Movie Review: The Eternals

My family and I went to see The Eternals this evening. The Eternals is the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It reminded me of The Black Widow; It was good rather than great. The special effects were wonderfully done. There was lots of action, the actors and the characters they played were interesting. No disrespect to director Chloé Zhao nor scriptwriters Chloé Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, Ryan Firpo, and Kaz Firpo, but I had trouble following the plot. However, I have minor brain damage which affects my ability to focus on the plot of a movie or novel.

Rule of thumb: worry if the first thing praised in the review of a SFFH movie is the special effects rather than the plot or the performances.

I had to run to the “necessary room” before the movie started, so I missed most of the trailer for Morbius. I did see the trailers for the remake of West Side Srory. I’ve been aware of this for months (I write for SciFi.radio, thus I sometimes hear things before the general public.) But I still can’t believe that Steven Spielberg of all people is doing/has done a remake of West Side Story. There were also trailers for Disney’s Encanto and the tennis movie King Richard.

The main character was Sersei, whom I disliked in the comic books. In centuries past she was known as Circe, yes the one who turned Odyesseus’ men into pigs. The greatest warrior of the Eternals is Thena, who in ancient times was known as Athena, goddess of War and Wisdom. One of them was Icarus, of whom you may have heard tell.

In the movie. the Eternals were sent to Earth centuries ago to protect the Earth and its people. (Or so they believe.) They did not fight Thanos nor Loki’s Chitauri because they have their own version of Starfleet’s Prime Directive. They must leave humanity free to earn their own destiny. As a parent knows, you want to protect your children from everything, but if you don’t let them skin their knees a few times, to make mistakes and learn from them, you’re doing your kids a disservice. (This has been my biggest mistake as a mother.)

I will add more to this review tomorrow when I figure out how to do so without spoilers.