by Nathaniel R
Gemma Chan gets top billing (!!!) in "The Eternals"We had a full year off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to COVID-19. But they're about to kick off their next long run towards, presumably, another epic decade-in-the-making event like "Avengers: Endgame". We don't yet know which narratives will be instrumental in that build-up but we do know that the MCU is taking a turn towards the magical, the mutant, and the outerspace, with a lot of sorcerers and aliens and outer space adventures upcoming. The Eternals aren't exactly aliens, but close enough, as they are otherworldly in their powers and temperament and have been living undetected amongst humans for centuries.
Let's Yes No and Maybe So ™ the new trailer after the jump...
YES
- "The End of the World" song to open and close the trailer it nicely moody and unexpected... like more vintage / contemplative than we'd usually see in a superhero movie.
- Love Gemma Chan (so great on Humans and so gorg in Crazy Rich Asians) and her romantic pairing here with Richard Madden is just beauty x beauty. Yum. It's fun that she's top billed too (it's not in alphabetical order) indicating that she's actually the focal point.
- Angelina Jolie, who has rarely seemed entirely human but always oversized like a cartoon (mostly in a very good way), feels like ideal casting for a genetically experimented upon immortal human-like entity. Since she's not first billed (as per usual) she's last with the honorable "and Angelina Jolie"
- The visual fx work looks pleasingly subtle
- The cast diversity in nationality and race is a great look (though they don't have much diversity in terms of superpowers so this isn't The Avengers. In the comics most have them have energy powers, super strength, can fly and teleport, and are immortal hence the name.)
If you aren't familiar with The Eternals (and who is really without research since they aren't "A" list characters) they go like so with a few of them flipped from male-to-female for better gender parity...
from left to right:
- "Kingo" (Oscar & Emmy nominee Kumail Nanjiani) This character gives Marvel their first opportunity to have a big musical number. Will they take it? Or is what you see in the trailer the only peek at that we'll get (In the comics this character was a Japanese film star and he's adjusted here to be a Bollywood film star)
- "Makkari" (Tony nominee Lauren Ridloff) - Marvel's first deaf superhero. The character was originally male and in a relationship with Sersi
- "Gilgamesh" (Korean movie star Ma Dong-Seok... who is apparently going to credited as "Don Lee" as he moves into English language pictures) - One of South Korea's best character actors. If you haven't seen him in The Gangster The Cop The Devil or Train to Busan you must!
- "Thena" (Oscar winner/superstar Angelina Jolie)
- "Ikaris" (Richard Madden)
- "Ajak" (Oscar nominee Salma Hayek)
- "Sersi" (Gemma Chan)
- "Sprite" (Lia McHugh)
- "Phastos" (Tony & Emmy nominee Brian Tyree Henry) Marvel's first gay hero. His boyfriend will be played by out gay actor Haaz Sleiman (of Nurse Jackie and The Visitor fame) but more on this in the "maybe so" column.
- "Druig" (BAFTA nominee Barry Keoghan)
NO
- That last stinger when they laugh about the notion of Ikaris (Richard Madden) leading the Avengers in Steve Rogers absence is a cringey tonal shift... like it's grafted on per corporated mandate. This makes us worry about what we've always worried about with this movie. How do you make a giant corporate superhero franchise with a brilliant but intimate auteur, who seems like the last person (at least up until know) who'd want to be making big budget sequels all the time.
- True story: we're not big Superman fans and so we weren't that excited about bringing Captain Marvel into the MCU because the more powerful superheroes get the harder it is to build tension around whether or not they can 'beat the bad guy'. This is even a next step up from Captain Marvel's insane "i can blow up an entire space armada without any effort whatsoever just by flying around" power by having a whole team of godlike aliens. What's more even when they die they're simply reborn. How do you build stakes around that? Zzzz
MAYBE SO
- Even if it's a creative failure it'll be interesting to see what Zhao can do with it.
- How far will Marvel really take their new diversity initiative? Supposedly we have our first onscreen gay superhero with Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) but we've all seen over and over again what that means for giant corporations: lip service at best and usually in a way that's utterly inconsequential and blink-and-youll-miss-it with a minor character so that the "offending" scene can be edited out for homophobic countries.
- There are a lot of characters in this film. In addition to the 10 Eternals that we see in the lineup... we also get fine actors like Haaz Sleiman, Kit Harrington, Gil Birmingham and even little Zain Al Rafeea who was so smashing leading the Oscar nominated Capernaum a couple of years ago. That's a lot of people to juggle in one film.
- We'll have to see these visuals in context but even though the internet is raving and it does look like a Zhao picture --or an imitation of one if you're feeling ungenerous -- it also looks curiously flat and even less rich in color than, like, The Rider or Nomadland, which is a pity given that it's a superhero film. Diluted color needs to end as a way to denote seriousness. It's dull! A lot of technicolor films had plenty on their minds.
- We dont get any plot in this trailer so we don't know what this is about but like any group The Eternals have some internal conflicts and also, like any super group, they have evil counterparts, The Deviants. It's possible that Barry Keoghan's character is one of the villains since The Eternals given the trailer's narration beat when he has a closeup. They have a genetic predisposition to go insane at some point. (no really)
- If we don't get a full Bollywood musical number courtesy of Kingo/Nanjiani, we're going to be pissed.
So where are you on this one? High on seeing what Chloe Zhao can do in this most-mainstream-of-mainstream environments or depressed that this is what it's come to or somewhere inbetween?