'Eternals' Review: Marvel's Latest Superhero Team Takes On Refreshing New Directions For The MCU Thanks To Oscar Winner Chloe Zhao - Deadline

By hiring Academy Award-winner Chloe Zhao to helm its much-awaited Eternals and handle the cinematic introduction of ten new superheroes in its canon, Marvel has not lost its marbles.

For the 25th Marvel film, and perhaps the one that will be most indicative of the future directions of the Disney-owned powerhouse, Zhao has quite a job to do in introducing us to ten , count ’em, ten new superhero characters, who, at the end of the endless end credits, are already promised (in James Bond fashion) to “return.”.

Marvel need not worry, because even for the casual moviegoer not invested in every twist and turn in these epics (count me in on that), this is an accomplished and entertaining comic book movie that manages to somehow keep us engaged and invested in the journeys of this group of apparently immortal fighters and thinkers, as they are divided and defined, who had been doing their thing in consistently and collectively saving humanity from itself ever since the dawn of man about 7000 years ago.

Like so many of these comic book setups, Eternals has the bones of a classic western, and Zhao and her co-writers (Patrick Burleigh and Ryan and Kaz Firpo (the latter pair also with Story credit), have done their best to give each distinctive personalities, abilities, self doubts, and complexities to make this all work over the course of two and a half hours.

The most entertaining of these Eternals is definitely Kumail Nanjiani’s Kingo, a fighter who now, in his down time after thousands of years in the spotlight of various wars and victories for the Eternals, still wants the fan adoration.

This is one hell of a diverse cast, but the actual casting never brings attention to itself, and for that, Zhao and her casting director Sarah Halley Finn (Avengers) deserve genuine applause.

It is the second consecutive post-Avengers era Marvel movie to show encouraging new signs of life.