Eternals (PG-13)

A new group of superheroes assemble in Eternals, a movie introducing a whole new part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

And, woo-boy, does this whole new MCU ride come with a lot of backstory and explanation.

The Eternals are super-beings sent to Earth: Sersi (Gemma Chan), Ikaris (Richard Madden), Thena (Angelina Jolie), Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani), Sprite (Lia McHugh), Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry), Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), Druig (Barry Keoghan) and Gilgamesh (Don Lee). They are led by Ajak (Salma Hayak) and they’ve been sent on their Earthly mission by Arishem (voiced by David Kaye), who is the leader of the Celestials. What is a Celestial, you ask, or, heck, what exactly is an Eternal? These characters seem like a work-around for saying “God” and “angels” but, roughly, Celestials are large god-like creatures and Eternals are the angel-ish beings that serve them.

The Eternals arrive on Earth some 5,000 years ago to hunt the Deviants, which look sort of like giant dog-reptile hybrids, if those creatures were made of Play-Doh and glow-in-the-dark necklaces. Deviants somehow travel throughout the U of the MCU and seem primarily motivated by the desire to eat humans (or, I guess, whatever is the dominant being on a planet). Arishem has sent his Eternals team to Earth to kill the Deviants and it takes these supernatural, all-powerful beings from the dawn of human history until 1521 to get them all. And then, having fulfilled their task, they just sorta wait around on Earth to be reassigned, living through the back half of the last millennium, not getting involved in humanity’s bad decisions and also not stepping in during the various Avenger-repelled threats to the planet. While their names and some of their stories are woven into human mythology, they’ve never introduced themselves to any other Marvel characters, except maybe Odin and a very young Thor.

In the present day, these Eternals live in various locations across Earth, not communicating much with each other, and experiencing different levels of interaction with humanity. When we catch up with Sersi, she’s a teacher living in London and dating fellow academic Dane Whitman (Kit Harrington), who openly wonders if she’s a wizard, like Dr. Strange. (In this post-Blip world, it seems the Eternals could probably be somewhat more open with their whole situation.)

Her “just an ordinary hot-lady science teacher” cover is blown when a Deviant, the first she’s seen in hundreds of years, shows up and she and Sprite fight it off, with an assist from Ikaris (Sersi’s ex) who shows up all laser eyes and power-of-flight.

The appearance of a Deviant after all these years — and one who seems particularly strong — plus a recent worldwide earthquake lead Sersi, Ikaris and Sprite to search for the other Eternals and try to convince them to saddle up to save humanity.

Ever cleaned up your house right before company gets there? This isn’t a “put things away neatly” clean up, this is a “throw everything into a laundry basket and jam it in a closet” clean up. Then, later, when you pull out the laundry basket you find just a mountain of Stuff: unmatched socks, markers, random Legos, a box of Cheez-Its, a magazine from four months ago, one shoe, at least three important pieces of mail, that thing you were looking for Monday. On the bright side: You find the hoodie you were wearing two weeks ago and it has an unexpected $20 bill in the pocket. Less good: You find your electric bill and it was due yesterday. That is the experience of watching Eternals: two hours and 37 minutes crammed with a lotta Stuff — some of it good, some of it annoying, some of it just random.

In the “unexpected $20” category? There are visual elements — scenes, some of the CGI, some of the costumes and the way Eternals-related visuals are blended into real-world mythology — that are very pretty and grand in that “I am watching a Marvel movie on the big screen” kind of way.

The gang of Eternals includes some very fun characters, specifically Kingo, who has spent the 20th and 21st centuries claiming to be successive generations of a famous Bollywood acting family. He has a sidekick, Karun (Harish Patel), who knows Kingo’s real identity and is helping him shoot a documentary about the Eternals. Kingo is the character who feels most like the heir to the swagger of “I am Iron Man”-era Tony Stark.

Druig’s superpower includes mind control and he’s essentially made himself into a cult leader — seemingly, a benevolent one. It’s an interesting way to examine the “why don’t the Eternals actively help humanity” question but the movie doesn’t spend a lot of time with him.

Two other solid characters we don’t get enough of: Phastos, who has most embraced having a human life and has the movie’s most genuine-seeming romance; and Makkari, who communicates via sign language, which the movie integrates into the story seamlessly, and maybe has a potential romance of her own.

The annoying? As mentioned, this movie is two hours and 37 minutes long and ultimately it doesn’t even give us a complete story. (There are “stay tuned until next time”-y credits scenes, two of them, and they’re worth sticking around for.)

