Spoilers Eternals grade and discussion thread

[galleywest]

I gave it a C. I watched the ScreenRant Pitch Meeting for this and it was pretty spot on. This really should have been a series. It tried to do way too much in the framework of a movie. A lot of what it did try to do was not adequately explained or developed so that as an audience member I did not get invested in who the Eternals are and what they're trying to do.

I mean the explanation for why Ajak decided to turn against her mission was basically "humans are special and they changed me." After millions of years of doing this without question? That doesn't make sense. I'm sure the people on the other planets would feel like hey, we were special too!

We don't get involved in human wars, but we do give them technological advances (which they use for war) and get involved in their development in all kinds of other ways. Then the Eternal that does break this rule faces zero consequences. But doesn't use his power on everyone on earth because reasons.

Celestials developing Deviants to clear out a planet and then Eternals to clear out Deviants? But why? Why not just make sentient beings to "prune" life forms to get just what you want, since clearly you have the power to do that? I think my favorite line in the movie was about how the Deviants, "they became predators." Uhhhh you made them predators and then they began to hunt the next life form that evolved. No one could have seen that coming!

We take your memories to learn about Deviants. Why do their memories have to be erased in this process? What's being learned from this process? This felt like "we erase your memories in order to create plot drama."

Why create the fake story about a planet called Olympia? Why not just program the Eternals to know about this from the start and make sure everyone is on board with the mission?

The more I think about this movie, the more I think it's really a cautionary tale about bad management practices.

 

[shapeshifter]

I dozed off for 20 minutes, but it was getting late for me. And the CG for the Deviants wasn't the best. Otherwise, for not knowing the material going in I was impressed with the story. Decent soundtrack too.

lso, and this just me, but I hope in upcoming MCU movies there is some mention of the MASSIVE marble fingers and part of a head sticking out of the Indian Ocean. Can you imagine the scramble to harvest all of that for home improvement projects and the price that will fetch? LOL!

I hope it comes up again in the future too. Remember, it's not just the head and finger tips, there is a whole body of marble down there to mine. At least to the sea floor.

So can somebody tell me please, wasn't there a one season show with these characters, starting on the Moon then moving to Earth, or was that something else?

I agree this story probably would have been big enough for a short series.

Oh, the anamorphing screen was nice. I hope more films with IMAX scenes do that on streaming and video releases.

I am stoked for more of this story, in smaller bites though please.

 

[valkyrie013]

The world is marble, and I have touched the sky...

Seriously.. Giant marble all the way to the mantle probably the core.. Earth is fucked..

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I dozed off for 20 minutes, but it was getting late for me. And the CG for the Deviants wasn't the best. Otherwise, for not knowing the material going in I was impressed with the story. Decent soundtrack too.


I hope it comes up again in the future too. Remember, it's not just the head and finger tips, there is a whole body of marble down there to mine. At least to the sea floor.

So can somebody tell me please, wasn't there a one season show with these characters, starting on the Moon then moving to Earth, or was that something else?

I agree this story probably would have been big enough for a short series.

Oh, the anamorphing screen was nice. I hope more films with IMAX scenes do that on streaming and video releases.

I am stoked for more of this story, in smaller bites though please.

You're thinking of the Inhumans. They're totally different from the Eternals.

 

[eschaton]

Finished the movie on Disney+ last night. Took two evenings.

It was about what I expected based upon the reviews - interesting and ambitious in some ways, but deeply flawed.

I did think that the cinematography was some of the best (if not the best) out of all of the MCU movies. That's probably the best thing I can say about the movie. The plot didn't make much sense at all, but honestly, lots of MCU movies have tons of plot holes...if they rest of the movie worked better, I could have ignored these.

But the bad - so many options.

