‘Eternals’ Review: Heroic Characters, Hectic Story

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Millennia-old Eternals try to save Earth and its mortal inhabitants from the evil Deviants in Chloé Zhao’s star-studded Marvel movie

‘Eternals” answers a question of cosmic proportions, as befits a Marvel release with a whole new cast of supercharacters. The question is how well Chloé Zhao, a singularly gifted filmmaker (“Nomadland”) accustomed to working on a modest scale, was able to do as the director and co-writer of a superexpensive, supercomplicated and superlong action adventure.

The answer is more than well enough, even though the story, stretched out over 157 minutes, is rambling and repetitive. (There’s also the question of whether the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who arrived on Earth over 7,000 years ago, can save humanity from the predations of the Deviants, their monstrously evil counterparts, but first things first.) The production’s graphics are striking, with shimmering gold filigrees as a motif. The physical locations are spectacular, a surprise because most examples of the genre are shot in the augmented reality of high-tech soundstages. The spirit of Ms. Zhao’s film—and it is Ms. Zhao’s film—ranges from buoyant to playful during the downtime between generic battles to the almost death. Some of the Eternals we get to meet have grown fond of the human race, despite its endless foibles, and they express their affection with a warmth that’s rare in comic-book epics. What is there to say? Speaking as an earthling, one likes to be liked.

In the grand and interlocking scheme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the action takes place after the tumultuous events of “Avengers: Endgame” and introduces a new mythology, and cash flow, involving no less than 10 superheroes. Rather than list them and detail their superpowers, an enterprise that could fill several paragraphs, let’s jump to the leader of the group, Sersi, who is played by Gemma Chan. When she isn’t busy saving the planet, Sersi works as a museum curator and seems to cherish her job. In fact, she seems to cherish both jobs.

Sersi has the power to make inanimate matter do her bidding, but Ms. Chan has the power to stir hearts. Until now she was best known to international movie audiences as the hero’s rich but sensitive cousin Astrid in “Crazy Rich Asians.” Here the British-Asian star brings a delicate sense of longing to her role, along with implacable purpose occasionally obscured by self-doubt. Sersi is in love with another Eternal, Ikaris ( Richard Madden )—she has been for centuries. But she’s also committed to human welfare. “We’re not going to let everyone on Earth die,” she tells her troops when our extinction seems all too likely. (The cast includes Angelina Jolie as an elite warrior named Thena, and Salma Hayek as Ajak, the Eternals’ spiritual leader.)

As I watched “Eternals” I thought back to a movie with a related theme that had all the trappings of a theatrical blockbuster but went to streaming during the summer of 2020 because of the pandemic. “The Old Guard” starred Charlize Theron as an immortal warrior fighting for righteous causes across the centuries with her similarly immortal, extra-special-forces team. The contrast between the two films is instructive. The earlier one was strong and solidly crafted, an action adventure notable for its clarity and economy. “Eternals” is a terrible mess structurally, and hasn’t reconciled its conventional sci-fi action with its philosophical speculations about life on Earth and the gods who govern the universe. (The malevolent gods, given what the Eternals discover about their own role in the grandest scheme of things.)

Salma Hayek

Photo: Marvel Studios

Yet Ms. Zhao and her writer colleagues— Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo and Kaz Firpo —draw strength for their production from excellent actors playing an assortment of intriguing eccentrics with widely varying commitments to Homo sapiens, or to themselves. Kumail Nanjiani is very funny as Kingo, an Eternal who finally settled into his earthly existence by becoming a Bollywood star. (He employs a videographer to memorialize his every move and utterance.) Brian Tyree Henry is Phastos, an inventor and weapons expert and the first openly gay superhero in a Marvel feature. Phastos, you should know, helped humanity along the way by inventing the plow, but he no longer thinks we’re worth saving. Sersi does, and it feels good to have her on our side.