Eternals - Expanding What A Comic Book Movie Can Be

 Director: Chloé Zhao, 赵婷 (Chinese, Woman)

Don't be fooled. The trailers want to make you think this movie is a smash-em-up, space-monster vs. superhero good guys fighting the baddies throughout time. Marvel wants you to go in with your expectations of what comic book movies are. Don't be fooled.

Your first hint is that Chloé Zhao not only directed this movie, she also helped write the script. Yes, that Chloé Zhao, you know, the one that won all those awards for Nomadland. Know that not only was she offered to direct Black Widow, but she turned it down, specifically because she was already a fan of the comic books of the Eternals, and she knew what kind of story she wanted to tell. No femme fatal kicking ass main plot. Chloé Zhao would never be so basic.

Your second hint is that in agreeing to do Eternals, Zhao also insisted on doing it her way - with as little green screen as possible, real sets, real locations, with her own particular cameras so that she could get the giant swooping landscape shots that Zhao is already legendary for. This movie was never going to look like any other Marvel movie, and she made sure of it.

Your final hint - the casting. Let's dive into that one.

A Sea of Color

The main character is Sersei, played by British-Chinese actress Gemma Chan, with all of the elegance we already love her for, with the ability to manipulate matter (woah). South-Asian American Kumail Nanjiani plays the humor as Kingo, but he's also a stunningly handsome (in this universe, movie star) and exceedingly well built. Brian Tyree Henry plays Phastos - the genius, GAY black man whose devotion to family shines. Lauren Ridloff, Afro-Latina actress plays Makkari - a hero with superspeed and happens to also be the first deaf superhero in the MCU. It is wildly important to note that Lauren Ridloff is also deaf, which makes for one of the first times I can think of in recent film history that we have an actual deaf actress playing a deaf character, and god she is magnificent. Mexican-American actress Salma Hayek plays Ajak, the leader of the group and the clear matriarch of the family. And finally, in his first American film, the amazing Ma Dong-seok as Gilgamesh, the beefiest Korean actor on a major Hollywood screen, and using that presence on screen to be a loving caretaker and protector. 

Look at this cast and tell me that they weren't trying to do something special with this film. 

Yes, there are white actors. Richard Madden (Scottish) plays Ikaris - who gets a callout from Phastos' son as quite literally being Superman (this is the first time the MCU has ever mentioned DC, by the way). This is an accurate description, although like Ikaris, has quite the...fall. Lia McHugh (American) plays Sprite, the forever twelve-year old, which we know from Interview With a Vampire always goes well. Barry Keoghan (Irish) plays the wildly creepy Druig, with the ability to possess minds, and becomes a quite literal cult leader. Kit Harington (British) plays Sersei's boyfriend, and is largely absent for the majority of the film. And finally, the biggest hitter on the list, Angelina Jolie (American), who plays Thena. God I love Thena. We'll talk about her separately. 

If you look at this list, even within the white actors the casting very deliberately chose actors from all over, rather than just American actors. Each actor speaks with their native accent, rather than the Hollywood homogenous. We listen to an Irish brogue, followed by a full on funeral rite in Hindi, to a rapid signing. The accents, like the casting, is intentional. The Eternals are a representation of the cultures of the planet, not just what we tend to think of when we think of "superhero". 

Inevitably, someone is going to use the term "checking the diversity boxes", but frankly, I don't care. The diversity here does not stick out like a sore thumb, it is THE POINT. The Eternals are trying to create the standard on which other superhero movies will stand. We don't need the team of white Captain America's anymore, and Marvel knows it.

The Deviants

This is probably the category that made a lot of Marvel fans go "well, what's the point".

The Deviants are the "main antagonists" in this film, or the main baddies/monsters/etc, but honestly they are barely even that. I imagine a lot of people felt that they fell flat, as they don't ramp up in scale to the big bad, they aren't world ending like Thanos.

And that's because they aren't supposed to be.

They're a foil. A mirror of the Eternals, a different side of the same coin. They're coming to terms with their own existence, the fact that their god betrayed them. They have witnessed the genocide of their species by the Eternals, and they're really fucking mad about it.

I will say this about them, that I believe almost all Marvel/DC movies suffer from, which is "shiny monster syndrome". Because CGI has reached a particular point in development, when FX artists are creating a monster, the easiest way for that monster to look realistic is to make them look metallic or shiny. As a result almost all Marvel monsters look relatively similar. Audiences are pretty bored with superheroes fighting the same sort of big bad monster with the big scary teeth, and I don't blame them.

Luckily, by the end of the movie (minor spoiler) the Deviants start to evolve, which takes them closer to their comic-book counterparts, and that's where I think they're actually going to become much more interesting and formidable, but I think this movie is setting us up for them to be their big bad selves in the future.

Do We Really Need More Dr. Strange CGI Sparklies

This the other category of complaint that I saw a whole bunch on the internet, which is basically that the Eternals have have shiny/sparkly powers that look a whole lot like Dr.Strange, and they're tired of that.

To which I say:

Ok???

Like, sure ok, that's boring, but also, only like half of the characters have shiny/sparkly powers that we see a whole bunch, and even within the shiny/sparkly category they're used differently so all of their abilities are unrelated to each-other?

Also, why are you suddenly mad about CGI sparkles? 

You weren't mad about it with Scarlet Witch.

Or Dr. Strange.

Or Loki.

Or Shang-Chi.

Or literally every Marvel character with a magic based ability.

So why are you mad now?

Does it really have to do with the CGI or the fact that you just don't like seeing a black gay man be able to hold his own against white superman?

Hmm.