• 10 Eternals was way, way too many for a 2.5 hour movie. I think most of the flaws in the movie sprung from this. With so many actors to establish (and literally zero known characters returning - even in cameo form or in the post-credits scenes) there wasn't enough time to really develop any of them. Sersi was supposed to be the main character, but she had no defining traits across the movie other than being "the leader." A lot of plot elements seemed like they were solely added to give secondary characters something to do. Like the whole Kro thing seemed like it just existed to give Thena some role in the third act. If they had simplified it to have no one but Sersi/Ikaris/Ajak, and maybe two others (just compact the side stories), it would have been much better. But I just didn't give a shit about any of them.
• The story failed in its sense of epic scale entirely when it came to the characters, which I can only presume was due to the director, as the actors are fine. But none of them came across as characters who have lived through millennia and seen it all. Sersi and Ikaris were together for thousands of years, and they had zero chemistry. Sprite had unrequited love for Ikaris all this time...and said nothing? Not even once? Makkari was living in the ship alone for years, if not centuries, and she was like "dude, what's up?" when the rest showed up.
• The characters also seemed to pretty much randomly change their mind on things at the drop of a hat, which is not what one would expect from individuals who are 7,000 years old. Phastos decided humanity wasn't worth saving, but then he has a kid, and it's different. And then when he's told the world is gonna end, and his husband and son will die, his initial reaction is just "well, I guess they're gonna die?" Kingo is integrated into human society as a Bollywood star, yet at the drop of the hat he decides "nope, not gonna save humanity, not worth it."
  
• Sprite literally stabbing Sersi in the back, and no one being mad at her - and actually "rewarding" her with granting humanity was the point I pretty much lost my shit. Actions should have consequences, but none of the Eternals acted like the life and death situations they were being put into really mattered. They were just "philosophical differences" or whatever. They didn't really care much, so why should we?
• The Eternals are not superheroes, which I think is part of why the MCU formula didn't work. None of them except maybe Sersi even want to be heroic (they're more or less cajoled into it). They've held back on using their awesome powers to help people for 7,000 years, and by and large they still don't want to. It kind of reminds me of the weirdness of Superman in the Snyderverse - the idea that helping people is somehow morally wrong because it makes them weak or creates unknown repercussions or something.
• I also think - even given this was an ensemble movie with many of the characters having godlike powers - the stakes were way too overpowered for an initial outing. It should have been dealing with Kro, or maybe Ikaris's betrayal. Tiamut should not have been in the movie at all.

 

[marillion]

The world is marble, and I have touched the sky...

Seriously.. Giant marble all the way to the mantle probably the core.. Earth is fucked..

Yeah... I didn't think about that. With all this extra weight, along with damage to the core of the earth, wouldn't the planet shift on its axis?

 

[thribs]

That’s a weird take on Superman in the SnyderVerse. He does very much wants to help people there.

 

[eschaton]

Yeah... I didn't think about that. With all this extra weight, along with damage to the core of the earth, wouldn't the planet shift on its axis?

There shouldn't be any extra weight, because presumably the Celestial was just converting the matter of the earth into its own body.

Marble is a lot less dense than the Earth's core - or even the mantle - which means it should be pulverized almost immediately. This is...bad, because it would mean there would be a weak spot going up through the mantle, meaning a mega-volcano. Though TBH the scale of the Celestial's hand was too small to have its body all the way within the core - at least in the shots outside of the one showing space.

 

[USS Firefly]

I saw the movie yesterday. It was ok, like the last couple of Marvel movies. What I don't like is that the running time is getting longer and longer with these new movies, like the new James Bond and now this one and the new Spiderman movie.

 

[maneth]

Entertaining, but too long. Oh well, at least on Disney+ you can skip the end credits to just watch the codas.

 

[theenglish]

It is a strange movie in the sense that it is both too long and too short. It really bogs down about three quarters of the way through, but also there is not enough screen time to really develop the characters. I agree with some of the above posters that this should have been a series.

 

[Guy Gardener]

All they had to do to save the world, was kill a billion people.

In a week.

Old people because they are a waste of space, or babies because: fuck'em?

It's too hard for their powersets to be that precise.

Oh.

Target a thousand hospitals, a day from orbit with heat vision.

It's way more expeditious to just remove cities.

High population densities, low cultural impact?

But there's only 25 million people in Australia.

Either you remove China and India, or you remove everyone except China and India.

Or just nuke the polar ice caps and see what happens?

Problem with my original premis.

