BLERD AT THE MOVIES
(At Home With) BLERD AT THE MOVIES #7: "Eternals" is to Marvel What "The Last Jedi" Was to Star Wars12/31/2021 Academy Award-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao has crafted what might be Marvel's most ambitious -- and frustrating -- film to date. (from L to R) Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Gemma Chan as Sersi, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, and Barry Keoghan as Druig in Marvel Studios's Eternals (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 2021) Welcome back to (At Home With) Blerd at the Movies, where I share what movies I've been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2022 is quickly approaching, so for the last edition I am taking a trip down to Divisive City to discuss what might be Marvel Studios' most ambitious feature to date: Eternals. Fresh off her Oscar win for Nomadland, writer-director Chloe Zhao makes the jump from small, contemplative indies to a massive cosmic epic that attempts to challenge what the superhero film genre is capable with the help of Jack Kirby's most cerebral comic creations, the Eternals. The end result isn't as bad as others made it out to be upon release, but it definitely is a fascinating -- and frustrating -- sight to behold. Marvel Studios' Eternals | Official Teaser Trailer (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) Title: Eternals Where to Watch: Only in theaters (and coming to Disney Plus January 12th, 2022) What's It About?: As the world attempts to return to some semblance of normal after the Avengers successfully restored half of the population in Avengers: Endgame, an unexpected tragedy forces the Eternals, a group of ancient, immortal extraterrestrials who have been secretly living amongst humans on Earth for thousands of years, to reunite after personal turmoil fractured them long ago. Upon reuniting, Sersi (Gemma Chan, Captain Marvel), an empathetic Eternal who cares deeply for Earth and the humans who call the planet home, uncovers a devastating plot that upends everything she and the Eternals hold dear about their existence. (from L to R) Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Angelina Jolie as Thena, and Don Lee as Gilgamesh in Marvel Studios' Eternals (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 2021) Over the course of three phases, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has always flirted with (Judeo-Christian) religious traditions and world mythologies. From the ever-present rites of passage in its origin story films to the recent phases' embracing the concept of villains as shadow-selves of heroes (e.g. Wenwu in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; Loki and Hela in the Thor franchise; Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; Erik "Kilmonger" Stevens in Black Panther; and Adrian Toomes/The Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming), the cinematic and television output of the MCU opens itself up to analysis and interpretation-- or reinterpretation-- as modern myth. Heck, there's even a book devoted to examining the MCU's pantheon of heroes and their stories through a mythic and religious tradition lens. As someone who was once a slight mythology nerd in their tweens and teens, considering the interconnected narratives of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a modern mythos in its own right isn't totally unusual. We've been doing it with the media output of DC Comics for years now; the only difference is that DC unabashedly embraced the mythologies and religious traditions that have inspired their most famous characters and beloved stories. One of the reasons why I was really excited for Eternals was because it finally embraced the classical myths that Marvel Studios has indirectly referenced for so long. Moreover, the comics that inspired Eternals was clearly shaped by Greco-Roman mythology. Created in 1976 by comics titan Jack Kirby, who returned to Marvel following a brief tenure with its Distinguished Competitor (which saw Kirby not only create the New Gods pantheon of characters for the publisher but also one of its most infamous villains: Darkseid), The Eternals comics centered on a group of cosmic super-beings who'd been experimented on by Marvel Comics' resident cosmic, all-powerful entities, the Celestials, five million years in the past. Remember Ego, the feather-haired biological father of Peter Quill/Star-Lord played by the impeccably cool Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? Yeah, he's a Celestial, and those beings created two separate races as a result of their experiments: the Eternals, human-looking, quasi-immortal, and all-powerful beings; and the Deviants, scary, grotesque, and monstrous creatures envious of the Eternals being the apple of the Celestials' eye, attacking them on numerous occasions. Because of the threat the Deviants pose to Earth, the Celestials tasked the Eternals with protecting the planet and its inhabitants from the creatures with their incredible powers. (Fun fact: We've technically already met an Eternal in the MCU: Thanos, who forgoes his "Mad Titan" moniker on the big screen.) Although the Eternals' initial origin story had been retconned (see: Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr.'s 2006 Eternals miniseries), writer-director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland, The Rider) draws from the foundation Kirby set way back