Top Films of 2021-#8

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone. I hope you are enjoying my top ten of the year. Today I'm keeping more with the space theme from yesterday's pick at #9 even though most of the action takes place back on Earth.

#8-Eternals

There is so much to touch on in Marvel's latest ensemble film but most of that has already been discussed ad nauseum across the internet. Yes, the film features the most diverse cast of any Marvel film to date, not just in terms of race and ethnicity, but across sexuality, and even different sensory abilities. The story spans millennia as we get to know the ten core members of The Eternals and their role in the greater story of Earth in the MCU. The film marks director Chloé Zhao's follow-up to her Oscar-winning Nomadland released earlier this year.

As a story, Eternals had a daunting task of teaching us about these myriad characters over the course of just a few hours before thrusting them into a difficult situation and landing at some sort of resolution. With previous Marvel films like the first Avengers in 2012, the creators had the benefit of five previous films giving us the backstory of five of the six main Avengers, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye being the only character to debut in that film. Eternals had no such benefit and yet managed to make viewers care about the characters in the short timeframe of the film, while at the same time wanting more in future installments.

Will Eternals garner Zhao as much award press as Nomadland? Probably not. Will it cement these characters in the public consciousness for years to come as we learn more about who they are? That remains to be seen, but Zhao and team have laid down a firm foundation.

Eternals is likely still playing a theaters near you in either a first run or second run and will also be available to stream on Disney+ on January 12th.

Don't forget to check out the rest of my top ten list:
#9. Dune
#10. Luca

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