New playground for Chloé Zhao.
After being awarded this year's Oscar for best director for the drama
Nomadland
, she directed and wrote
Les Éternels.
These new Avengers - among them Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harrington, Richard Madden - who lived peacefully camouflaged in the human crowd, now have seven days to save the Earth.
To read also
The Eternals:
the Anglo-Saxon press doubtful in front of the last Marvel
Mixed report for our critic Olivier Delcroix.
“Chloé Zao's film takes up this mystical-religious, very syncretic plot (in the tradition of the film Doctor Strange), adapting it to the climato-ecological concerns of the third millennium. The action sequences are powerful. The fighting rages on. The special effects, perfectly successful, lend credibility to the whole story ”.
Despite an approved visual, some reservations remain.
"
The Eternals
film
possesses an almost disturbing amplitude, as well as a visual energy which leaves the spectator speechless.
As for the classic gimmicks from a Marvel superhero movie, they are treated in minor.
The humor and the second degree offer some counterpoints, but there is no risk of humming the musical theme of the film when leaving the room ”
.
See also
Nomadland
by Chloé Zhao, the angel of asphalt
For
Le Monde
,
the question was whether Chloe Zhao would succeed in immersing herself in the Marvel universe.
A
"bet not obvious at the start"
that the Chinese director was able to meet hands down according to the daily:
"The answer is yes, if we judge by the part of humanity - and humor - dispensed to super- hero, the primacy granted to large desert spaces, the graphic poetry included in the image and the formal fluidity which gives the story a certain simplicity. "
"
The film is interminable
"
Criticism of Le
Parisien
is less lenient.
From the title, the tone is set:
"Why
The Eternals
, the last Marvel, is not up to its ambitions"
.
The journalist finds the film
"interminable".
“The major problem with the
Eternals
seems to come from the fact that if
Kevin Feige
, big boss of Marvel Studios, debauched the director to plunge her into a cinematographic space very far from his own, he did not give her carte blanche,
explains- he.
Quickly, the feature film turns into a permanent fight with forceful special effects.
Chloe Zhao may try to instill sensitivity and empathy in the story, she is trapped in the "mold" Marvel ".
Alas, on arrival, the sauce does not take, and the film is rather disappointing.
The Parisian
Contrary to
Le Dauphiné
, which sincerely applauds Chloé Zhao's cinema.
“Breaking Marvel's codes so badly, The Eternals couldn't be as well oiled as most of the studio's other films.
Thanks to the direction of Chloé Zhao - who offers certain striking scenes while keeping her talent for framing and the use of natural settings - he shows a new course ”.
"
An ambitious and exciting new page
"
The feature film is particularly singled out for these new torch Avengers in the field of inclusiveness, which
Télérama
does not fail to underline
.
"In this science fiction which aggregates everything, speaks of a union of minds and is resolutely inclusive (one of the Eternals has formed a homoparental family), the Earth becomes a less childish issue".
But Télérama, like the English-speaking press, deplores this excess of mythology supported in the film.
“It's too much, no doubt. But we can forgive this sin of gluttony, the heaviness and appreciate the flavor of a show in which a Bollywood show and a vision of the desolation of Hiroshima collide
”.
The eclectic Chloe Zhao puts excitement back into the Marvel fantasy, which elsewhere often turns into clubbing.
Telerama
Finally,
Large Screen
is confident about the future of this new Marvel formula
"An ambitious and exciting new page, thanks to some risky bets - the cosmic dimension, many new characters - and emotional outbursts
", then insists on the Chloé Zhao's ability to deal with all these modern protagonists.
“The plot is certainly centered on Sersi and Ikaris, but everyone finds a ray of light throughout the adventure, thanks to an assumed balance: the characters are written in small touches, most often in short dialogues, or silences heavy with meaning ”.
It is imperfect, but generous.
Premiere
Same story for
Premiere
, satisfied with the cast.
“By taking care of his characters, by making them exist outside of a pre-digested heroic scheme, by multiplying the flashbacks recounting several millennia of human history, by refusing the a little heavy meta valves without refusing the lightness, and finally by integrating
its epic action scenes
much
better into its narration ”.
Be careful, however, of the overflow, which makes it a little stuffy.
"
The Eternals
is not a film of absolute and visionary author, but a good choral film, wanting rather to give priority to the collective".
The Eternals
of Chloé Zhao.
In theaters since November 3.