“Eternals” has good world-building, slow pace

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Photo via Marvel Studios

“Eternals” was released on Nov. 5, and it offers a fresh take on the format of Marvel movies. The movie brings a whole new scale to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not only by expanding the world, but also the characters. 

The film starts off with the Eternals, God-like aliens, arriving on Earth; their main goal is to protect all humans against the Deviants, an alien species trying to eliminate humans. While their goals seem to be heroically motivated, there’s something more lying beneath the surface of the mission they believe in. 

The characters carried the movie with banter between one another, which was one of the most enjoyable parts of the film. Cersei (Gemma Chan) provided a lot of the heart to the film as well by being the one to bring the Eternals to Earth. Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) and Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) both brought a lot of humor to the cast, which allowed the plot to breathe and take its time.

The movie flashes back and forth, giving more depth to the characters and showing how they have changed throughout the 7,000 years they’ve been on Earth. Though this does slow the movie down to the point of boredom, it allows the movie to show the development of each character.

Going into the theater, I didn’t have high expectations for the film because it didn’t seem the most interesting to me, mainly because I couldn’t see how the plot could be done in an interesting way. Everything from the trailers to the plot didn’t seem like it would work with this film seeming so disconnected from other movies in the series.

As the movie started, I was surprised at how well they built up this new perspective on a universe everyone knows so well. Additionally, showing the Eternals’ reaction to events that happened within the Marvel Cinematic Universe was refreshing. 

With the MCU becoming bigger than ever, this movie used its opportunity to try something new. While for some, this movie felt slow and dragged out, “Eternals” leaves its mark by being refreshing relative to other Marvel movies. Fans looking for a more character driven story should check this movie out.