{"id":23785,"date":"2021-11-03T15:07:58","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T22:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=23785"},"modified":"2021-11-03T15:07:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T22:07:58","slug":"eternals-looks-spectacular-but-feels-sluggish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=23785","title":{"rendered":"ETERNALS Looks Spectacular, But Feels Sluggish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This feature from Disney\/Marvel Studios is being released exclusively at movie theaters on November 5th<\/sup>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics can be awfully fussy, myself included. While many just see going to the movies as a way to escapism for a couple of hours, our job is to determine what goals are being attempted in a movie and then determine how successful is at achieving its mission. Eternals<\/em> is the latest Marvel Studios comic book adaptation to hit the big screen. It\u2019s a polished and beautiful-looking movie that will find plenty of supporters. However, more pernickety viewers such as myself will find something lacking in the final product, which I believe can be mainly attributed to one specific facet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This title follows a group of secret immortal aliens from\nanother world who arrived on Earth thousands of years ago. We learn they were\nsent to protect humanity from evil monsters known as Deviants. For a time, they\nlived on Mount Olympus and inspired the Greek Gods of legend, but disappeared\nafter finishing the creatures off. Ordered not to get involved in human struggles,\nthey have stayed hidden for centuries. Sersi (Gemma Chan) is one of these\nEternals, now working in London as a historian. When Deviants appear again and\nbegin slaying members of the team, she and other Eternals like Sprite (Lia\nMcHugh), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Ajak (Salma Hayek), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Kingo\n(Kumail Nanjiani), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Druig\n(Barry Keoghan) and Gilgamesh (Don Lee) are reunited. Then, a massive threat to\nthe planet called the \u201cEmergence\u201d is revealed, leaving Sersi and the others to\ndecide whether to step in and save the planet or let it be destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are even more characters and subplots involved than in\nthe summary above, including a love triangle between Sersi, co-worker Dane\nWhitman (Kit Harington) and Ikaris. It\u2019s all a bit silly and overstuffed, but\nat least the story does allow for some unique introspection with a few of the\nEternals. Between the hokier moments, a few of the supernatural leads must come\nto terms with being immortal, not fitting in with humanity and witnessing\nhorrific acts over the centuries. Some shy away from the public, while others\ntry to embrace some aspects of life of Earth. This allows the movie to occasionally\naddress how some heroes might not initially feel compelled to help planet\nEarth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photography is top notch, with images of the universe, enormous spaceships and giant otherworldly beings looking appropriately epic and spectacular. The effects work is also impressive and the choreography as each individual superhero displays their gifts early on is attractive. There are some gorgeous shots in the film and even though the final act separates the protagonists from the average humans they\u2019re supposed to be looking out for, the grand scale does detail just how devastating things will get if the heroes aren\u2019t victorious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, what is this reviewer going to gripe about? While it all\nlooks very impressive, the action is curiously flat during the fight scenes. When\nthe Eternals are doing battle and showing off elaborate moves, it all looks\nslower than it should. Scene after scene unfolds with the same effect and this\nreviewer believes that the issue is the editing itself. Thrusts or elaborate\nmaneuvers are frequently completed before the camera cuts to the following\nshot. It may not seem significant, but images hang onscreen for too long and an\nextra frame or two passes between a lunge and its result on the enemy. When the\ncuts don\u2019t occur on movement, there\u2019s a stagger in the process that makes\nthings feel sluggish. As a result, moments that should be exciting and dynamic\ndon\u2019t have the impact they should. And even the occasional reaction shot is\nprotracted, resulting in dead air during exposition scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This comic book feature has a fine cast with individual\ncharacters who will go on to more thrilling escapades. It has plenty of great\nindividual images and is a reasonable superhero flick. However, some of the editing\nchoices work against the film, literally lessening the excitement and impact of\nseeing immortal warriors in combat. For that reason, Eternals<\/em> just doesn\u2019t\nhave the same kind of lasting effect on viewers as other Marvel adaptations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This feature from Disney\/Marvel Studios is being released exclusively at movie theaters on November 5th. Critics can be awfully fussy, myself included. While many just see going to the movies as a way to escapism for a couple of hours, our job is to determine what goals are being attempted in a movie and then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[206,697,1429,2317,3508,4668,4669,5922,6068,7081,7082,7083,7084,8150,11835,11930,12156,12322,13333,13341,17006,17543,19366],"class_list":["post-23785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-206","tag-action","tag-angelina-jolie","tag-barry-keoghan","tag-brian-tyree-henry","tag-comic-book","tag-comic-book-adaptation","tag-disney","tag-don-lee","tag-eternals","tag-eternals-film-review","tag-eternals-movie-review","tag-eternals-review","tag-gemma-chan","tag-kit-harington","tag-kumail-nanjiani","tag-lauren-ridloff","tag-lia-mchugh","tag-marvel","tag-marvel-universe","tag-richard-madden","tag-salma-hayek","tag-superheroes"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}