In 1976, after a stint at DC Comics that concluded with the premature cancellation of his New Gods saga, Jack Kirby returned to Marvel. Shortly after, he began work on The Eternals, a new sci-fi epic exploring similar themes but planted vaguely in the Marvel comics universe. Kirby’s Eternals was a grand story that, while delivered with a heavy dose of comic book nonsense, touched on striking ideas about culture, faith, and difference. The book centered on the titular Eternals, a species of super-powered beings living on Earth as the result of interstellar experimentation, finally bringing themselves into the light in time for the return of their celestial creators. Like New Gods before it, Kirby’s story was cut short, but the characters and world established were not gone permanently, most famously being revived by Neil Gaiman in 2006 to explain their absence in the decades past.
Nonetheless, The Eternals are far from Marvel’s most well known characters. It was no surprise that upon the film’s announcement, fans were generally unmoved by the concept of their presence on the big screen. The news that filmmaker Chloé Zhao was to direct the film made a different kind of noise; Zhao, at the time, was a relatively new director who fans feared would be swallowed up by the mechanisms of Marvel’s brand oriented production practices, having only made two incredibly small films at the time of her hiring. In tandem with Eternals’ pre-production, Zhao worked on Nomadland, for which she received the Oscar for Best Picture. This further cemented her place as one of our most exciting new filmmakers and raised expectations for Eternals, while also compounding fears of her voice being stifled.
Zhao’s Eternals begins in a very different place from Kirby’s, opting to introduce its cast as a group of alien heroes sent by the Celestials to protect Earth from a threat known only as Deviants. The most significant change here is the decision to drastically pare down the number of Eternals from a race of thousands to a team of less than a dozen, though the purpose of this becomes clear once the film’s own plot kicks into gear. Following this setup, we are reintroduced to members of the team in the modern day, having lived amongst humanity for millennia, though this is something each member handles slightly differently. At this point, Gemma Chan’s Sersi emerges as the film’s protagonist, now living in London as a museum employee while also serving as de facto guardian of Sprite (Lia McHugh), a member of the team cursed by her childish appearance and inability to age. The film’s main plot begins once a new Deviant, previously thought extinct, attacks the two in London, forcing the team to reconnect.
The bulk of the film splits its time between this modern day plotline and the 7000 years of these characters’ lives that had come before, both to contextualise their place in the modern world and expand on relationships. These shifts are not always perfectly executed and sometimes it is unclear what exactly is being telegraphed until it’s stated outright, but Zhao is incredibly successful in creating the sense of the Eternals as not only a team but a family in a way other superhero films have constantly strived for to little success. Eternals’ superpowered ensemble is treated with the same warm adoration as any of Zhao’s subjects. The film is at its most effective in its quiet moments as we are privileged to watch them not only discover humanity but their own selves. It is also a credit to the screenplay, for which Zhao shares credit with Patrick Burleigh and Ryan and Kaz Firpo, that when these characters bicker and disagree, the point is never just who is right, and it has patience for the audience to understand and engage with that in a way generally absent from these films. The humanist charm of Zhao’s filmmaking is most clearly present in the small story of these aliens finding a home, and watching the time and space this is allowed to take up makes it very hard to argue this is anyone’s film but her’s. It is a credit to her eye and commitment to character that her style translates so seamlessly to a film on a scale this epic.
Where this film falters is in the things it leaves unexplored, largely in terms of how it adapts ideas from Jack Kirby’s original story and later expansions. Kirby’s story, while sillier and much less interested in character, was a striking statement about cultures and the way they interact with one another, something furthered by the role of Celestials as almost religious figures, judging all of Earth’s residents equally and challenging them to find some commonality. Chloe Zhao’s film largely foregoes these ideas, opting instead to frame its heroes quite poetically as a group of nomads, divorced from their home as much as the place they now find themselves. This makes for a powerful story in its own right but this particular focus comes into conflict with the source material as the film attempts to marry its cosmic and grounded halves. The Deviants, originally an entire society of sentient beings with their own culture and lives, are rendered mindless animals while the Celestial Arishem is stripped of his thematic role as a unifier and never provided any greater purpose. Zhao’s Eternals have no culture of their own and though it is immensely satisfying to watch them become part of ours, it is a tension with the source material that the film never quite shakes. Similarly, while Kirby’s Eternals is framed through the eyes of young archeologist Margo Damian, this film’s supporting human characters are unfortunately largely reserved for the purpose of comedy, though Harish Patel’s Karun has some sweet moments. While perhaps not needing a character to whom everything is explained, its thematic ideas might play better if there was a more active human presence in its story, as its conversations about the value and purpose of human life often play somewhat theoretical when they should be absolutely personal.
Since James Marsden first donned a black leather jumpsuit, superhero movies have been criticised for having expansive casts of forgettable characters. With a large scale ensemble piece like Eternals, it is hard not to assume this concern was on its filmmakers’ minds. The film goes to incredible lengths to make sure we know each character’s name, powers, and general vibes, but this would all be for naught if not for a collection of hugely striking performances. While maybe not the highest of bars, Eternals features some of the most effective acting in the franchise, advantaged by a sense that this cast really knew what each scene meant to their characters in a way that these studio blockbusters can regularly forget in service of turning the gears of the A-to-B plot. It’s hard to label anyone the standout when this cast works so well together, providing a level of intimacy and reality that makes the film immediately more effective than many of Marvel Studios’ recent offerings. It feels like watching real people, which is no mean feat for a film about unstoppable space gods.
The imagery of Eternals is fascinating in that Chloe Zhao, instead of simply bending to any sort of Marvel house style, meets it head on. There are moments that feel familiar, where the film almost falls into the pattern of back-to-back mid-shots, but it never rests in this comfort zone as other indie filmmakers recruited by Marvel have. Scenes are constantly moving and there is no trace of the staticness present in other blockbusters clearly shot to be directed in the editing booth. The film has quiet moments captured with an almost documentary sense of spontaneity, but even in its grandest scenes, there is an energy that would be impossible to strip out. Zhao spoke following the film’s release about what it owes to manga and this might be the first time you can actually see an MCU director’s touted influences in the finished film. What is equally exciting is the way she engages with the superhero genre itself; the concept of superheroes as mythic figures is baked into Kirby’s story but it’s something handled here with real thought, especially in how the Eternals are framed when they are first introduced versus when we are welcomed into their real lives. One really interesting part of the film is the character of Ikaris (Richard Madden), initially a pretty blank slate in earlier stories who is here used as a proxy to engage with Superman as the archetypal superhero, something Madden and Zhao play with really effectively and I’d like to believe Zack Snyder fans can especially appreciate.
Both Chloe Zhao and Jack Kirby’s Eternals exist in a similar kind of limbo, attached to a larger world by corporate necessity but wholly content with doing their own thing while not demanding the endorsement of any existing name. Both works are similarly hindered by that presumed necessity; while Kirby’s Eternals was cancelled before its time, Zhao’s is hampered most heavily by its place as a part of the MCU brand. Nonetheless, like its characters, its success exists in the choice not to take the easy route, to be another stop on a tour of the universe with no real connections made or feelings felt. While Eternals might not be the smash hit Marvel Studios were expecting, in a year of stopgaps and false starts from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at the very least it feels like something real.
