With her quiet road movie drama “Nomadland”, Chloé Zhao enraptured the critics and won many prizes. Immediately afterwards, the Chinese filmmaker shot her first blockbuster.
London – Chloé Zhao was the big winner of the last awards season. The US magazine “Variety” received 34 awards as a director, 13 as a screenwriter and nine awards in the editing category for the Chinese filmmaker.
Long before the success of their US road movie “Nomadland” was foreseeable, Marvel Studios engaged Zhao in 2018 for the blockbuster “Eternals”. This is new territory for both sides. Zhao’s previous works are the opposite of the colorful, action-packed films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
New heroes appear
The 25th Marvel Studios film is dedicated to several heroes who have not yet appeared or been mentioned in the MCU. The Eternals (in German: the Eternals) come from the comic of the same name by Jack Kirby. It’s about a group of cosmic humanoids who have been on earth for thousands of years to protect humanity from the Deviants – monstrous, shape-changing beings.
Salma Hayek plays the leader Ajak (a man in the comic), Angelina Jolie the fighter Thena. “Diversity and inclusion” would have convinced them to participate in “Eternals”, Jolie told the German press agency, “and that we represent the world we live in better.”
“Game Of Thrones” star Richard Madden is Ikaris, Gemma Chan (“Crazy Rich Asians”) is his ex-lover Sersi. Madden’s former GoT colleague Kit Harington plays a supporting role that raises questions. You will probably see him more often in the MCU.
Also on the team: Deaf Lauren Ridloff (“Sound Of Metal”), Korean action star and ex-bodybuilder Ma Dong-seok (better known outside of Korea as Don Lee), teenage girl Lia McHugh and Brian Tyree Henry as the first gay MCU hero Phastos.
As diverse as the cast, as diverse as what the stars bring to the screen. While Jolie – who said goodbye to acting years ago – and Hayek are inconspicuous, Ridloff as Makkari and the Irishman Barry Keoghan as Druig, troubled by his conscience, leave a lasting impression, although their appearances are neglected. The two have wonderful chemistry. Kumail Nanjiani as Bollywood star Kingo and Indian veteran Harish Patel as his submissive assistant are hilarious.
The monsters are returning
After defeating the Deviants ages ago, the heroes parted ways. But one day the monsters reappear. And so the Eternals, where there have been some internal conflicts and quarrels over the millennia, have to get together again. Much more can hardly be told about the plot of the film without revealing essential twists in the story.
The audience needs a lot of patience before it gets really exciting. It takes almost two hours to complete the team. So long you see many tiring flashbacks in which the Eternals repeatedly fight the Deviants, and learn about the heroes’ private lives. A premiere at the MCU is the first sex scene between two characters.
Oscar winner Chloé Zhao had Marvel boss Kevin Feige assure her in advance that she would be allowed to shoot in her own way. Her calm narrative style known from “The Rider” or “Nomadland” with beautiful pictures and landscape panoramas is recognizable. Zhao shot as little as possible in the studio and as much outside as possible – in London, in the English countryside and on the beaches of the Canary Islands. That can be seen. The special effects are not that impressive. Especially the Deviants look boring and artificial.
“Eternals” is an ambitious film that takes on moral questions that it cannot resolve in a satisfactory manner. Its running time of 157 minutes is too long. At least the wrong priorities were set. The recruitment of the team has often been seen in a similar form in other films, it doesn’t take two hours. The successful showdown, however, would have been much more generous and longer. So “Eternals” lacks the balance. Among the 25 MCU blockbusters, he only lands in the middle of the field.
By the way: The most spectacular scenes and a special appearance should be hidden in “Eternals” in the mid- and post-credit scenes. In order to keep this a secret, the credits were not shown in advance at press screenings in Germany.
Eternals, USA 2021, 157 min., FSK 12, by Chloé Zhao, with Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Don Lee, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington dpa
