Eternals Blu-ray Review

Disney's 1080p Blu-ray presentation of "Eternals" effectively delivers a high-quality viewing experience, capitalizing on its ability to offer a clear, colorful, and detailed image that remains consistent throughout. The film exhibits excellent textural output and image sharpness, with deep and detailed facial expressions and crisp clarity in costumes and landscapes. Colors are expressive, stable, and maintain their integrity even in darker scenes. Skin tones are portrayed in a natural and healthy manner, while black levels are notably deep and true, managing noise exceptionally well without major encoding flaws.

Interestingly, this 1080p transfer is noted for being a more visually appealing option than its 4K counterpart due to certain inconsistencies in the HDR10 grading of the 4K version. The Blu-ray excels in scenes with vibrant colors, such as the sequence featuring Arishem and the individual Eternals suiting up, where the colors appear more naturally balanced and less oppressively dark compared to the HDR10 variant. Although the black levels are not as deep as those in the 4K version, they approach an impressive inky tone, producing an overall satisfying visual depth. The Bollywood dance sequence particularly benefits from this transfer, displaying lively colors and striking costume details that enhance the viewing experience.

The Blu-ray release of "Eternals" features a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack that exhibits a blend of strengths and notable shortcomings. Clarity and musical detail are commendable, with a well-integrated atmospheric presence that extends throughout the soundstage, ensuring an engaging audio experience across the front and rear channels. Dialogue maintains a clean, center-focused quality, contributing to a satisfactory auditory clarity. However, the track falters in delivering the impactful low-frequency effects expected from such an action-heavy film. The subwoofer's presence is tangible but lacks the depth and intensity needed to truly engage viewers in scenes of high tension and drama.

The audio presentation shares similar weaknesses with its Dolby Atmos counterpart found on the 4K disc. Both mixes suffer from a noticeable deficiency in low-end impact, which attenuates the potential visceral punch of the feature's action sequences. Consequently, while Ramin Djawadi’s score should prompt an emotional resonance, it falls somewhat flat, as the bass responsiveness fails to adequately survive the translation from studio to home theater. Despite this, the mix occasionally dazzles with its directional activity, particularly during action sequences, where channel separation is effectively employed to enhance the immersive nature of these moments.

Overall, while the DTS-HD MA 7.1 track successfully manages standard expectations like dialogue clarity and spatial delineation, its deficiencies in delivering robust bass detract from an otherwise competent mix. These audio issues render it a capable but not fully satisfying effort in supporting the grand scale and intensity of "Eternals."

The Blu-ray extras for "Eternals" provide a rich, behind-the-scenes experience that will delight fans of both the film and its source material. The features offer a comprehensive exploration of the film's production, from an in-depth examination of the narrative and creative processes to the lighter moments captured on set. The audio commentary by director Chloé Zhao and key visual effects supervisors provides a technical deep dive into the movie's cinematic execution, appealing to those interested in the technical crafts of filmmaking. Featurettes like “Immortalized” and “Walks of Life” delve into the film's scope and its diverse cast, respectively. Meanwhile, deleted scenes and a gag reel offer glimpses of content not included in the final cut and amusing on-set interactions, respectively. These extras enrich the viewing experience by widening the appreciation for the film’s artistic and technical endeavors.

Extras included in this disc:

• Immortalized: Exploring film scope and production design.
• Walks of Life: Overview of cast and characters.
• Gag Reel: Humorous shoot moments.
• Deleted Scenes: Includes Gravity, Nostalgia, Movies, Small Talk.
• Audio Commentary: Technical discussion with director and visual effects supervisors.

"Eternals" struggles under the weight of its ambitious narrative and character overload, resulting in a film that feels more like a collection of ideas than a cohesive story. Director Chloé Zhao brings a visually striking aesthetic and admirable attempts at exploring deep thematic elements, such as religious symbolism and existential musings about humanity's place in the universe. However, these potentially rich avenues remain underdeveloped, often appearing only as footnotes in a slow-paced and unfocused script. Despite the promise embedded within its premise, the movie lacks the emotional depth and dynamic character interplay that typifies the best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Characters in "Eternals" are introduced with potential, yet they are largely reduced to basic archetypes with minimal growth or depth. Their lack of chemistry and authentic connection leads to a flat cinematic experience. The film attempts to balance an enormous backstory with numerous new introductions, but this results in certain characters being sidelined for significant portions of the runtime—or worse, completely neglected without evoking emotional investment from the audience. Despite standout visual moments, particularly in the climactic final act, these highlights don't compensate for the overall narrative shortcomings.

Clocking in at 157 minutes, "Eternals" feels overwhelmingly dense yet simultaneously hollow, with potential narrative threads that would have greatly benefited from the expanded format of a limited series rather than a single film crammed with world-building and setup for future installments. The overwhelming abundance of lore paired with insufficient character exploration suggests a missed opportunity in storytelling. Ultimately, "Eternals" promises much but delivers little, struggling to find its own identity amid the expansive Marvel framework. Despite glaring issues, the film holds a semblance of excellence hidden beneath its muddled execution—signifying that with careful reworking, it could be elevated to its intended place among superior MCU entries.

"Eternals" on Blu-ray emerges as a product of high anticipation due to its ties to the illustrious Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the film falls short in delivering a cohesive and engaging narrative. Despite its ambition, the storyline becomes overwhelmed by an excessive number of characters and universe-changing events. The potential for a richly detailed character exploration is unfortunately lost amidst the film's sprawling attempts at depth and breadth. Furthermore, the pacing suffers, rendering the movie overlong with sparse and lackluster action sequences that struggle to maintain viewers' interest.

The Blu-ray release showcases respectable technical achievements, exhibiting commendable video quality. Visually, the transfer captures the film's aesthetic with clarity and precision, an essential component for such a visually-driven narrative. However, the audio experience is less impressive, offering a DTS 7.1 mix that feels underwhelming compared to the robust auditory expectations typically associated with Marvel productions. Additionally, while the bonus features add some value, they lack the depth and intrigue to truly enhance the home-viewing experience beyond the film itself.

In conclusion, "Eternals" represents a missed opportunity to expand Marvel's narrative universe with meaningful character development and thematic exploration. The Blu-ray presents a competent visual package but falters with its audio presentation, making it more suited for dedicated fans rather than casual viewers seeking an enthralling cinematic journey. The film might serve as a necessary piece of the larger MCU puzzle, but on its own, it fails to fully capitalize on its ambitious premise.