In one of Marvel Studio’s most recent introductions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Eternals asks the question “What does it mean to be human?” Eternals follows a group of immortal heroes from beyond the stars who came to Earth long ago and have protected humans since the dawn of man from creatures called Deviants.
Eternals met with criticism from some MCU fans
The film Eternals has been met with some criticism from MCU fans. Well, let’s just say it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Which is perfectly fine! You’re allowed to enjoy and to not enjoy things and sometimes too much of anything can be bad for the consumer. We live in a world where superhero movies are in the mainstream and people are learning very quickly exactly how many comic book properties there are. Spoiler alert, there’s a whole lot of them.
I’m part of the population of geeks who loves The Eternals. From the trippy art to the esoteric stories that weave real human history in the comics and how the Eternals and the Celestials shaped all of the superpowered beings we’ve grown to love. I also enjoyed the film, Marvel’s The Eternals and how it adapts the now-classic Neil Gaiman Eternals adaptation. There were some changes made, of course, however, they didn’t take away from the story that was being told on screen.
Now, this article is not a critique of The Eternals film. My opinion of the film was that it was good, however, it would’ve been way better if it were either a television series where we could get to know the multiple characters in the film or if it were made with fewer characters. Otherwise, I was very much entertained with the only team in the MCU that has matching uniforms. Was it the best film in the MCU, probably not, but it’s nowhere near the worst.
What it means to be Human
What I did notice after a few times of watching this movie, let’s be honest, none of us has sat through The Eternals only once if you’re really trying to figure out what is going on. I think it was the third time I was watching and I found a theme that got me hooked into The Eternals: I started asking myself “is this movie trying to get me to see what it means to be human?” And the answer was yes.
The main plot of Eternals is this: Arishem, a Celestial, created the Eternals in order to keep the Deviants in check so they don’t lower the human population of a planet so low that another Celestial can’t be born. Celestials are born by using the transfer of energy from intelligent life, a.k.a humans. The Eternals find out that they were also created by Arishem and born as part of Arishem’s plan to bring forth the birth of a celestial by sacrificing human life. And that they, The Eternals, are not humans or technically living, but they are actually synthetic beings who’ve lived for millions of years. And have repeated the same cycle of destruction from planet to planet. Having their memories erased before arriving at a new planet. Only since the Eternals’ arrival on Earth did they start to become attached to humankind, thus making some of them go against what they were built to do.
You see this attachment to humankind in a few sequences in the movies, Phastos wants to help humans develop their technology, something he regrets when he seemingly steers them into the direction of the atomic bomb. Sprite wants to grow up and experience true adulthood despite being thousands upon thousands of years old. Kingo becomes a fourth-generation Bollywood star (side note, that sequence actually kickstarted my current Bollywood obsession.) Sersi becomes a teacher and is stated in the film that she’s loved mankind from the day the Eternals landed in Mesopotamia.
But what does this all mean? What exactly does being human mean? Everyone reading this has their own experiences, their own goals and aspirations, their own likes and dislikes, their own talents and weaknesses. We all have different traits that bind us to our friends, our families, and our communities. We all make our own choices.
The reason why the Eternals is a film about what it means to be human is that each of the Eternals, in one way or another, thrives when they are allowed to make their own choices. On the flip side, each of the Eternals also goes through the consequences of not making a choice. The best two examples of this are Druig and Ikaris.
Druig is the first Eternal to question why they do what they do. As a matter of fact, he’s the one who sparks the split of the Eternals and goes on to live for 20 generations on a thriving community hidden in the Amazon after the conquest of the Spanish in South America. Ikaris was the catalyst that brought the Eternals back together by making the choice to kill Ajak in order to fulfill his mission. We all know or we all have been people like Druig, who questions blind authority, or like Ikaris who just goes along with the plan because it’s what he’s supposed to do.
Throughout the Eternals film, we see little bits of how fascinated the Eternals are with mankind. How we’ve evolved, how we’ve grown to be so different yet fundamentally the same. How diverse we’ve become as a society yet how some within these same societies rebel against diversity. The Eternals show us how we’ve adapted and how we’ve thrived as human beings. Eternals is a film that is served as a mirror to what it is to be human and a lot of humans didn’t like their reflection in that mirror.
Marvel Studios’ Eternals is currently on all major digital platforms and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on February 15.
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