Marvel movie Eternals is an eccentric folly snuck into the multiplex

Are there any circumstances in which you might call a $200m Marvel blockbuster, made by the winner of this year’s Best Director Oscar — with a starry cast led by Angelina Jolie — an underdog? No, nor me, but superhero showroom Eternals is such an odd creation, it can be hard not to root for it anyway.

The task for the film is epic indeed: whipping up an audience from scratch, enough to launch a whole new franchise for a studio now missing the Avengers. But few power couples have the heft of Marvel and Chloé Zhao, director of the much-admired Nomadland. Neither needs your sympathy. Given the stakes, it isn’t like the movie would be allowed to become a unloved curate’s egg . . . is it?

Apologies for the spoiler. Given the just-so realism of Nomadland, the obvious sum of film-maker and studio would be spandex costumes worn in “magic hour” natural light. Yes and no. And woah! Few could have predicted Eternals’ other flavour. A literal origin story, the movie is faithful to the source material of comic book writer Jack Kirby, an elaborate mythos in which the title’s demigods are — in brief — immortal aliens on earth to aid mankind. Or, in the lingo of the film, proxies of Celestials following the design of prime Celestial Arishem. Zhao goes big on the lore, mirroring it visually with whirring discoids, monoliths and what might be an ice sculpture from the Christmas party of a large branded content agency. The film is very prog.

But also very pop. Beginning in deep space, we cut to modern London, an ogre emerging from the Regent’s Canal. This is a Deviant, naturally drawn to Camden. Its target is Sersi (Gemma Chan), like all Eternals hidden among humans. She and her mortal boyfriend share wooden exposition outside a launderette.

The film has a lot of explaining to do. Its remit is that of a giant-sized TV pilot — a supposed standalone there to set up future episodes. The movie has to work as speed-dating, a variety show for potential fan favourites. Cue a mob-handed cast including — among many others — Salma Hayek (spiritual leader), Kumail Nanjiani (comic relief), Brian Tyree Henry (science whizz) and a regal Jolie (warrior queen).

Credit to Zhao for landing as much as she does — flashes of intrigue in backstories, some giggles, the sense of an eccentric folly snuck into the multiplex. A sex scene is short but still bold for a school of movie where babies are delivered by stork. But God, things sprawl. And cosmic grandiosity aside, the visuals are awful — untold processing power spent on rubber monsters from an old Doctor Who.

If the 156 minutes is one long audition for spin-offs to come, expect more Nanjiani — his Bollywood idol/Eternal goofy and suave, his comedy nimble. The rest of the film can feel all too aware of the job Marvel has hired it for. There are endless references to rebirth, life cycles, the business of creation. Darwin himself has a cameo. You feel for the movie — torn between fear of evolutionary dead ends and embracing fate as a likeable dodo.

★★★☆☆

In US cinemas from November 4 and UK cinemas from November 5