is more than two writers involved on any given film, there's a great propensity of it becoming bogged down with choppiness, becoming inconsistent in script and sequentially mismanaged. This wasn't a total wash--it was visually stunning by ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) and Weta Digital, and the directing and even acting were enough to keep one attentive, however, no one could really save the writing from itself. They really shouldn't have allowed any more than two writers to pen this--too many hands in the pot, if you will.
If you are a Marvel and/or Eternals fan, you'll love this regardless of the writing, or lack thereof, but even if one isn't a fan, the directing and visual effects are worthy of the price of admission. There will be another "Eternals". I know, what a shock, since the MCU are all about sequels and their franchise. Hopefully the writing will be better--maybe one or two less writers? We can only hope for the best.
Out of 4 Stars: 2 Rated: PG-13 156mins.
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