The Eternals: A Wee Bit Slow

********* There be spoilers here. You have been warned. ************

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The Eternals has a lot to set up. It is the movie that introduces the next level or Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also introduces a boatload of characters. There are ten Earth Eternals to start. Ready? Too Bad. They are Thena, weapons warrior (Angelina Jolie); Ikarus, all-powerful (Richard Madden); Sersi, matter shifter (Gemma Chan); Ajak, leader and healer (Salma Hayek); Gilgamesh, physical fighter and strongest (Don Lee); Druig, mind control (Barry Keoghan); Kingo, projectiles (Kumail Nanjiani); Sprite, trickster (Lia McHugh); Makkari, speedster (Lauren Ridloff); and Phastos, engineer and weapons specialist (Brian Tyree Henry). Now you know.

In addition to these 10, there are the Celestials and Sersi’s boyfriend Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) who is destined to become the Black Knight. There is the comic relief and Kingo's human sidekick, Karun (Harish Patel). There are also two characters Pip the Troll (Patton Oswald) and Eros of Titan or Starfox (Harry Styles) who is Thanos younger brother introduced in the mid-credits, and the voice of the new Blade (Mahershala Ali) in the final after-credits scene There, now you know and have a handy reference guide.

I hate lists, but it had to be done.

I don't know much about the Eternals in the comics. I do know, from my brief research on the web, is that three of the male characters from the comics have been gender-swapped, the comics were created by Jack Kirby who along with Stan Lee created the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Thor, the Hulk, and Ironman. He then moved over to DC and while most of his creations there were largely unsuccessful, one of the villains he created became a mainstay of DC, Darkseid. There is actually little known about the Kingo character except in the comics he is a master swordsman. Now you know what I know of the comics.

On to the Plot…

The Celestials, god-like beings that created and continue to create worlds and civilizations, have sent the Eternals to a number of worlds to battle the evil enemies of life, the Deviants. Having defeated these creatures, the Eternals continue to live on the planet to protect it from further attacks of the Deviants. Other than that, Eternals are forbidden to interfere in all other conflicts which is a handy way to explain why they didn’t interfere when Thanos wiped out half the universe. Earth’s Eternals have been here for thousands of years. Even though they can die in battle or of unnatural causes, they are still called Eternals probably since Sorta Eternals just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

On modern-day Earth, the Deviants have returned and one of them kills the Eternals’ leader Ajak. The Eternals must reunite to fight these new Deviants. Ajak has chosen Sersi as her successor by sending the orb that allows her to communicate with her Celestial, Arishem. What Ajak has kept a secret is that Earth is the home to one of the Celestial seeds which will eventually, once Earth reaches enough thinking humans to power it, emerge as a new Celestial. This will, of course, destroy the Earth and kill everyone. So, the Eternals, because they love the uniqueness of Earth, decide they must stop this emergence of a new Celestial, while they continue to fight the Deviants. There are some other twists, turns, and deaths along the way. It also marks the appearance of two special superheroes. One is a member of the LGBQ+ community, and the other has a physical handicap.

And now the review…

The problem with the movie is pacing. While the movie has some great action sequences and some really funny gags like Karun’s ever-smaller cameras and the hint that twinkies have been stored on the ship for perhaps centuries, it tends to plod. It just doesn’t have the bounce that most Marvel films have.

I am pretty willing to forgive the movie an excuse for the slower pace. They do have a great deal for the audience to understand. Unlike the first phase of the Marvel movies, they could take their time to build individuals of the Avengers. The Eternals are not individual superheroes. All exist as a single group so the approach to this introduction to phase 2 had to deal with having all these characters at once. This makes it very difficult for the audience to connect to individual characters like they had with Ironman or Thor. Audience members though may still find connections with characters whose tender protection of others like Gilgamesh or Phastos, or they may enjoy the humor of Kingo and his alter ego Bollywood lifestyle. Still, the movie needs better pacing to hold the audience’s attention.

I liked The Eternals well enough. While it does not have the strength of other Marvel films, it does set up the next phase which will probably include a more “space” oriented theme. Even the credit scenes add direct connections to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise with the appearance of characters like Pip the Troll and Starfox both of whom have been known to hang in the Guardians’ universe in the comics as well as the introduction of the Black Knight and Blade who are also being added to the MCU in Phase 2. The next three scheduled Marvel films should be solid enough since they are all relying on established characters like Doctor Strange, Antman, and Guardians, as well as Spiderman. Hopefully, Eternals II if there is one, will be able to fix the problems now that the audience is set up for it.