Eternals is Chloe Zhao’s The Tree of Life. Ever since her debut, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, it’s been clear that Zhao’s visual style bears the influence of Terrence Malick. With Eternals, her unlikely Marvel Cinematic Universe entry after The Rider and the Oscar-winning Nomadland, that’s true in terms of theme, as well. An epic tale about a team of celestial beings who have presided over humanity’s evolution since the dawn of time, Eternals depicts figures amidst gorgeous natural backdrops, yes, but it also ruminates on the creation of life and a single soul’s place in the cosmos. At its best, this is galaxy-brain, comic-book stuff rooted in a tactile sense of place. Unfortunately, Eternals runs nearly three hours and is bloated with elements that have served other MCU installments well, but fall flat here: the team dynamic (there are far too many characters); an insistence on humor (Kumail Nanjiani is saddled with nearly all the Comic Relief); and ultimate faith, at the end of the day, in the sovereignty of CGI. As for the cast, Angelina Jolie has fun skulking about in the background of a few scenes as Thena, but in the lead parts of Sersi and Ikaris—whose relationship, like the father-son dynamic in Malick’s The Tree of Life, is meant to make the cosmic and personal converge—Gemma Chan and Richard Madden are complete blanks, both alone and in their scenes together. Eternals had the chance to be something distinct in the MCU and Zhao might actually have been the person to do it. But the project was doomed once it became beholden to franchise formula and saddled with this cast.
(11/10/2021)