Also as mentioned, there are So Many characters here. It’s one thing to have everybody who’s ever appeared in a Marvel movie show up in the big finale of End Game. Here, we have 10 potential lead or near-lead characters that we’re meeting for the first time. That’s a lot of people to learn their personalities and abilities and relationships enough that their scenes and fights (and possibility of deaths) have some resonance. Often we’re focused on Sersi, Ikarus and Sprite — who are fine but aren’t the most compelling characters of the group. And even though they are arguably the leads, we can’t really get to know them because there is just so much story to get through, so many people to include in each scene.

This movie also jams in a lot more romances than you normally get in a Marvel movie. There are at least two love triangles, three active couples and a few more people who seem to be crushing on each other. Yet most of these romances are slight and bloodless, even by Marvel standards.

As for the random: Arishem and the other Celestials look like giant knock-off Transformers. It heightens the unacknowledged goofiness of some of the Celestials-stuff in this movie.

Eternals is the first Marvel entry in a while that feels more like a scene setting for a more interesting movie than it does a fun time in its own right. I liked some of these characters and want to get to know them more — I just wish I could have done it in this movie. C+

Rated PG-13 for fantasy violence and action, some language and brief sexuality, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Chloé Zhao with a screenplay by Chloé Zhao & Patrick Burleigh and Ryan Firpo & Kaz Firpo, Eternals is two hours and 37 minutes long and distributed, only in theaters at the moment, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The French Dispatch (R)

Flip through the very Wes Anderson pages of a magazine produced by American expats living in Ennui, France, in The French Dispatch, a very pretty, mostly tasty pastry of a movie.

Or, if A+ lovely, B- yummy petit fours isn’t your thing, think of The French Dispatch as a wind-up music box with multiple compartments and intricate figurines and a slightly tinny song. In both cases, the imperfection is almost part of the charm, like the worn corners of a used coffee table book or a vintage jacket with an artful fading.

The French Dispatch, we’re told in matter-of-fact narration that’s as Wes Anderson as the symmetrical staging and the rhythm of the dialogue, is a weekly magazine that grew out of a Kansas newspaper’s Sunday supplement and that paper’s owner’s son’s desire not to return to Kansas. That man, Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray), is indulgent toward his writers, prickly with everyone else, and lives by two pieces of advice: “no crying” and “just try to make it sound like you wrote it that way on purpose.”

The movie, which brings to life an issue of the magazine in some fantastical 1960s France where Ennui is an almost Paris-like city, with strikes and student-built barricades and a river named Blasé, features an enormous cast telling four main stories that are presented as articles in the magazine. Making an appearance, with amounts of screentime varying from minutes to enough to probably justify a supporting actor campaign, are: Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Adrian Brody, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Mathieu Amalric and Liev Schreiber. What you might call bit parts are filled in by Jason Schwartzman, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Winkler, Bob Balaban, Christoph Waltz, Ed Norton, Willem Dafoe and Saoirse Ronan. My pick for standout actor here would be Jeffrey Wright, playing Roebuck Wright, the magazine’s food writer, who tells the story of his piece while on a very late 1960s talk show.

Melancholy short stories told joyfully and stylishly is how I would describe this odd creation. I don’t know if it’s “good” per se, but it’s definitely enjoyable. I laughed often and felt great affection for the “Mad Men-era reproduction cigarette case holding thick matte business cards” quality of the whole thing. Here’s how you know if this movie is for you: If I said the words “typewriter for sale” and your first thought is “how much?” or “does it come with typewriter ribbon?” or “sold!” this movie is probably for you. It loves typewriters and paper tacked to things and books as a visual element and phones with rotary dials. If when I said “typewriter for sale” you thought “why?” or even “a what?” and if the words “loving mid-century affectation” hold absolutely no charm for you, then — skip. B

Rated R for graphic nudity, some sexual references and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Wes Anderson, who also wrote the screenplay (with “story by” credits for Anderson & Roman Coppola & Hugo Guinness & Jason Schwartzmann), The French Dispatch is an hour and 48 minutes long and distributed in theaters by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The Harder They Fall (R)

Two gangs of outlaws face off over money and old grudges in The Harder They Fall, a smart, funny, electric Western buzzing with strong performances and lyrical writing.

The movie starts with two title cards: “While the events of this movie are fictional…” and “These. People. Existed.” — an explanation that is true in the literal sense (the characters are based on real historical people, according to Wikipedia) and serves as what seems like a statement purpose for the movie: to show Black people as part of the history of the West, despite their absence from classic movie Westerns.

