I could have watched this in the theaters, but fuck that, that's a stupid idea. Instead, I waited for the Disney+ release for this latest MCU installment. The movie follows the titular Eternals, the champions of the Celestials on Earth, who are tasked to defend humanity from the monstrous Deviants and let them grow as a species. You'll get to see snippets of that 7000-year journey throughout the movie, but the main focus is on present day, as the sudden reemergence of the presumed-extinct Deviants brings the Eternals (who have all gone their separate ways since their last mission) back together.
It's a straightforward, perhaps formulaic premise on the surface, but things do get interesting once something called The Emergence is explained. Without expounding too much, it reveals the true purpose of the Eternals' mission (which they undertake at the Prime Celestial Arishem's behest), and I found the moral quandary that ensues among the Eternals to be much more engaging than a simple "get the band back together" tale to beat the shit out of some monsters. That said, this ends up making the Deviants angle nothing more than a distraction, which I thought was a shame. Along the way, they introduce Kro, leader of the Deviants, and there was potential for some interesting conflict based on what he says to the Eternals. Most of that is thrown to the wayside, unfortunately, and I felt that was a missed opportunity. There's also the matter of other contrivances, like how Kro himself came to be, and why the Deviants in general even do what they do in present day, but seeing as it's all thrown out in the end anyway, I saw no point in thinking about it too hard. We've got quite the ensemble cast of new characters, so I'll tackle this part in list form.
Overall, the cast can be a bit hit or miss, but I still found a lot of enjoyment in how they have different perspectives on humanity as they go about on their mission. Seeing those perspectives change or challenged made for engaging character moments. I can say something similar about the Eternals' relationships with one another; some of them could be better explored or fleshed out, but the philosophical clashes and the exploration of different kinds of bonds that got some focus were quite enjoyable to me. As I said, this movie goes back and forth from following the present-day plot and flashbacks to the Eternals' glory days of beating the shit out of Deviants. The flashbacks are a lot of fun, since that's where you get to see a lot of the ass-whooping, but there are some significant character moments in there, too. The present day has its share of action scenes, but a considerable amount (this movie is very long) of time is spent getting everyone back together, so I can see stretches of the movie to be not engaging for viewers who just want to see punching and explosions. I thought the action was decent, with Ikaris, Makkari, and Thena being the most fun to watch in combat, though I'll give bonus props to Phastos, Sersi, and Sprite for neat uses of their powers in some scenes. The Deviants didn't look too interesting design-wise, and I feel like their threat levels weren't portrayed consistently enough to make every encounter with them memorable (one moment they take a beating and then some, the next they go down like bitches). As for greater MCU tie-ins, this is more of a standalone affair, with the most being a mention of the events of Infinity War/Endgame (and how that affects a specific plot point, which I thought was brilliant), and the rest is just a bunch of throwaway lines that I thought felt inorganic as far as references go. This makes the movie easier to jump into with no background knowledge, but if you're looking for the "it's all connected" shit, this ain't the movie for it. Being familiar with how uncommon it is for the Eternals to cross over in the actual comics, this was about what I expected. This movie also introduces Dane Whitman, who is the Black Knight in the comics (wielder of the cursed Ebony Blade, a weapon tied to his family history). Unfortunately, he's just a regular dude in this movie, but I'm holding out hope that he'll be a full-fledged Avenger someday in the future (the history of the Ebony Blade is a fun corner of the Marvel Universe). The ending of the movie was intriguing, since it leaves plenty of room for a sequel with the main cast, but at the same time, how that hypothetical sequel can influence the MCU as a whole is still up in the air. I'd like to see more of these characters in hopes of fleshing them out more, and I really hope the two monumental events that occur in the final stretch are fully addressed in other MCU properties. In terms of scratching my comic book geek itch, Eternals does quite well. I liked how they changed the origin of the Eternals and Deviants and the motivations of the MCU Celestials, as their doing so led to a lot of the intriguing philosophical themes explored in the movie. I'm also a big fan of some of the deeper cuts, like how the Celestials feel like they're ripped straight out of the comics design-wise, how the Emergence is similar to a story revelation in a recent Avengers comic, the adaptation of an iconic Eternals ability, and the two after-credits scenes. Lastly, I appreciate the fact that they leaned into these superheroes being the basis of many human myths in the MCU, a concept which made the Eternals in the comics interesting to me to begin with. Now that I've mentioned it, yes, there are two after-credits scene. The first is a bombshell character introduction, one that I was hoping for since it's establishing a key connection from the comics that I really wanted to see in the MCU. The second is a tease for the future of one of the characters in the movie, one that I expected (and am excited for), but they threw in an extra surprise at the end that made me even more hyped. Personally, I thought Eternals was a respectable, ambitious effort to integrate a pretty obscure, usually standalone corner of the Marvel Universe into the MCU. It doesn't hit all the notes and stick all the landings with all the shit it tries to juggle in a worryingly long runtime, but I have to give props to building a completely new corner of the universe with characters most fans of the movies haven't heard of. I recognize that the philosophical shit may not be to a lot of people's liking, but I enjoyed a lot of the themes they explored through this movie, and I liked a good portion of the main characters and their relationships. In some respects, It's certainly not perfect (and I completely understand some of the complaints I've read), but on the whole, I think my experience was a net positive. Given all the new shit that was introduced in this movie, I understand that this might be a lot for casual MCU fans. You know where to find me if you want some explanations or trivia that won't be of value to you in your everyday life. There might be some expectation for me to address the elephant in the room (this movie was quite divisive online in terms of reviews), so let me say this before I go: I don't give a shit. That's their opinion; they can keep it, 'cause I ain't asking. I'm perfectly capable of constructing my own without looking at tomato percentages. And on that note, I should stress that blog entries of this kind are just my opinions. I'm not trying to proselytize anybody when I write these; I'm simply writing my ramblings down and throwing them into this void. There is no expectation that readers will agree, no aggressive attempt to persuade anybody that I'm right, and no conflicts being sought against people who disagree. - end -
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
June 2024
Derryck
|