The Mycenaean

Overview

The Eternals starts in 5000 B. C. with a group of 10 heroes who call themselves the Eternals. They travel to Earth to fight the deviants — a group of monsters hunting humans. 

From there, the movie jumps forward to the present day. Instead of staying together, now, all the heroes have gone their separate ways.

The movie goes from there to explain their past in a series of flashbacks that jump forward each time. They span from the height of Babylon to the bombing of Hiroshima. And in the present-day sections, the movie follows Sersi (the eternal who can transform matter) as she deals with a resurgent of deviants and collects the other Eternals along the way. 

However, quickly it is revealed that the deviants are not the only problem our heroes face. When Sersi, Sprite (power to create illusions), and Ikaris (flight and laser beams) go to find Ajak, their leader, they discover she is dead. From there, Sersi realizes Ajak had been hiding the Eternals’ true purpose — to get Earth to the point where Arishem (their celestial boss) can kill all humans and use their intelligence to create a new celestial. 

From this point on, the rest of the movie follows the Eternals as they try to stop the impending death of the entire planet. 

Review

The Eternals could have easily been one of the better MCU movies with A-lister actors and a promising plotline. Instead, the movie failed on all fronts.

Plot? 

I can sum the problem with this movie up in two words: too much. There was way too much going on for a decent plot to be possible. The writers tried to discuss the Eternals’ past, have them fight the deviants, save the world, fight among themselves, and deal with Sersi’s new human boyfriend. 

That sounds like a lot because it is a lot. None of these plot lines got enough attention, and how could they? The Eternals have a run time of 2 hours 37 minutes. That would never be enough time to fit everything they wanted to in. 

The plot was simply too much. The movie needed to have a central focus, something to carry through the entire film. 

If they had done a quick summary of their past in the beginning, either fight the deviants or save the world, and gotten rid of Sersi’s boyfriend, The Eternals would have made a lot more sense and been a much better movie.

Characters?

The characters had the same problem as the plot. There was too much. Or, in this case, too many. 

There are ten Eternals plus all the side characters they bring with them. To include the basic biographical details and personality traits of all the characters, the movie had to sacrifice their character development. The Eternals is not Marvel’s first movie with a big cast, and they succeeded in those. What they did wrong with The Eternals was try to introduce them all in one movie.