The latest set of superheroes to be added to the Marvel pantheon are aptly godlike. The Eternals – 10 of them for the purpose of the new movie and more as promised by the mid-credits and post-credits sequences – have protected humankind for millennia. Babylon, Hiroshima and even the Gupta period: the Eternals have been present through good times and bad, keeping a balance between humankind, their own creators known as the Celestials, and the malevolent aliens known as the Deviants. A crisis forces the Eternals scattered across the world to reunite and reassess their relationship with the Celestials and their adversaries.
There’s also a touch of Bollywood to the family-above-all-else theme. The 155-minute Eternals has been directed by Chloe Zhao, beaming herself into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after an Oscar for the gritty road movie Nomadland. Zhao, who is also among the several writers, can possibly be credited for the multi-ethnic cast, the prominence given to female characters, the first gay and first deaf Marvel superheroes (the latter played by a deaf actor), and the concerns over genocide and warfare.
But the real honours go to the visual effects and action teams. Good in the showing and poor in the telling, Eternals soars when superhuman abilities are in full flow and sags when the tortuous back story has to be explained (which is frequent).
In the present, an Eternal, Sersi, (Gemma Chan) lives in London posing as a museum curator. She lives with Sprite, (Lia McHugh) another Eternal, and is seeing Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), a colleague at the museum. When they are attacked by a deviant, Sersi decides the Eternals should get back together to fight the threat.
Eternals is inclusive, with its first gay superhero in gadget guru Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) and first deaf superhero in Makkari (Lauren Ridloff). In Sersi, we have a female superhero who goes beyond spandex, thigh-high boots and a bustier. Sersi is powerful and vulnerable in love. This is also the first MCU movie to have a sex scene between Sersi and the uber powerful Eternal, Ikaris, (Richard Madden, continues to be unlucky in love, from his Bodyguard days).
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Salma Hayek plays a gender-switched Ajak, the leader of the Eternals while Angelina Jolie is Thena who can create glittering weapons out of cosmic energy—she dropped the ‘A’ somewhere in the 7000 years of hanging out on earth. Kumail Nanjiani has the most fun as Kingo, a Bollywood actor, while Harish Patel nails it as his valet/manager Karun.
Druig (Barry Keoghan) who is nifty with mind control and the superstrong Gilgamesh (Don Lee) complete the merry band. While the movie is grand and philosophical, with eye-popping spectacle and deep thought, at some stages of the movie, one wishes it got a move on. The cement-slow pace and exposition that just went on and on was a test of patience.
However, it was nice to listen to Pink Floyd’s ‘Time’ and hear Nanjiani say ‘dishoom’. For all its faults, Eternals is majestic and operatic enough to ensure you are not frittering away the 157 minutes in an offhand way, especially if you are tired of staying home to watch the rain.
Eternals is currently running in theatres.
