What’s Good: Everything and anything conceptualized by Chloé Zhao and you can tell them apart from the few Marvel cliches that still remain in it
What’s Bad: That not many will see this film for what it actually is because of the banner it arrives with
Loo Break: A Marvel film over 150 minutes which demands too much popcorn & aerated drinks, it’ll be a problem if you don’t take a loo-break in between
Watch or Not?: Eternal is food for the soul for those craving for a Marvel movie which isn’t exactly a theme-park ride (looking at you Martin Scorsese!).
After Robert Downey’s Tony Stark, along with himself, snapped Thanos out of existence in Endgame, half of Earth’s population came back to life and witnessed all this drama (with maybe a tub of popcorn in their super heroic hands) were the Eternal. A group of demigods is allotted to this planet by Celestials (powerful cosmic beings, first of the universe) to protect it at any cost. Sergi (Gemma Chan), in the present day, fights with a Deviant, counterparts of Eternal who were believed to be wiped-off years ago 'but' they’re back. Sergi does the most ‘Marvel’ thing, doing a family reunion with other Eternal who arrive with a different backstory with them.
Bossiest of them all is Sergi’s ‘long-lost’ (thousands of years) cheater ex-boyfriend (Richard Madden) who possess the Cyclops-like laser beam. We’ve Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), who is currently a Bollywood star, but he uses his hands (unlike eyes) to project cosmic energy, Sprite (Lia McHugh) is a 12-year-old illusion master, Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) apart from being Marvel’s first openly gay superhero is the tech-guy of the team, Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) is Flash’s alternative of Eternal but she can’t speak making her this movie’s second ‘Marvel’s first’ (deaf superhero), Druig (Barry Keoghan) reads people’s mind to manipulate them, Gilgamesh (Don Lee) has a strong-smack as his superpower and Thena (Angelina Jolie), Goddess of war who’s currently at a war with her inner-self.
They’re led by Ajak (Salma Hayek), the only one who could talk to Arishem (the judge of one and all). The Eternal go against something that is against the pre-decided plan by Arishem to eliminate planet Earth. All of these ten come together to create a tale spanning over, 7000 years in 2 hours and 30 odd minutes.
Chloe Zhao (Songs My Brother Taught Me, Nomadland) pitched this movie to Marvel’s boss-man Kevin Feige quoting William Blake’s poem Auguries of Innocence and handed him a picture of a grain of sand. The poem starts as “To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour…” This is exactly what happens with Eternal, you hold an infinite amount of drama, emotions, intercommunal combat, love, lost love in the palm of your hand, and eternity in two hours and thirty-seven minutes. Zhao co-writes this with her fellow screenwriters Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, Kaz Firpo and she has orchestrated the most marvelous Marvel movie yet.
I entered the cinema hall donning a Justice League tee just for fun, after reading the bashing reviews of Eternal which trapped me to believe that this could be a meh affair. I’ve already booked another shown & nearly ironed my Marvel tee to witness Zhao’s magic as a fan and not as a critic. Saying this, I also understand why my fellow critics have bashed it because Eternal not only breaks Marvel’s template, it completely shatters it (along with the people’s premonitory expectations with it).
Despite the outline is similar to “assembling a team to save planet Earth from otherworldly beings”, Eternal is more about the internal battle rather than a team of superheroes doing super heroic things together to eliminate a Purple-headed monster. Zhao focuses more on Sergi’s affinity towards humans that strengthens her belief in winning against the creator of everyone, she also highlights connection with Icarus (the boy who flew too close to the sun), which also displays Thena’s internal struggle to believe and remember she’s loved. All of this apart from Marvel’s first Gay superhero who is a family man not wanting to get back to fighting deviants, a deaf superhero adding to the emotional drama and a comic-relief in Kumail Nanjiani. I know I’m repeating myself, but all of this in around 150 minutes.
Chloe Zhao’s love for deserted lands levels up with Ben Davis’ cinematography as she makes you breathe amid the flying grain of sands whilst these demigods decide earth’s fate by fighting among themselves.
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