in the seventies, one that embraces myth rather than rejects it. Although the unabashed embrace of mythology is enough to set Eternals apart from recent Marvel media, it is Academy Award-winning writer-director Chloe Zhao (Nomadland)'s pivoting away from Marvel's penchant for action and/or CGI-heavy spectacle -- a character trait that yields mixed results for many a Marvel movie and TV show -- to craft a film that attempts to challenge the superhero movie genre and those who love it. In fact, Zhao's film posed such a challenge that Marvel didn't know how to market the film beyond a "cosmic supergroup versus evil alien dogs and a giant evil alien being" adventure. Now that's not to say that this doesn't happen at all in the film. The Eternals do fight visually unappealing evil alien dogs at various points in the movie, but to reduce Eternals to that would be wrong. Working from a script she co-wrote alongside Ryan and Kaz Firpo, Zhao attempts to weave together an epic, cosmic creation myth that introduces audiences to a (very) old guard of powerful deities while grounding them in timeless human dilemmas and questions. Is Eternals entirely successful in that mission? No, but it's not the disasterpiece many pegged it as upon its release. Ultimately, Eternals is a massive, somewhat unwieldy cosmic epic that doubles as both a deconstructionist superhero film and an intimate family drama that risks stretching itself far too thin. Yet, Zhao's film has so much to admire and so much to be vexed by all at once. Richard Madden as Ikaris and Gemma Chan as Sersi in Marvel Studios's Eternals (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 2021) Personally, I think Marvel movies are at their best when they spend time ironing out the relationships and dynamics of the biological and found families at the center of their films. For example, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was particularly compelling because it did not shy away from the messiness of a fractured family struggling to become whole again after a devastating loss. Although it adds deeper cultural layers that can be read as specific to the respective experiences of Asian and Asian American families, at the core of Shang-Chi is an affecting story about how loss and grief can both splinter and reunite a family. Another example is the Guardians of the Galaxy movies; the first film spent a lot of time building the Guardians up as a dysfunctional found family consisting of people with clashing personalities, but Vol. 2 solidified the Guardians as a group whose newfound bonds offer them hope, community, and love in the face of an increasingly isolating and dangerous universe. Moreover, this wacky found family proves to offer Peter Quill the love, acceptance, care, and togetherness that his blood father was incapable of providing him. (After all, Ego may have been his father, but Yondu was his daddy.). In other words, the most interesting parts of Eternals involved scenes where we got to spend some time with the characters as they set out to reunite with one another. Some of them have stuck together -- Sersi and Sprite (Lia McHugh) -- while others have gone their separate ways -- Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani, Stuber), for instance, went on to become a Bollywood film star, while Phastos (Bryan Tyree Henry, Atlanta) has opted for a family life with his loving husband and young son. The film is at its strongest when it lets these characters take center stage and we see how much each of them mean to each other; despite being demigod-like cosmic beings, the Eternals feel like a human family. They have their differences, whether it be frivolous or ideological, yet they need each other and reunite in the face of great adversity. When Zhao turns her attention to the characters struggling with conflicts of faith, duty, love, and humanity, which in turn affects how each of them interact with each other over time, that is when Eternals feels like it belongs in Phase Four. Similar to Shang-Chi, Eternals is in conversation with its fellow Phase Four siblings (e.g. purpose, fate and free will in Loki; duty, brotherhood, and morality in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier; and grief and loss in WandaVision) at times, but it veers away from the beaten path more often than not. On one hand, this isn't the worse aspect about the movie. Personally, I liked that Eternals aims to do something different from what we've seen before from Marvel movies. Far more than previous Marvel movies, Eternals is genuinely (and refreshingly) introspective in its exploration of greater, more weighty questions about purpose, faith, duty, and humanity; in a sense, Zhao is similar to Zack Snyder in her interest in exploring these ideas within the confines of the superhero movie (Unlike Snyder, Zhao isn't pretentious in her line of questioning; you can actually watch this film without feeling condescended to, something I can't say of Snyder's unnecessary cut of Justice League or Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). On the other hand, this curiosity causes Zhao to lose sight of the characters, leading to many of them feeling like character outlines rather than fleshed out individuals. Characters like Sersi, the film's de facto protagonist; Sprite, a youthful Eternal who has grown to despise her quasi-immortality; and Kingo, a handsome movie star who enjoys being in the spotlight rather than