After the September release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the October release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Marvel released another movie for the month of November. Introducing the newest super team in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Eternals, ancient aliens who have been secretly living as humans on planet Earth for thousands and thousands of years.
Released to theaters on November 5th, 2021, director Chloé Zhao, brought together an exciting cast with stars such as Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, and much more. The movie runs for two hours and thirty-seven minutes, and the group was assigned to protect Earth from the villains known as Deviants. If you have watched Guardians of the Galaxy before, then you may be familiar with the term Celestials. Celestials are known as these cosmic beings that were the first form of existence in the MCU universe. With the movie, Eternals, it showcases the beginning of the Marvel universe timeline.
Who is in this group of Eternals and what do they do?
- Sersi (Gemma Chan) – the power to change a molecular structure or matter of an object.
- Sprite (Lia McHugh) – creates clones or illusions of whoever she knows, although she is thousands and thousands of years old like the others, her appearance compares to a child.
- Gilgamesh (Don Lee) – the toughest Eternal as he super strength, can fly, and manipulate matter.
- Makkari (Lauren Ridloff) – relating to the DC hero Flash, she has super speed and what is unique about her from the movie, she is the first MCU deaf superhero.
- Druig (Barry Keoghan) – the power to control other people’s minds.
- Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) – with his hands, he has the power to manipulate energy.
- Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry) – the brains of the whole group, he has the power to assemble or create anything he can think of.
- Thena (Angelina Jolie) – relating to the goddess of war, she has the power to create various weapons and uses them to her ability to fight enemies.
- Ajak (Salma Hayek) – the ring leader of the group, she has the power to heal others and is the only one who can speak to the Celestials.
- Ikaris (Richard Madden) – the power to fly and shoot lasers/beams out of his eyes.
These immortal aliens are not from Earth as they are from the planet Olympia and have been living on Earth for about 7,000 years. Throughout the movie, we see this group traveling through history from Ancient Mesopotamia to Babylon, without affecting it their powers of course. After an argument struck out with Ajak and Druig, the group is allowed to go anywhere on Earth as long as they protect and look out for Deviants. Spoiler, spoiler! The death of one of the Eternals gets revealed to the group where they all have to reunite and the story goes on from there.
There won’t be too much revealed about this movie as it is almost three hours long, so there would be a lot of ground to cover. However, I do recommend watching this movie. Many critics have mixed reviews about it but if you are a huge Marvel fan, take some time out of your day, grab a blanket, some food, and go watch this movie. Personally, with Marvel’s Phase four, Shang-Chi ranks number one for me as of now. In order to prepare for this movie, you can watch almost all the Marvel movies, or specifically both Guardians of the Galaxies movies, Captain American: The Winter Soldier, Avengers Infinity War, and Avengers Endgame.