If it's mental activity that triggers a celestial birth, then babies, or even children have a fraction of the vim that an adult has, and then most over 60 or 70 is on a decline, and generate less mental energy than a doushebag in their prime.

So, don't target the hospitals.

Target every Starbucks on the planet.

 

[FPAlpha]

There shouldn't be any extra weight, because presumably the Celestial was just converting the matter of the earth into its own body.

Marble is a lot less dense than the Earth's core - or even the mantle - which means it should be pulverized almost immediately. This is...bad, because it would mean there would be a weak spot going up through the mantle, meaning a mega-volcano. Though TBH the scale of the Celestial's hand was too small to have its body all the way within the core - at least in the shots outside of the one showing space.

I'm not sure if it was explained in the movie ( and i have no desire to revisit it anytime soon) - is the destruction of the planet the result of the Celestial's giant body or that it is feeding on the planet which leads to its destruction?

If it's the former the pieces we see of Tiamut are not nearly big enough to tear Earth apart i presume. Yes, it are gigantic but the scale is off and i doubt it's big enough to cause Earth to crack apart. Massive tectonic activity and a big ass tidal wave sure but complete destruction? I don't buy it.

I saw the movie yesterday. It was ok, like the last couple of Marvel movies. What I don't like is that the running time is getting longer and longer with these new movies, like the new James Bond and now this one and the new Spiderman movie.

With Spiderman the time flew by, with Bond not so much. If the movie is engaging and good i don't mind 2.5 hours or more, otherwise it becomes a chore.

 

[Mage]

Yeah..... I really felt bored watching this.
The action scenes were pretty good and engaging, I suppose. But there was zero connection with the characters. They all felt so flat and un-engaging. No death was felt, none of the heartbreak or happy moments felt like they touched me. Too many characters at once to really develop properly.

As for the ending.... I'm sorry, but there's a half of a dead godlike creature the size of the half the fucking planet sticking out of Earth now. And a similar creature was scene in Earth's sky. Alive. This is something that's going to have a huge impact on this Earth's society. How are they even going to work with this in future movies? It looked amazing, but sorry, it just feels so weird knowing this is a thing now.
Not to mention.... Look at the effects that the vulcano eruption had two days ago. I'm from the Netherlands, and the shockwave was registered here. An event like this, a creature of this size pushing its way through miles and miles and miles of Earth's crust would have done so much shifting of tectonic plates, coming from so deep, that massive events would have been happening on a much larger scale. The tsunami alone would have been devastating.

Now yes, there is suspension of disbelieve which is required for movies like this, and I'm very good at that. But sorry, this was too much.

 

[USS Firefly]

With Spiderman the time flew by, with Bond not so much. If the movie is engaging and good i don't mind 2.5 hours or more, otherwise it becomes a chore.

In my opinion a lot of movies become boring because of the long runtimes. And I can't watch movies before 8.30 pm, so then It gets to late for me to watch a movie that long

 

[FPAlpha]

In my opinion a lot of movies become boring because of the long runtimes. And I can't watch movies before 8.30 pm, so then It gets to late for me to watch a movie that long

The only problem i have with movies is that i can't watch them horizontally at home in bed or the couch - i'll fall asleep 100% no matter how good the movie is However long runtimes i don't mind when i'm streaming, i am comfortable at home and if need be i can stop and continue another day.

With theaters i find the chair more uncomfortable each year ( might be due to my increasing age) so long movies can become a pain in the ass no matter how good they are.

 

[thribs]

It wasn’t the best but it was still best one out of the three Marvel Studios movies we got last year

 

[Guy Gardener]

I just figured out the stunt that would have saved and made this movie.

If Dane Whitman was dating Icarus, instead of Sersi.

Sure, he was with Sersi in the comics, but this pairing would make the Game of Thrones people lose their shit.

 

[eschaton]

It wasn’t the best but it was still best one out of the three Marvel Studios movies we got last year

We got four Marvel Studios movies last year. No Way Home was Marvel Studios, just not Disney.

 

[thribs]

We got four Marvel Studios movies last year. No Way Home was Marvel Studios, just not Disney.

I see that more of a Sony film