Eternals director Chloé Zhao talks about the real meaning of the movie. Zhao is the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland, who went from a more low-key, independent filmmaking journey directly into the Marvel movie machine. Eternals stars Richard Madden, Gemma Chan, Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Brian Tyree Henry, Lia McHugh, and Lauren Ridloff, which is part of Marvel's Phase 4 in the MCU.

Based on the comic characters created by Jack Kirby, Eternals focuses on a group of super-powered beings created by the God-like Celestials who are sent to Earth on a mission to guide and protect humanity. There are many metaphorical themes from Kirby's comic that resonate in the film, including the Eternals as models for humanity's gods, as well as their influence over the advancement of human civilization. Their existence is rooted in classic Greek mythology, right down to many of the character names, which bear a strong similarity to their mythological counterparts.

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Zhao talked with Empire about her take on the film's greater meaning, which stems from belief, faith, and dogma when it comes to how the Eternals approach their mission versus their desire to protect humanity. As the Eternals influence life on Earth for thousands of years, their influence becomes overpowering, as does their emotional connection to humanity itself, which eventually causes a rift with the group. Their desire to help humanity be their best, while also honoring the mission from their own gods (The Celestials) becomes the driving force of the film. Zhao explains her take on that, saying:

I think of the moment when human civilization has shifted from deism to humanism, when many of us were starting to question the existence of Gods. We started to ask ourselves, "Are we responsible to give meaning to the cosmos now? It's a lot of responsibility." In modern society, there's a lot of anxiety. And for better or for worse, we're asking this question, "Is there a bigger plan out there? Is there a higher power? Are we part of this grand design? And if so, do we have the right to break out of it?" This is a question that I asked myself a lot. To be able to explore these themes in a genre that kind of was born out of that...I think we've asked this question since the dawn of time. Each character represents some population in terms of how they view their relationship with God, or this grand design and, and how they might evolve and change. Ajak [Hayek], Kingo [Nanjiani] and Ikaris; those three have faith in our film. They do believe that human beings have no right to break out of the natural order, because so many more are going to be created. Ajak made a mistake; she had to believe the people on this planet are her children. And she decided to choose love. Ikaris held on to his beliefs and killed her. And Kingo has confirmed the beliefs, but he refused to hurt people for it. That's a very difficult thing for a superhero to do in Act Three of a superhero film – to step back and not fight and not hurt anybody.

Ajak emits yellow energy from her hands in Marvel's Eternals.

Eternals is the MCU's most divisive film to date, retaining the lowest score of any of the Marvel films and causing a lot of debate over the general themes, characters, and choices made throughout. In terms of box office, Eternals had fair results with a $401M worldwide take, which is in the ballpark of the previous two Marvel films, Black Widow and Shang-Chi, but far below the Spider-Man films or anything pre-Avengers: Endgame. Eternals is set to debut on Disney+ in January, allowing those who missed it in theaters to see for themselves if the film deserved its critical fate.

The complex themes of faith, gods, and grand design can be fun explorations in the right film, but it's arguable that it hurt Eternals' overall impact. While Zhao had a very clear notion of the story she was trying to tell, audiences bristled at much of it, as Marvel's brand has a signature to it, which typically involves more spectacle than philosophy. Not that the MCU can't have depth, but the depth is usually reserved for the characters, more so than the overarching themes. Eternals ultimately felt like an ambitious experiment for the powerhouse studio, which is good from time-to-time, but given the box office receipts of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it's a good bet that they'll be leaning into safer bets with future endeavors.

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Source: Empire

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