Many millennia ago, a group of superhumans with superpowers, the Eternals, was sent to Earth from the planet Olympia. Since prehistoric times, they have protected humanity from the attacks of terrible monsters of deviants, but any other interference in the development of civilization was forbidden to them.
Beginning of the 21st century. Several centuries have passed since the last deviant was destroyed when, after a strange earthquake, a new monster is suddenly announced. Now the Eternals living in different parts of the planet will again have to rally their forces in order to confront a new threat.
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More than two years have passed since the release of the Finale. And it feels like in that movie, Tony Stark’s snap turned the Marvel Universe itself into dust: most of the old and well-developed characters are gone, and the new ones that appear are too faceless to replace them. But the studio’s baggage is enough for a couple of dozen more films, because old Stan and the company have been working on their world for more than half a century. A huge number of different characters and ongoing events. However, cinema and the public require epic and grandiosity, and therefore trump cards are immediately used: the conversation about the Celestials has been going on since the beginning of the second phase, but they really appeared to the world only now. An application for success or another step into the abyss?
Plot. More than seven millennia ago, the Celestials sent a team of super-humans (Eternals) to Earth to protect the planet from deviant galactic monsters. The latter were exterminated a very long time ago, but the heroes were left on the planet to secretly look after people: they do not interfere in internecine conflicts, but only slightly stimulate technical progress. But now, after a long time of their peaceful stay on Earth, when the heroes have long since dispersed to different continents, they again encounter a deviant who is endowed with new powers and hunts precisely the Eternals. To find and destroy it, the team should unite again and figure out what’s the matter.
The plot genuinely tries to keep the viewer’s attention, for which it makes a couple of supposedly unpredictable hooks aimed at the ‘Wow’ reaction. The problem is that it does not export the entire volume that the creators coveted, which is why all events are thrown in very clumsily and chaotically. The viewer does not have time to digest what is happening, which is why the emotions experienced are scarce.
Exposure. To be honest, I haven’t seen anything like this since Star Wars. To give much of the backstory, which is key to understanding what is going on, in plain text at the beginning of the film is a delight. However, if for Lucas this was a calling card, and with the credits he gave a small eyeliner for the viewer, at the same time charging him with Williams’ amazing music, then at the beginning of The Eternals, the viewer sits in silence for a little less than a minute and reads the plain text on the screen, trying to catch the whole point. The genius of this move still boggles my mind.
Logics. Usually I don’t use such concepts, but the Eternals have a big problem with logic. As in the plot, as in the whole universe, and in the actions of the characters. Let’s look at an example. To exterminate the huge galactic monsters, nine ageless, but still capable of dying super-humans were sent to Earth, of which only three can really fight. THREE! No, turning an inanimate bus into rose petals is beautiful, but completely useless when your goal is to kill a huge living creature. And when, while watching the movie, I noticed that the phrases ‘where does it come from?’ and ‘this is stupid’ sounded quite often, I realized that almost no work was done on the logic of what was happening. But before they tried much better, what happened?
Characters. We have to admit that the creators honestly tried to endow all the Eternals with unique character traits, personal dramas and secrets. You can’t confuse them with each other, but most of the statements and experiences turn out to be groundless, which again refers us to the question of logic. And, of course, I must mention the love branch taken from the ceiling. It comes from nowhere, develops at random, causes important twists, but looks as unnatural and foreign as possible. This is solved by adding a few scenes and a couple of dialogues, but due to the excess of the first and the inability to write the second, the love branch turns out to be worthless.
The acting. Cast is genuinely happy. A handful of eminent actors were called to the film, capable of taking out serious scenes and attracting the attention of the viewer. Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Barry Keoghan, Richard Madden, Kit Harington, Gemma Chan and more. But Iron Man wasn’t just hanging on to Downey Jr.! Of course, the actor added uniqueness and authenticity, but the character itself was well written, which gave him weight and strength. Here, no matter how the actors were spinning, it was very difficult to stand out, and the problem is exclusively scenario.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (37.3 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
German: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Italian: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish.
