What critics think of Marvel’s latest film

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(LR) Lauren Ridloff, Don Lee, Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Lia McHugh and Brian Tyree Henry star in Marvel’s “The Eternals.”

Disney

An ambitious and unique film, “Eternals” could be one of the most controversial episodes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Disney film, which introduces nearly a dozen major new characters to the canon, received overwhelmingly positive reviews ahead of its release next week. However, its attempts to build lore, flesh out its main heroes, and connect with previous films in the series, leave the film overloaded, critics say.

Directed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, “Eternals” features 10 members of a race of immortal beings who have spent 7,000 years on Earth defending it from beasts known as Deviants.

Nowadays, these beings are scattered in different regions, with Sirse (Gemma Chan) working as a museum curator in London. She has had a love affair through the centuries with Ikaris (Richard Madden), but is currently involved with a human named Dane (Kit Harington).

Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) is a popular Bollywood star, Gilgamesh (Don Lee) is a strongman living in isolation in the Australian outback, and Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) lives in suburban Chicago with her husband and son.

Sprite (Lia McHugh) appears as an androgynous preteen with the ability to create illusions and Druig (Barry Keoghan) has distanced himself from the rest of the group because he doesn’t agree with the way they interacted. with humanity over the centuries.

Other Eternals include Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), who is deaf and possesses super speed; Thena (Angelina Jolie), a fierce warrior struggling with a mental problem who comes from having too many memories; and Ajak (Salma Hayek), the leader of the group, who is keeping a secret as to why the team was sent to Earth in the first place.

Their fluid, all-for-one unity extends, in spirit, to the diversity of the characters, which the film presents with an unimportant brash that makes them a winning prototype of a more dynamically inclusive superhero. world, “Owen Gleiberman wrote in his film review for Variety.” Four of the Eternals are white, three are Asian, two are black and one is Latino. One is gay, one is deaf and one is an androgynous tween who never grows up. “

For some critics, Zhao’s direction paired with a “refreshing and diverse” cast is enough to make “Eternals” stand out from other entries in the MCU. Others are less convinced, disappointed that the film finally falls back into the traditional Marvel formula.

“You come out with the depressing realization that you’ve just seen one of the most interesting movies Marvel will ever make, and hopefully the least interesting Chloe Zhao will ever do,” wrote Justin Chang in his review for the Los Angeles Times.

Currently, the film holds a 62% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 107 reviews. That percentage could change over the next week as more reviews are added to the site.

Here’s what critics thought of Marvel’s “Eternals” ahead of its theatrical release on November 5:

Esther Zuckerman, thriller

“Marvel has a reputation for hiring fantastic filmmakers and flattening their styles, and while ‘Eternals’ certainly doesn’t play like anything Zhao has done, it doesn’t cut off his vision either,” Esther Zuckerman wrote. in his review of the film for Thrillist.

“Amid all the magic, tight-fitting costumes, Zhao made a film that is both human and earthy, but also wonderfully weird, one where the internal debates between superhumans are more interesting than the punches they throw,” she declared.

Zuckerman noted that the film is a bit messy and filled to the brim with plot points that get bogged down and overly complicate the overall narrative.

““ Eternals, ”of course, is part of a larger shot, as evidenced by the much-discussed post-credits scenes which were not shown at the New York screening I attended, but immediately. spoiled by some in Los Angeles, ”she added. . “It’s a movie that’s best when it floats in a more primordial space, disconnected from what came before it.”

Read the full Thrillist review.

Kumail Nanjiani plays Kingo in Marvel’s “Eternals”.

Disney

John Nugent, Empire

“Eternals” tells stories on an “epic scale,” wrote John Nugent in Empire’s review of the film.

The film runs from 5,000 BC.

“Playing on such a colossal stage is inevitably difficult to stay focused on the (on) human level,” he wrote. “Zhao takes his time to introduce everyone correctly, spending a lot of the runtime (at 157 minutes, it’s the MCU’s second longest movie after ‘Endgame”) getting the team of ten together, after centuries of separation. “

“It’s undeniably refreshing to see such a mix in the line-up – these former immortals speak Irish Brogues or American Sign Language without ever feeling the need to respond – but some characters leave more impression than they do. ‘others,’ Nugent added.

He called Nanjiani a star in the film, but noted that other characters like Sersi and Ikaris struggle with generic dialogue and “stifling seriousness.”

Read the full Empire review.

Mick LaSalle, Agenda

Much of Marvel’s latest film revolves around Sersi traveling the world to bring her colleagues together and convince them to join her in saving the planet, Mick LaSalle explained in his review for Datebook.

“Some yes, some no,” he wrote. “Some must be convinced. Some don’t care anyway. ‘Eternals’ is like a horse racing movie that focuses all of its attention on characters who don’t own horses and don’t like to play.”

“It takes a special kind of cinematic anti-magic to make an entire audience indifferent to the potential destruction of Earth and everything that lives on it,” LaSalle wrote. “‘Eternals’ manages it.”

Read the full Datebook review.

Richard Madden and Gemma Chan star in Marvel’s “The Eternals”.

Disney

Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

“Seriously, what a nap,” wrote Johnny Oleksinski in his review for the New York Post. “Right after winning the Oscar for Best Director for ‘Nomadland’, Chloe Zhao landed one of the MCU’s worst films in ages.

“Angelina Jolie’s Thena has a bar of soap personality and an accent that suggests her semester abroad in London has been the best four months of her life,” he wrote.

“All of the characters are equally bland,” he said, criticizing the superhero team for being generic and not well fleshed out. While each member of the Eternals has a special power, they share similar abilities like super strength, invulnerability, accelerated healing, and flight.

“Yet, there you have it, ticket buyers – another much worse collective of uniformed super-beings with clearly similar powers and a vague and grandiose mission to save mankind,” Oleksinski wrote. “Well, where were our incredible protectors when several hundred innocent people walked into a lousy two hour and 37 minute movie Monday night?” “

Read the full New York Post review.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes.

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