Not to mention the fact that the literal main character does not have this issue. She touches objects and changes them to other things. Like for example, a bus into a bunch of flower pedals. This also makes for a really interesting main character to watch, because she isn't super "punchy punchy", which I love. If anything, she's a defensive character, which is a rarity to be the star in any superhero lineup.

Eye Candy

Look, we can't talk about a Chloé Zhao movie and not talk about cinematography. This movie is unbelievably gorgeous, because she refused to green screen environments, so they're just beautiful, practice, location based art. The fact that the internet seems to not like this, baffles me to heck. I know, I know, you think that having superhero suits in realistic environments seems weird, but I disagree. It grounds our characters in reality, rather than puts them out of focus. They are of this world, and Zhao is making it a point that they belong here. Setting the characters in real environments makes them not unlike you and me, it takes them off the pedestal that comic movies love to put their characters on. 

Just look at these shots and hopefully you can see what I see.

A Brief Ode to Karun

There's one actor I haven't mentioned yet, which is the incredible Harish Patel. Karun is Kingo's valet, and obvious best friend. He is the human eye that is needed throughout each scene so that the audience has someone to latch onto that is truly like the average person. Karun brings needed levity into many scenes, his enthusiasm for the Eternals is frankly, adorable, and like us, he's just excited to be brought along for the ride. At one point Kingo says that Karun should go home (as it is the end of the world), and he says "and do what? Watch TV?" We love him for it.

Gilgamesh and Thena

At this point, you've probably noticed that the Eternals names are all very similar to rather famous myths. Ikaris - Icarus, Makkari - Mercury, Sersei - Circe. They're not direct counterpoints, but they are canonically the inspiration for many of the myths. 

Gilgamesh and Thena are by far, my favorite reinterpretations of these mythological characters. 

If you don't know the Epic of Gilgamesh, you should become acquainted with it, not for this particular movie, but because it is so important to the stories that we know and love. If you love the Iliad or the Odyssey, or even the Bible, go learn about Gilgamesh.

While there are many descriptions for Gilgamesh, according to the myths he was a great warrior, a giant of a man, and has become a symbol of pure masculinity and power.

Which is why it is so refreshing to see Gilgamesh in this film, depicted as this huge, burley, man with inhuman strength - who cooks pies and treats his love with devotion and gentleness. Gilgamesh in Eternals flips the script on what masculinity means.

His love is Thena - who is of course this universe's inspiration for Athena, the goddess of war. She is clearly, the greatest warrior of all the Eternals, able to conjure and wield any weapon. It is Thena, the feminine, who is the strongest amongst them, and it is Gilgamesh who choses to be her rock and greatest supporter. 

Furthermore, Thena suffers from something called "Mahd Wy'ry" - which is essentially a form of dementia. Gilgamesh watches over her and prevents her from hurting herself or others. It is utterly heartbreaking and beautiful to watch their relationship as Gilgamesh calls her over and over again back from the brink and into reality. The physically strongest characters in this story are also intrinsically tied in gentleness and care. 

Morality, Coming to Terms With God

Oh, shit, did you think I was really just going to talk this movie and skip over the main theme of the film? There's no good way to do this without spoilers, so: 

SPOILERS

The Eternals have been on the planet since the beginning of time. They're immortal. And they think that their entire purpose is destroying the Deviants, but they Deviants have been gone for most of human history at this point. 

So they're just waiting. 

For what? For their god, Arishem, to bring them home. They've done their job, so now they're just sitting there. Their purpose in life has been fulfilled.

Until surprise, it isn't because actually the Deviants were created by Arishem in the first place (the god fucked up), and made the Eternals to correct that mistake. And Arishem only needs them there to allow humanity to propagate as much as possible, to provide energy, to birth a new celestial, like Arishem. The Earth is a god incubator. And the Eternals are there to make sure that it happens.

Convoluted, sure.

But not the point.

The point is that the Eternals have been told one thing for FOUR THOUSAND YEARS, and then suddenly they learn that everything they've been protecting for centuries was doomed from the moment they stepped foot on the planet. 

Their god, Arishem, whom they have served willingly and enthusiastically, for FOUR THOUSAND YEARS, was lying to them. And now, learning the truth of their god, they have to make decisions.

Thing is - according to their god, this is what is best for the universe. More celestials means more life. More universe! This is the way that life continues. Without the celestials, new planets and new species cannot exist. 

On the other-hand, many of the Eternals love humanity, the Earth, and cannot see the sacrifice as being worth it. 

No one in this situation is acting out of malice. There is no bad guy. The Celestials want to propagate life in the universe. Their god has told them how creation happens, and they're helping that happen.

So in the most interesting thing I have seen in a comic-based movie, the heroes split off into categories.

1. Those who believe in their god, and decide to protect their mission at all costs.

2. Those who believe in humanity, and decide to protect that at all costs.

3. Those who believe in their god, but refuse to fight their family, so they just leave.

Religious belief causes this friction amongst the Eternals. They truly, utterly, love each-other, but it is their religion that fractures them. 

And in the end (SPOLER SPOILER SPOILER), Ikaris, having lost his purpose in life, having killed his own family for his god, betraying his love - cries, and we watch his heart shatter. His faith lost, he becomes the myth, and flies straight into the sun to his death.

This is the most human reaction I've ever seen in this kind of film. Religious beliefs fractures families in the real world on a daily basis. Not to mention political ideology. Some of us deal with this by removing contact, others by agreeing to never speak about the topics. But this is not an option for the Eternals, as their beliefs are coming into full focus with a doomsday clock. This mirroring is not unlike what we see today between the believers and the extreme religious in vaccines, or climate change. Belief systems are about to come to a reckoning as our systems fail and people must make decisions that create real time change on our planet. The fight is real, the cataclysmic damage is real. The only difference the catalyst. Eternals asks us if we will fight for each other, against each other, or merely watch.