'Eternals' actor Ma Dong-seok to star in apocalyptic sci-fi K-drama about giant bugs

Director Chloé Zhao applies her distinctive aesthetic imprint to "Eternals," but she can only practice so much to bend the Marvel Cinematic Universe to her will. The consequence is a blockbuster of unusual gentle beauty that as well strains to fulfill the gargantuan requirements of a massive action spectacle.

It is, in curt, a bit of a mess. It is besides—and I cannot stress this enough—2 hours and 37 minutes long. And however considering the talented, eclectic cast is so enormous and and then much globe-building must occur, "Eternals" ultimately feels rushed and unsatisfying. The mythology here is both dense and oftentimes light-headed, with the moving picture grinding to a halt around the one-hour mark for an extensive data dump. Past the end, you may nevertheless be unclear as to what's going on, just you also may not care.

Zhao, the newly minted Academy Honor winner for All-time Pic and Director for the spare and intimate "Nomadland," does offering a peachy deal of her signature style, though. For those of yous who establish the option of Zhao a fascinating one and wondered what her version of the MCU might wait like, you'll be happy to acquire she manages to find magic hour wherever she goes, from a breezy dusk on the shores of ancient Babylon to ominous storm clouds gathering on the plains of present-day South Dakota. Working with cinematographer Ben Davis, who also shot "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Doctor Foreign," and "Captain Marvel," she consistently provides opportunities to permit usa slow down, take a breath, and bask a moment of naturalism and stillness. Y'all can feel the sunbaked oestrus of the windy Australian outback. An action scene set in a torch-lit forest at nighttime is especially stunning.

Unfortunately, they don't last long. Because there is a large, noisy comic book beast to feed.

Zhao and her fellow screenwriters Patrick Burleigh and Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo lurch effectually in time in an ungainly manner to tell the story of a group of immortal beings living secretly on Globe. Each has his or her own specific abilities only, collectively, they share the quippy humor that's become so typical in Marvel movies. The casting and characteristics on brandish hither are revolutionary and, at first, crusade for inspiration that we might be in for something totally different. At that place's a natural multifariousness at work in ways we haven't seen from the Avengers, for example. From the leadership of Salma Hayek's Ajak and Gemma Chan'southward Sersi to Brian Tyree Henry and Haaz Sleiman as a gay couple with a young son to Lauren Ridloff's Makkari, whose hearing impairment is her superpower—the inclusive nature of "Eternals" feels both exciting and effortless. Angelina Jolie's Thena is a ferocious warrior who also suffers from mental illness, which the motion-picture show handles sensitively. Conversely, Lia McHugh livens things upwards as the androgynous, forever-immature Sprite.

Perhaps nigh hit of all, two characters have actual sex activity, which is unprecedented and long overdue in a cinematic world where everyone is super-hot and muscular and dressed in form-fitting costumes. The scene is brief, but it accomplishes so much to point a deeper and more vulnerable sense of humanity in these comic volume figures. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts probably did it. Clint Barton definitely did because he had kids. Only almost other romantic relationships have featured beneficial flirting at nigh, so to see these characters behaving like grown people in this manner is still another case of the potential lurking within "Eternals."

There is also a plot, however, which will escape your mind as quickly as it entered. Briefly, the Eternals have scattered across the world in the centuries since they arrived on World in a spaceship that resembles a behemoth, blackness marble Dorito. All along, they've been stealthily guiding humanity and fighting ravenous, sinewy monsters known as Deviants. Just a potentially cataclysmic consequence forces them to leave the comfortable lives they've forged for themselves, reassemble (if you lot'll forgive the word choice) and use their combined superpowers to stop what is essentially the apocalypse. Again! You don't demand to be deeply steeped in Marvel lore in full general or Jack Kirby's trippy comic series specifically to follow "Eternals"; aside from a brief reference to Thanos, and why these heroes didn't step in to terminate the events of "Avengers: Infinity War," this feels more like a standalone picture than about in the MCU. Having said that, of course you lot'll become more out of the movie if you're a fan, and the obligatory end-credit sequences volition mean more to you, too.

Chan'due south Sersi, with her transmutational abilities, and Richard Madden'due south Ikaris, a versatile, Superman-type effigy prominently as centuries-old, on-and-off-again lovers. Charismatic as Madden is, though, Chan enjoys greater sparks with Kit Harington as her mortal, London-based young man, Dane Whitman, who shares Sersi's involvement in archaeology. Whatever emotional stakes may exist between any of these characters somewhen take a back seat to flying around and zapping monsters with heart lasers. You can experience the struggle in trying to juggle it all. And the climactic action caricature is so glossy and cacophonous, it could have been plucked out of whatever number of soulless, sci-fi spectacles over the past decade, smothering all the smaller charms we'd enjoyed along the way.

A newly buff Kumail Nanjiani offers some laughs as a pompous Bollywood star, Don Lee provides a kind presence despite his hulking power, and Barry Keoghan only has to evidence up to make united states experience his unnerving vibe. All of these actors prove they're upwards for the challenge of trying to establish complicated characters within the frenzy of the MCU machinery. Frustratingly, they—and Zhao—can only serve as cogs.

Just in theaters on Nov 5th.