Spoilers Eternals grade and discussion thread

A little slow, but I liked it.

 

Eh. I didn't hate it, but it was so exposition heavy, and the setup was so repetitive that I can't help but feel that the material would have been better suited as a limited series instead of a movie. Maybe then some of the character deaths would have had more weight to them, but as they stand, I just didn't feel anything either way.

I'm curious where they're going with it, but I'd by lying if I said it left me actively wanting more from these characters.

 

I am now reading the 80s 12 issue limited series. The more Eternals I read the more frustrated I am that the movie introduced us to the Eternals in name only. I know that they couldn't have done the Celestial's return as it is done in the comics without drawing the attention of the other heroes in the MCU, but they could have done at least the backstory of the Deviants and the Eternals--maybe a Celestial that lands and who presence is not known somehow. It would have been a nice setup for a version of the Eternals appearance in the Avengers comics.

 

It was literally bursting through the planet......What else do you think would happen? It wasn't magically manifesting or something.

 

It was Sony financed but Marvel Studios produced including the script (which is why it was better than any of the last few Sony only outings.)

 

Eternals was not very good.

Remember when Justice League was a thing the first time around, and everyone was like "too many characters! Do it like Avengers with individual origin stories beforehand instead!" this is that, but 100% for real. I cared about the Wheadon cut JL characters a LOT more than these guys.

It felt like a mediocre big budget series, not a movie.

Lamest Marvel movie yet. Between this and Ten Rings, they've certainly lost a step or twelve since Endgame.

 

I'm starting to wonder if maybe this just isn't a movie for comic fans. My mom usually tolerates comic book movies, she'll come see them, but only because I don't want to go by myself and don't have anyone else to go with, but she actually really liked Eternals.

 

End game was the end.

They are starting from the beginning again.

Now that this movie has successfully introduced Pip, we can move forward.

 

I mean, I'm a comic book fan and I gave it a B-...

 

I'm a comic book reader (and read Gaiman's run for these characters) and I gave it an A-.

 

B from me. Not as good as I’d hoped - it’s jarringly plothole-ridden in places, and I wasn’t thrilled by the inclusion of the two big fights early on, which struck me as banal and lacking in meaningful context - but overall it was engaging enough and quite enjoyable. For me, the film was at its best whenever Gemma Chan or Barry Keoghan was on screen (though for somewhat different reasons).

I think it worked well as a character piece - the friendship between these characters wasn’t particularly threatened by a little thing like being Team Arishem or Team Earth, and at least one character (Druig) could see the merits of both sides.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Eros mid-credits scene. (The surprise was its pleasantness.)

 

So I finally sat down and watched this all the way through.

Definitely one of the weakest offerings from Marvel Studios. But not bad. Long and long winded. And I don't think the movie really earned Sersi's love for humanity or Earth, as it never shows us any indication of WHY she feels that way. She just comes online with it already going on as the movie begins. Gemma Chan has charisma for days, but that doesn't excuse a character that is paper thin.

Phastos, Druig and Thena were the best parts of the film, I wish they'd had more to do. I thought Richard Madden did a decent job being Superman. The script never really asks him to do anything in terms of heavy lifting but he sells the power, and I bought how conflicted he was during the climax.

Honestly, the film was just too crowded. Too many characters and not enough story. They presumably paid Selma Hayak a lot of money to just stand there and look regal, then die like a chump.

I also thought these were the most superfluous post-credits scenes yet. Eros is the obligatory sequel setup, but really just an excuse to put Henry Styles in the MCU. Though I will give props for Pip the Troll, I didn't see that one coming. And the Ebony Blade scene, while cool enough, misses the point by not SHOWING us Mahershala Ali. If the internet hadn't told me it was him, and therefore Blade, I never would have made that connection and thus the scene completely falls flat from that standpoint. If it had just been about the sword it would have worked better.

That said, I would watch a Kingo Disney Plus series if it focused on him making his latest Bollywood production and not anything in his hero life. #BringBackKarun.

 

So I finally watched the movie.

I broke up the movie into 1 hour and 11 minute segments so it didn't bore me that much. I was beginning to fall asleep when Sersi and Ikaris were talking in the amazon.

I didn't understand Athena's disorder. Essentially she was a robot that went haywire? I had to google "Mahd W'yry".

The back and forth with past and present felt unnecessary. One moment we're in the present then the scene shifts and 30 seconds later they tell us "Oh this a flashback"

I already read the comments about the massive disruption a fraction of Tiamut emerging would cause to the ecosystem.

