Marvel’s many ‘phases’ of shared-universe storytelling feel pretty eternal at this point. Shang-Chi is barely out of cinemas after a stunning nine weeks atop the Aussie box office, and we’re already building up some hype over the next Spidey flick.
Against those big names, Kingo, Druig, and Sersi might seem like nobodies. But together, as Marvel’s Eternals, they’re unbeatable. Eternals is now playing in cinemas around Australia, and you can find a session time at a cinema near you right here.
Nomadland director Chloé Zhao brings grace and gravitas to the crowded superhero landscape, tackling this mega project right after her far smaller drama earned Best Picture and Best Director Oscars.
The film’s final trailer seems to put the director’s favourite visual themes up front: dusty, sweeping landscapes, grown-up found families, a horse bounding towards a frontier home. But there’s a bunch of cosmic CGI whooshing around, too, and a cast of chiselled stars shooting energy out of their hands and eyes and who knows where else.
That cast includes Gemma Chan, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Brian Tyree-Henry, Ma Dong Seok, Kumail Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie, Barry Keoghan. Wow!
Unfortunately, according to our critic Travis Johnson’s disappointed review, the film fails to make the most of such a stellar line-up: “Even on the interpersonal level, Eternals doesn’t work. These characters have almost no chemistry with each other.”
Who needs chemistry when you have a big honkin’ budget and legions of fans, ready to figure out how Sprite and Ikaris might party with Scarlet Witch in some upcoming MCU project?? Make up your own mind in an Australian cinema near you; Eternals may be best witnessed in a room full of wide-eyed believers.
