They are not relatable, the film features planet-sized giants, and it feels very much like a Marvel Studios production.

It's a Marvel superhero movie about immortal beings.

That made her work feel grounded, realistic, intimate, and akin to a documentary. Up until before Eternals, Zhao was renowned for delivering lyrical explorations of rural America, made with non-actors wherever possible. Though that may be because we've never seen a Zhao movie on this scale. Worryingly, Eternals doesn't ever really feel like a Chloé Zhao movie. Earlier this year, Eternals director Chloé Zhao won Best Picture and Best Director for her work on the Frances McDormand-led drama Nomadland. It's an uphill battle for any writer-director, even one who has won Oscars for her filmmaking. Eternals has TEN human-looking characters whom we are all meeting for the first time. Except James Gunn had a talking tree and a snark machine as two of its five primary characters. To be fair, Marvel has taken on an ensemble project before: Guardians of the Galaxy.

It's like being thrown into Avengers: Age of Ultron without the knowledge of any of the previous MCU movies. It's just too much - and despite being two-and-a-half-hours long, Eternals buckles under the weight of the demands put on it. Eternals begins with a three-paragraph opening crawl - it's like Star Wars but sadder - that tells us how the Eternals came to be, their chief enemy, and their purpose on Earth. There are lore and exposition dumps scattered throughout, but even that's not enough. Its tale spans several millennia: from 5,000 BC Mesopotamia to present-day London, and 15th-century Spanish conquest to 400 AD Gupta Empire. The Eternals ensemble is made up of 10 immortal beings, led by the likes of Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, and Kumail Nanjiani. After all, it's the second-longest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of all time, with a 156-minute runtime (including credits), behind only the epic saga-concluding Avengers: Endgame. Eternals - out now in cinemas worldwide - has a lot to show.

Star wars this is where the fun begins