Eternals Review: 5 Ups & 5 Downs
3. The Shockingly Generic Script
Though Eternals certainly has some intriguing and provocative ideas on its mind, you'd barely know it from the script.
Co-written by Zhao and three other screenwriters, this may simply be a case of too many cooks compromising their disparate ideas into a more palatable, digestible whole.
And yet, in order to make sense of the many new characters and concepts we're introduced to, the script so often relies on lazy exposition to get the job done.
By the time the fourth of fifth exposition dump is hurled at the viewer, they can't really be blamed for feeling a bit tired of it.
Characterisation is also a major issue, as while these heroes seem interesting enough on paper, the script makes a shockingly meagre effort to flesh them out.
In the case of Sersi (Gemma Chan) and Ikaris (Richard Madden), far too much of a focus is placed on their tedious, predictable romance.
This all adds up to a screenplay that's a mess of conflicting tones and ideas, and so only sporadically manages to engage.