After an Inglourious Basterds-type intro set more than a decade before the principal action and then a scene featuring the first of the movie’s many one-on-one quick-draw gunfights, we get a top-notch credit sequence that introduces the main characters and the movie’s rival gangs. Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), a man who saw his family murdered as a child, leads a gang that robs bank robbers. He is also on a mission to hunt down the men responsible for his parents’ slayings. Nat’s team includes Jim Beckworth (RJ Cyler), a gunslinger very protective of his reputation for being the fastest draw, and Bill Pickett (Edi Gathegi) as well as, eventually, Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), Nat’s saloon-owning ex, and her gunslinger Cuffee (Danielle Deadwyler). Beckworth and Pickett learn they’ve inadvertently stolen money meant for Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), leader of his own gang of thieves and gunslingers including Trudy Smith (the always wonderful Regina King) and reputed fastest-gun Cherokee Bill (Lakeith Stanfield). Rufus Buck has been in prison but is, er, let’s just say, out now. He heads to Redwood City, a town whose future is in question due to the double-dealing of Escoe (Deon Cole), a former associate of Rufus’. Rufus needed the stolen money to shore up his hold on Redwood.

Rufus wants the money Nat stole, Nat wants Rufus — the last living man involved in his parents’ deaths. And then there’s Marshal Bass Reeves (Delroy Lindo), a U.S. Marshal who doesn’t appreciate the terms of the end of Buck’s prison sentence. He is looking to take down Rufus.

The aesthetics of this movie are note-perfect. The look of this movie is crisp — not cartoony, not quite real, but just spot on at all times with a laugh-out-loud bit of set design brilliance in the middle of the movie. The score and soundtrack are equally sharp, with a style that blends hip-hop, reggae, classic Western riffs, gospel and, I don’t know, awesomeness. This movie knows what it wants to be and all the elements of it serve the story and the tone with impressive exactness.

Likewise, The Harder They Fall features spot-on performances. Everybody seems to understand what they’re doing, what the movie needs them to do and how to walk the line between the high theatrics of the action and the dialogue (which has a really lovely quality that balances what you might think of as “Western” with an almost song-lyric-poetic element — all stylized in just the right way) and creating characters with layers and emotional lives. Of course King and Elba are great and fun and great fun but so are Beetz, Majors, Lindo and Stanfield. Everybody makes the most of what the movie gives them.

As we get into the thick of Big Movie Season, The Harder They Fall feels like the kind of movie that could get lost in theatrical releases. But this smart, highly entertaining Western is worth seeking out. A

Rated R for strong violence and language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Jeymes Samuel with a screenplay by Jeymes Samuel and Boaz Yankin, The Harder They Fall is two hours and 10 minutes long and distributed by Netflix, where it is streaming.

FILM

Venues

The Flying Monkey
39 Main St., Plymouth
536-2551, flyingmonkeynh.com

The Music Hall
28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth
436-2400, themusichall.org

Red River Theatres
11 S. Main St., Concord
224-4600, redrivertheatres.org

Wilton Town Hall Theatre
40 Main St., Wilton
wiltontownhalltheatre.com, 654-3456

Shows

• The Big Parade (1925), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Wednesday, Nov. 10, at 6:30 p.m. at the Flying Monkey. Tickets start at $10.

• The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre in Keene (thecolonial.org). Tickets $15 (free for veterans).

• Spencer (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord Friday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 14, at 1, 4 & 7 p.m.

• The French Dispatch (R, 2021) screening at Red River Theatres Friday, Nov. 12, through Sunday, Nov. 14, at 1:30, 4:30 & 7:30 p.m.

• Gojira (1954) the Japanese-language kaiju film introducing Godzilla, will screen with subtitles at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m.

• Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) will screen at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13, at 7:30 p.m.

• The Littlest Rebel (1935) starring Shirley Temple and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, will screen at Wilton Town Hall Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 13, at 2 p.m.

• Hot Water (1924) starring Harold Lloyd, a silent film with live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis, on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 2 p.m. at Wilton Town Hall Theatre. Admission free; $10 donation suggested.

• Sunflowers (2021) screening at Red River Theatres in Concord on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 6 p.m.

• Warren Miller’s Winter Starts Now at The Music Hall, Thursday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, Nov. 19, at 6 and 9 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 20, at 4 & 7 p.m. Tickets start at $28.

Featured photo: Eternals. Courtesy photo.