being on the sidelines are nothing more but mere sketches. We get inklings of their conflicts, but Zhao doesn't give them enough time to bloom into something more defined. The one character who gets something resembling a character arc is Ikaris (Richard Madden, Bodyguard), and while his conflict is undoubtedly compelling, the character himself is just too bland to be invested in. Madden tries his hardest, but he just can't resonate. As a result, Eternals wastes its incredibly talented cast. Despite their best efforts, the actors are let down by a script that is a bit too ambitious for its own good; the intimate, meditative feel that Zhao's films are known for is both buried under tons of world-building -- a common flaw within the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- and lost to complex concerns regarding the metaphysical. Angelina Jolie as Thena in Marvel Studios' Eternals (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 2021) Because of Zhao's heady ambition (and the divisive reception upon release), I compared this film to The Last Jedi, the second film in Disney's New Era Star Wars trilogy. Now, there's no need to rehash everything about The Last Jedi and writer-director Rian Johnson here (it's been four years; we need to move on), but it's one of those films where I can see why many people loved it-- and why others hated it. Whereas The Force Awakens stuck to the same beats of A New Hope, The Last Jedi feels more experimental. In a way, TLJ functions as a deconstructionist Star Wars film, forcing its audience to ask whether to dispense with the "Chosen One" hero trope with the same nihilistic ease as Old Man Luke Skywalker does when Rey attempts to return his iconic lightsaber to him. Furthermore, Johnson asks the viewer to consider the purpose of Jedis, Sith Lords, orders, empires, rebellions, and resistances in a universe where conflicts between good and evil seem destined to repeat themselves; maybe Luke realized there was no end in sight, internalizing that he failed to accomplish what all great Chosen Ones are supposed to do in epic fictional narratives like Star Wars: bring peace and harmony to a fractured populace. No wonder Luke resigned himself to isolation and despair. Without a doubt, Johnson's film poses some deep, dark, and rather depressing questions about the Chosen One trope, the purpose of mythical narratives, and the double-edged sword of legacy and history (among other things), and, truth be told, no one was prepared for that. Many audiences rejected it, leading to the unsatisfying, J.J. Abrams-directed conclusion, The Rise of Skywalker, a film that capitulated to toxic viewers and went for broke with the fan service. Say what you will about TLJ, but I respect Johnson for denying viewers the creature comforts of a classic Star Wars story; if these mega-franchises are planning to be around for the long haul, then it needs to take a creative risk-- even if the risk doesn't work out in the long run. Something similar happens with Eternals. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for its eye-popping, adventurous tales of good and evil, powerful super-beings engaged in great battles against mad titans, living planets cosplaying as cult action movie icons, and Tony Stark's ex-employees who somehow manage to keep getting their hands on Stark technology and going after Peter Parker as if he's the one who fired them from Stark Industries. But after awhile, this formula gets old; for a bulk of the movie, Eternals smartly resists the "good versus evil" narrative. Instead, Zhao leaves the evil alien dogs in the background and asks her audience to walk with the characters as they question their purpose on Earth, their eternal existance, and their faith in their quasi-God, Arishem the Judge. Marvel movies aren't supposed to be posing heavy questions like this (I mean, Martin Scorsese said so and we have to ride with him because he's an old, rich, white director with enough clout to objectively define what cinema is and what it should do for it to register with him, right?), and maybe that's one of the reasons why audiences weren't on board with it upon release. I say "one of" because Eternals and The Last Jedi suffer from similar flaws. Like The Last Jedi, Eternals is plagued by overly ambitious thematic goals that come at the expense of the characters and the overall narrative. Ultimately, Eternals -- kind of like WandaVision's finale -- devolves into an unsatisfying "good versus evil" face-off, complete with an uninteresting mission to stop some giant, ancient evil that threatens to awaken and wipeout earth. This third-act downgrade ultimately squanders the film's earlier compelling ideas surrounding purpose, humanity, faith, love, duty, and fanaticism. Moreover, it feels like all of Zhao's earlier exploits in exploring timeless human dilemmas and questions were all for nothing, a build-up to an unsatisfying finale that ignores the intriguingly complex ideas and potential character dynamics laid out on the table. Eternals frustratingly reminded me that this is a Marvel movie through and through; if it didn't end with some grand battle to save the world from some otherworldly evil then it would have failed its mission. Yet, I'd argue Eternals is at its best when it's unconcerned with such a goal. Although relegated to flashbacks, scenes featuring the Eternals throughout history, surveying human developments -- e.g. creating