Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
The Eternals are a team of ancient aliens who have been living on Earth in secret for thousands of years. When an unexpected tragedy forces them out of the shadows, they are forced to reunite against mankind’s most ancient enemy, the Deviants.
Eternals is a visually ambitious MCU entry from Chloé Zhao, shot with natural light and sweeping landscapes that set it apart cinematographically from standard superhero fare. However, the sprawling ensemble cast — ten Eternals to introduce — results in an unwieldy, emotionally thin plot that struggles to generate stakes or coherent motivation. The acting is decent across a strong cast (Salma Hayek, Brian Tyree Henry, Angelina Jolie) but the script gives most of them little to work with. Novelty is moderate — the cosmic, mythological scope and Zhao's arthouse sensibility are distinctive within the MCU, but the underlying story beats are familiar. The ending, involving the Emergence and a rushed third-act reversal, feels anticlimactic and undercooked given the world-ending stakes the film spends so long building toward.