Marvel’s latest superhero movie Eternals had a glittering world premiere at Los Angeles on Monday. With the entire cast and crew walking down the red carpet, it was one of the biggest events from Marvel Studios this year.
Directed by Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao, Eternals stars Angelina Jolie as Thena, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Gemma Chan as Sersi, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, Barry Keoghan as Druig, and Kit Harington as Dane Whitman. Harish Patel, who is also a part of the film, was not seen at the event.
Being touted to be a quantum shift for the MCU, Eternals boasts of one of the most diverse casts we’ve seen in any Marvel movie till date.
At the world premiere, Angelina Jolie arrived with her five kids – Maddox, Vivienne, Knox, Shiloh and Zahara. Speaking about the diversity, she told Reuters, “I hope it just starts to normalize what should have been there in the first place. I hope people watch these films in years to come and we don’t even think about it as being diverse, it just becomes what’s normal and what’s right, and what’s appropriate representation of the world we live in.”
At the world premiere, Angelina Jolie arrived with her five kids – Maddox, Vivienne, Knox, Shiloh and Zahara. Speaking about the diversity, she told Reuters, “I hope it just starts to normalize what should have been there in the first place. I hope people watch these films in years to come and we don’t even think about it as being diverse, it just becomes what’s normal and what’s right, and what’s appropriate representation of the world we live in.”
Eternals is set to introduce a team of ten new superheroes into the MCU, who’ve lived on Earth and secretly guided humanity for 7,000 years, just that they kept away from human conflicts. While Thena is the cousin of Thanos, the film also features Marvel’s first deaf character in Makkari.
Chloe , who won an Oscar each for best director and best picture for the film Nomadland earlier this year also told Reuters, “It’s got a different tone, visually it’s going to be quite different. Obviously the cast is huge and it spans 7,000 years so it’s really an epic story. One of the themes of the film is connection, connection to one another, connection to earth. I hope that resonates with people in some way.”
The first reviews for Eternals are also coming in. While Fandango’s Erik Davis called the film as “spectacularly weird and rich,” Aaron Couch from Hollywood Reporter described it as “the most different of any of Marvel’s films.”
For Courtney Howard from Variety, Eternals’ cinematography turns the spotlight on the “characters’ humanity.”
Slashfilm.com’s Peter Sciretta called Eternals “dense” on the lines of a DC film. “eternals is surprising, epic, beautiful yet dense. It takes some big swings, sometimes feels like a DC film (not a criticism), other times feels like no other superhero movie ever. I wish I had a glowing quick reaction to offer you but I’m left with more complex thoughts,” he tweeted.
Scott Mendelson from Forbes opined that Eternals “flirts with being just a superhero movie.” He added that “at its best, it almost plays like Marvel playing in the DCEU sandbox but coasting on comparatively generic superhero archetypes.”