civilizations, going to war, building technology -- while fighting to eliminate the Deviants were far more interesting. In those scenes, Zhao positions the Eternals as reflections of humanity's complexities and flaws; the Eternals struggle with human religious dilemmas as well as physical and emotional ones, and those struggles influence their family dynamic. When Zhao turns her attention to these concerns, the film is at its strongest but it seems that she struggles to balance her own ambitions for the film with adhering to the Marvel movie checklist. Richard Madden as Ikaris in Marvel Studios' Eternals (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 2021) Eternals is one of the few times where I wish the Marvel movie trope checklist (e.g. the "Bad Dad" villain; the boring, heteronormative romance; the distracting comic relief side character) was abandoned completely. At this point, the constant reliance on those boring tropes (or, at least, a reliance on those tropes without an interest in subverting them or exploring them in-depth) is a constant thorn in the MCU's side, blocking a number of its films and TV shows from tapping into their full potential and being something more. When Zhao pushes against a clear-cut vision of morality, the Marvel movie checklist demands she returns to it for the final act. When we see the Eternals live human lives and grapple with emotions, feelings, and questions that drive them to question or acknowledge their very human impulses, Marvel seemingly asks Zhao to abandon all of that... because that's not what audiences want to see. And, to be fair, superhero/comic book movies typically offer audiences escapist fantasies, not grand treatises on timeless dilemmas and questions that have come to define the human experience as we know and/or understand it. I get that that's not Marvel's jam; what I take issue with is how Eternals seems unsure of its vision. Returning to The Last Jedi, Eternals has its mind on bigger things but struggles with how to explore them within the confines of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, which is supposed to serve as part of a larger storytelling tapestry. To dive so far into the philosophical and metaphysical means alienating viewers who want spectacle and humor; to lean too much into spectacle and humor means leaving viewers with the feeling that this Marvel movie is quite emptier than previous ones. Eternals has an idea of what it wants to do and what it wants to be, but cannot seem to bring such a weighty, layered vision together. Unfortunately, Eternals feels like its overstuffed and empty all at the same time. Zhao wants to spin a larger creation myth at play here and I'm here for it, but a movie wasn't the best medium for that. I wish that Marvel and Disney gave a greenlight to a TV show about the Eternals, a ten-episode miniseries that focuses on each character and how their smaller struggles build up to a greater conflict would have been an amazing watch. It also would have given each of its actors an opportunity to shine bright rather than function as empty vessels for (sadly) surface-level explorations into faith, morality, love, duty, family, honor, and purpose. Again, much like The Last Jedi, Eternals runs headfirst into the reinforced iron walls of the Marvel movie formula and concussed itself. There was potential for Eternals to not only be a tale akin to grand but human stories about the Greek and Roman gods, but also to be an intimate and thoughtful drama that explored the complex dynamics of a sweet, strange, and messy blended family. I admire the massive ambitions Zhao had for the film; this is one of the rare times a Marvel movie actually felt like a modern mythological epic, and I appreciated that as a slight mythology nerd. However, pursuing those lofty ambitions came at the expense of fleshing out a potentially compelling story and a set of intriguing characters who are probably some of the most human-like characters the MCU has introduced into its grand narrative thus far. Again, I don't think Eternals is one of the worse films Marvel Studios has put out (I could tell you which films I think are some of the worst in the MCU, but we ain't having that conversation right now...), but it's definitely one of its most frustratingly ambitious ones-- and I appreciate that. I'd like for Marvel to put out more films like this. I hope the next time Zhao reunites with her Eternals the journey is a smoother one. Extra Credit Richard Madden as Ikaris and Gemma Chan as Sersi in Marvel Studios's Eternals (Courtesy of Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | 2021) Although I did not touch on this as much here, I wanted to point you in the direction of a very interesting article by sociologist and author Nancy Wang Yuen (@nancywyuen on Twitter and Instagram). In "We Need More Asian Women Superheroes," Yuen dives into the depiction of Gemma Chan's Sersi and how her character feeds into existing historical stereotypes surrounding female Asian characters in Hollywood films, which, in turn, brings Yuen back to the larger conversation of marginalizing Asian women superheroes on the big screen. I hate to sound like a broken record but representation matters. Asian women and girls deserve to see themselves reflected as varied and substantive rather than monolithic. Yuen's words on the subject are worth reading. This Blerd is Online!
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