I can understand why some people would find this movie to be boring and poorly paced. Don't get me wrong, the standard Marvel elements are recognizable, but this is a much slower, more methodical, more cerebral, and more challenging movie that really feels like a distillation of Zhao's humanist indie naturalism and the crazy cosmos from Jack Kirby's trippy source material. The plot structure and tone even reminded me of Watchmen. Then the Deviants return, evolving with added powers and posing a new threat to humanity and the Eternals, but the real threat might be outside the confines of Earth.Įternals feels like a different kind of Marvel movie in that stretches feel like it's a Stanley Kubrick movie, or a Terrence Malick movie, or a DC movie. Now that the last Deviant has been dead for over 500 years, the Eternals have settled into comfortable lives among present-day humans. The Eternals are instructed by their masters not to intervene in human conflicts only to intervene to save them from Deviants. The Eternals were sent to protect the inhabitants of Earth from the Deviants, terrifying tendril-heavy monsters that will consume and overrun a world. Thousands of years ago, the Eternals were created by the Celestials, powerful beings that are responsible for birthing new galaxies into the universe.

Eternals has received the lowest critical rating of any MCU film in its thirteen-year history and I'm trying to figure out why. Eternals (no 'The') is just as much about the question over what it means to be human as Zhao's Best Picture-winning Nomadland, and it's a lot easier to watch with one hundred percent less Frances McDormand pooping in a bucket in her van (granted, she did win an Oscar for that performance). Zhao seems like an odd fit for something as mainstream and successful as the MCU, but she was excited to tell a big story with the biggest studio operating in Hollywood.

However, Zhao is the first Academy Award-winning director to jump into the Marvel sandbox. Sure, they've had major directing names before like Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Coogler, and successful populist genre filmmakers like Jon Favreau and Joe Johnston and Joss Whedon and Shane Black, and quirky auteurs like James Gunn and Taika Watiti. Chloe Zhao is the biggest name Marvel has gotten yet for its cinematic universe (MCU).

Enter disney digital copy code ituens