Eternals reviewed by Mark Kermode

eternals adventurous new installment in uh phase four of the marvel cinematic uh universe so uh the story basically is that a bunch of kind of godlike figures have been down on earth dealing with deviants who which are big monstery beasties and they've dealt with the deviants and then now they they're staying around but they've all kind of moved into uh incognito life so they are still on earth they're not quite sure why but they know that the deviants might come out so they've but they've been on earth they're not meant to interfere with human events although they kind of do in a way like a sort of personified version of the monolith from 2001. anyway the cast includes angelina jolie jim chan selma hayek barry kugan uh kamal nagiani here is a scene in which because they're now as i said living apparently civilian lives in which granola journey is a bollywood star but stuff is starting to happen so the gang have to get back together again got it no okay here we go [Music] good okay everyone that was good so we could do ten percent better that was beautiful very very good [Applause] how my friends from college are here oh perfect timing welcome to the set of chandar dastani icarus i'm playing you do you like the costume we need to talk tell the director i have some notes we need to talk to you in private oh karon he's worked with me for 50 years i trust him completely actually when we first met he thought i was a vampire and he tried to stake me through the heart i've apologized so many times not quite enough times very close though i'll let you know oh i have to get ready for the next scene come to my tent we'll talk there you can you guys are gonna love the next scene i come in on a wire because you know i can't fly wait are we getting back together we need to talk the deviants are back we don't know how many there are you need to come with us so directed and co-written by chloe zhao who made no mad land and the rider and is a brilliant filmmaker an oscar winner recently only the second woman to win best uh director after catherine bigelow for hurt locker an impressively diverse cast of characters including makari who is a deaf character played by lauren ridloff who is deaf gay characters who proudly kiss on screen in a way that is kind of still fairly new in marvel movies rainbow coalition of cultural heritage is completely rethought from the original strip uh incarnations to make it super inclusive and to make it something which is you know which really is pushing the boundaries and doing something interesting full of things that you want to cheer for the fact that a filmmaker like this is making this film the fact that a film this big has a cast with this kind of diversity in it the the fact that it's a film which has got really interesting actors like barry keegan who i think is you know is always fascinating on screen because he has that thing about sympathetic but scary and mercurial and all those things sadly despite all those points it's a mess and however much it appears to be stretching the envelope in terms of everything that i've just said it feels absolutely production lining in a way which is really really weird and what's that for you know plus a change the more things change the more things stay the same there's a very strange experience watching eternals thinking this is doing so many things that appear to be new and path-breaking and yet it feels completely old-fashioned and mechanical from the pedestrian plotting with this plot that kind of tracks this dreary path between you know continents and time periods to the sort of the pantomime design and the huffing and puffing the special effects sequences and the special effects sequences are special effect sequences which are full of special effects that don't feel like they're in any way different to any other special effects sequences the plot about the thing about the down on earth because they have to deal with the deviance feels like something that was left over from transformers effects are just effects you get these very you know high profile stars doing their best to mix intimacy comedy ex you know impending apocalypse but the efforts barely register because of the mechanical clanging of the narrative that just doesn't know what to do with all its moving pieces i thought two things the first thing i thought was if you if perhaps the movie had concentrated on one or two of these characters maybe that would be something because one of the problems is that there are too many characters too many threads too many plot points going on for it to be engaging the second thing is you know we often get this thing when somebody will write in and they'll complain that such and such a movie this happened in the case of bond somebody wrote in and said that the most recent bond movie was ruined by it being right on and it having blue head feminists in it and we're saying what on earth it you know you can object to the movie for whatever reason but objecting to it because it's because it's what you think of as an inverted commas woke is nonsensical this is kind of proof that a movie can do all the things that that we would get accused of going soft on a movie for because it is you know it's diverse and inclusive and adventurous and chloe zhao and all those things should be great but it isn't and the reason it isn't great isn't because of all those things it's not like it's not a great film because it's woke are you afraid that people might no no yes i want to be absolutely clear those things are not problems those things are actually the thing about the film that's interesting and good everything else is the problem and it just it i want to be very clear that the problem with the film is that the film is mechanical and dull and boring it's not mechanical and dull and boring because it's a film that's trying to be inclusive or forward-looking that's a plus point that's a point of entry that's an interesting thing to be doing but it just feels like are we not all tired of this universe now have we i mean i i know that it's a really old man thing to say enough you wiped out half the world or half the universe you know however many movies ago it is i just don't know that i don't know that i can get emotionally invested anymore and i certainly can't get emotionally invested when there are umpty thrumpty characters with umpty thrumpty locations and bits and stuff and all the thing and then it's just a series of special effects sequences interspersed by some nice little dialogue moments and some moments of humor with some you know good characterizations that bit that we play just then is quite funny and me thinking if you'd made this whole film about barry keugen for example if you'd made this whole film about uh come on gianni maybe that would have been a way in but it it gives me no pleasure at all to say it's boring and it doesn't work

Channel: kermodeandmayo

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Id: 0hmWDlVsvdk

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 05 2021