The ending didn't confuse me but the characters reactions did. Sersi looked like she was aware since she showed distress.
Phasto and Kingo looked frozen and no sign of shock or being scared. It was just shot weirdly IMO.

 

Everytime they accomplish their mission, they get their minds wiped out to start over. Athena's mind wipes didn't take and on some level she knew what was going on and couldn't accept it. That's what drove her mad.

 

I think it was more specifically a case of her previous incarnation being the one to rebel and fight the others (hence her attacking them) in an effort to save their previous planet. Presumably she was subdued and had her memories reset, only this time for whatever reason (possibly the same one that led her to rebel in the first place), the wipe was incomplete and a fragment of that memory remained, eventually bubbling back up the the surface over the centuries the closer they got to the next emergence.

 

We watched it tonight on Disney and enjoyed it, but this won't be one of my top Marvel movies. As most people gave already said, this might've been far better as a series so we could get to know the characters and to give this HUGE scope of time some space to breathe.

The good:

• The film is gorgeous! The design crew did a stunning job, especially (for me) with Babylon.
• Gemma Chan. I've loved her in everything I've seen her in and this was no exception. I felt she did earn Sersei's love for humanity: she was constantly shown teaching, helping, and otherwise interacting with humans. Her obvious compassion shone through for me. I loved seeing a character like her as the lead in a movie.
• Druig and Makkari - their friendship and slight "naughtiness" were lovely. I'd like to have seen more of them. I also liked Druig's horror at the Spanish slaughter. The speed effect for Makkari was nicely done.
• Gilgamesh - I *really* wish we'd seen more of him, as it would've given his death more weight and the character seemed really fun. Plus, anyone who loves their friend enough to care for them for *centuries* is tops in my book.
• Thena - Jolie did a terrific job here IMO. I related it to someone with Alzheimers or Schizophrenia. Her vulnerability kept her from being one-note for me.
• Phaistos - his scene at Hiroshima was beautiful. But...

The bad:

• As pointed out, too many of these characters got short shrift. If this had been a show, we could've seen Phaistos go from that beaten man in 1945 to the husband in father in present day. I feel cheated on that. And what was Makkari doing for 500 years? Just collecting shit? Ridiculous waste of the characters IMO.
• Speaking of short shrift, I thought more could've been done with the Deviants, especially their leader. I only know he had a name from comments here! Unlike others, I thought they looked cool. But that's about it.
• Sprite. You stab me in the back like that, I ain't forgiving so fast.
• Kingo. So damn fun and then he just... runs off? WTF?
• WTH was Kit Harrington doing in here besides looking pretty and setting up him being the Black Knight? Oy.
• IMDB said the voice at the end is Blade. Really? Does he have anything to do with Dane? I honestly don't know. The only thing I know about Black Knight is that he, like practically everyone, was an Avenger in the comics. The only things I know about Blade are from the Snipes movie.

I'm glad I went into this knowing nothing about the Eternals. I liked it, but I'm unlikely to watch it again, which is NOT the norm for me for a Marvel movie.

I don't know much about Eros, but what I've heard is... icky, at best.

Ah! I hadn't thought about her rebelling previously. Cool thought.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from the comics, Thanos was an eternal himself right? And Eros is his brother, which he says here (and says he's an eternal). Only I believe in the comics he had recessive Deviant ancestry, which is why he looked weird.

I don't know how they'll square this with this movie though, where Eternals are basically shown to be robots (unlike in the comics, where they are a created race, but biological/able to reproduce) and deviants are just a bunch of dumb lizard monsters.

 

Thanos was related to the Deviants (on his father's side)...which makes the Eternals reason as to why they didn't become involved in teh Infinity War situation dubious.

 

Though all of this makes Thanos's crusade against population growth suddenly make more sense.

Like, he literally could have been seen as the biggest hero in the universe, who saved millions of worlds across the cosmos from being cracked open by baby celestials.

 

Thanos is a Titan. In the comics the Titans are a small colony of eternals living on Titan (Saturn's moon) and experimenting with whether Eternals can (and should) breed. Thanos is their fault/failure.

Movie Thanos clearly comes from a very large society which clearly didn't live on Saturn's moon. At this point, the Titans connection to the Eternals has been massively altered if not removed entirely. And we don't if Eros is trustworthy or literal in describing his link to Thanos.