Hope springs Eternals

[shadowhive]

So I finally watched Eternals today, so thoughts under the cut.

So I went into the Eternals having these things as knowledge:
*I’d seen the trailers
*I’d seen the Lego sets
*I knew how long it was
*I knew one of them was gay (and had a husband!)

So that was my sum of knowledge… ok yeah, I knew Harry Styles was in it too but we’ll get to that. So I went in spoiler free, which was good I feel. So if you’ve not seen it, probably best stop here. If not… well.

First off, the length. Yeah, it was long. 2 hours 37 minutes is a long time and it probably could have worked better as a duology or series. I think it certainly could have used that because it introduced a lot of new characters and as such, there wasn’t enough room for them all. (Apparently there was meant to be 2 more Eternals in development, but those got dropped)

There was a lot of flashback parts, which could easily have been in their own film, ot wouldn’t have been hard to expand them to do just that. Instead they’re interspersed with the present day stuff, which at times slowed the momentum a bit. Though the hanging gardens of Babylon did look nice.

However there was one use of flashbacks that I think worked. As I was watchingI was disappointed that they just found Ajax dead, because it seemed so… random. But then when they did the reveal, that showed up the circumstances of her death and who was responsible… that worked well.

I really liked that this film introduced the first gay marvel superhero, with Phastos. And it was awesome he had a husband and kid. I think that was so great and I loved that. (And kudos for Disney for not backing down and cutting their relationship because it’s one of the best parts of the film)

One of the other things I really liked was Kingo’s valet, who was a fun, human addition to the plot and I’m glad he made it to the end.

The Deviants ended up being a bit ehish, I think the one talking took away some of the primal ness of them. Though it was cool how Thena ended up dicing him up.

The end did seem a bit sudden though, with Arishem just appearing and taking the Eternals away, no doubt as a set up for a follow up film (which was mentioned that they would return). The post credits scene was also nice, even though it was a bit of a shame for Sersei’s boyfriend to turn out to be… black knight? I think that’s his name.

But the mid credits scene was nice. (I didn’t realise Thena had left on the Domo until then) though how is Thanos’ brother so hot?

Overall I enjoyed it and it was definitely better than Black Widow was. I can see myself watching it again sometime and I’m looking forward to whatever they do with them next.

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

I can't decide whether I want to bother with this one or not. I've heard mostly good things about it, all the details sound cool, but also, I don't know if I have it in me to get invested in that many new characters, know what I mean?

Glad you enjoyed it! I'll keep an eye out at the library. I think it's on DVD now.

[shadowhive]

Yeah I absolutely get what you mean about that, there’s a lot of new people to get invested in. (And there’s no one that was introduced in a prior film to help ease in like with some other origin films).

Aww thanks, I hope you like it if you do end up watching

[dreamersdare]

We wondered if it would work better as either a Disney+ series (like, eight one-hour episodes rather than the stupid long film) or a series of movies a-la the phase one build up to Avengers, which worked really well.

Sounds like you had some similar responses to me, although probably more forgiving - the biggest compliment I was able to give it was "eh, s'pretty", which is literally the definition of damning with faint praise. I wasn't really wowed by any of the performances, but then I also didn't think the actors really had anything much to work with. It was just a triumph of style over substance for me.

(To the extent that by the time we got to the reveal about how Selma Hayek - whatever she was called, Ajax? - died, I literally didn't care, and I normally really like those kind of plot twists)

I think the problem is that nothing got given enough time to develop - they tried to cram so much into it that even with the stupidly long run time, everything was eithe "EXPOSITION" or "this should be a problem, but we don't have time for that, so fuck it, here's a quick and unsatisfying resolution"

I do agree it wasn't as bad as Black Widow, but... eh, for me that's a pretty low bar :)

[shadowhive]

Yeah I agree it would’ve probably worked better as a + series (I’m not sure there’d have been enough for a film series”

It was definitely pretty. But yeah I think you have a point there. There just wasn’t enough for some of them to really show off much in terms of characterisation, which would’ve been fine if we’d already seen them before, but with them being all new? And I had to admit a few times I was a bit like… ok what’s your name/power exactly?

(Yeah I had a similar feeling, you just didn’t know he well enough at that point and it was a bit of let down to just… find a body. At least they had the flashback to show what happened)

Yeah! It was very dense in that way. I think the problem is, again, that everything was the new. The Eternals themselves as characters, the situation they were in, it was just a lot. Which was a shame cause I do think there seems to be something interesting there.

Hee that’s true!

[turps]

I suspect this is yet another film that worked better for me watching at the cinema because it had some excellent action scenes that looked great on Imax, especially toward the end.

Plus, with it being so long if I'd watched at home I know for a fact it would have lost me attention wise.

though how is Thanos’ brother so hot?

That crossed my mind too.

[shadowhive]

Yeah I agree it would’ve probably worked better as a + series (I’m not sure there’d have been enough for a film series”

It was definitely pretty. But yeah I think you have a point there. There just wasn’t enough for some of them to really show off much in terms of characterisation, which would’ve been fine if we’d already seen them before, but with them being all new? And I had to admit a few times I was a bit like… ok what’s your name/power exactly?

(Yeah I had a similar feeling, you just didn’t know he well enough at that point and it was a bit of let down to just… find a body. At least they had the flashback to show what happened)

Yeah! It was very dense in that way. I think the problem is, again, that everything was the new. The Eternals themselves as characters, the situation they were in, it was just a lot. Which was a shame cause I do think there seems to be something interesting there.

Hee that’s true!

I dunno why this replied not you but to the post first try

[shadowhive]

I was good watching it attention wise thankfully. It is a shame I missed it at the cinema but… ah well

Yeah!

[rhoda_rants]

The cynical part of me wonders if they did that on purpose, like going, "Okay, we gave you your inclusive, diverse, queer characters, but we're going to make it SO HARD to pull fans in from the streaming shows!"

I'm sure I'll enjoy it once I do watch it. I generally do like the MCU movies. Just . . . they seem to exhaust me now.

[dreamersdare]

I think it would depend what they wanted to do with it for films. But I think they could have potentially done an origins film, and then a film with the resurgance of those whatjamathingies, and then a film with the titan, although it would all have involved more fleshing out. But overall, a series would work better, I suspect.

Oh man, I still can't remember all the names. By the end of the film, I was basically reduced to Thena, Dead Leader Chick, Ikarus, Sersai, that sprite kid, fast girl, mindwipe boy, inventer dude, bollywood dude (and minion) and... is that it? So I could name... three of them without having to wrack my brains. That's not awesome.

(It was the flashback I didn't care about. So, yeah, I didn't care when she died, and I cared even less by the time we found out why. I just had no investment in these characters at all)

Agreed. Waaaaaaaaaay too much to try and cram into one film. It was almost inevitable that it was all going to end up feeling... shallow?