The Huge Problem With The Eternals
2021 ж. 11 Қар.
805 057 Рет қаралды
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Marvel Studio's new film The Eternals doesn't live up to its potential. A very ambitious entry in the MCU, here's why I don't think it works.
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I thought it was bad
evil superman
evil superman
I decided to skip it's theatrical run and watch it later at home.
it wasn't bad. but it wasn't good either.
The biggest problem i had with this movie is that these characters were supposed to have lived through thousands of years yet they talk and act younger than my grandmother. I never got that feeling of wisdom that comes with age. I think they should have made them go to sleep in the ship once the deviants were exterminated. And once they came back thats when they wake up. It solves the issue of them not participating on the previous Marvel movies and explains their naiveness
@@massimolanzillo4768 makes sense, IF they diden't acted as 20th century millennials in the 5000 yrs B.C
I think they did it for the audience because with for Thor before ragnarock they presented him as a god who has a personality that isn’t very interesting while being so Knowledgeable and fans didn’t like him so they made him less serious and that seemed to work
Hey Marvel, hire this man!
Arishem mentioned that the eternals were incapable of evolution so maybe their also incapable of having large personality changes? Idk it doesn’t make a lot of sense but neither does the movie
But a lot of movies do that with characters were supposed to be hundreds or thousands of years old. Vampires are always depicted as acting the same age as they normally do instead of acting like they’re actually thousands of years old. If a person who looked like he was in his 20s or 30s it was really 200 or so years old they would act differently than everyone else and people would notice somethings off.
With this many characters and all their history together they probably should have made this into a series
I agree it would have worked way better that way. About 3 seasons
They probably my didn’t want a repeat of the inhumans
James Gunn could've done it
They wanted to make a movie with an "Epic" feel to it, which you can tell from the timespan, grand landscapes and music. It would be hard to do that in a TV show.
You can't have Jolie or Zhao in a TV show...
Marvel did this perfectly with the Avengers by giving almost all of them their own movies to be fleshed out characters. The eternals needed something like this too, I think a TV show would've been a lot better
The thing is the build up of the Avengers has been going on for over a decade so having multiple movies to build up the Eternals when they're already building up other things like the multiverse would be highly unlikely in my opinion. I'm not saying that their choice to do a singular movie was the right thing to do. I agree that a TV show would've been better.
When gilgamesh dies, people didn't even feel bad. Like...there was no connection with the character
@@_cap7412 yeah it didn't have any impact for me either
@@jichaeljuicy4047 what do you mean by building up multiverse?
@@John-dd8kh With the release of Loki, What If, and Spiderman No Way Home the multiverse has essentially been opened. Like you know, what all of those things are based on is building up the Marvel Multiverse. Loki's end literally had its main thing being different variants from different universes, What If showed different marvel universes in general, and Spiderman No Way Home showed that they are indeed expanding upon the marvel multiverse(well at least the spiderverse)
The fact that "Marvel" is so stuck in the "MCU template" is probably going to lead to a lot of the future films not living up to their full potential and being underwhelming. People are just starting to notice it more as they attempt to bring in characters from the comics that had a completely different tone than regular superhero comics.
I definitely feel this too.
Nonsense, this movie was just a mediocre exception...you're reaching with that argument.
@@carldrogo9492 I'd like to agree if Black Widow and falcon and winter soldier wasn't also exceptions.
It’s not that deep. When there is so many movies there have to be good ones and bad ones. Eternals just happened to be one of the bad ones
@@TheCaliforniaboy1 Black Widow was definitely a dissapointment. All the while I was watching the film Atomic Blonde I was thinking to myself, "this is more along the lines of what a Black Widow film should have been like".
The only thing that really desapointed me was the waste of the intelligent deviant. I mean, he ends up being 100% wasted, just killed as a minor villain. They should have explored he trying to build a place for his race in the world, or at least helping to save the world that his species was now living in. Or, at least, kept him for alive for the sequel
I think the intelligent Deviant would have worked better if it never turned humanoid. He was never going to overshadow Celestials or Ikaris without a major rewrite, but the Thena scene would be creepier if it was a giant monster saying all that.
Agreed
@@thomaslaing6800 that's a good point, it would have been creepier if it was a monster saying that. But they had to kill him off regardless due to bigger threats
Potentially they run into more on other planets in future films?
That's the main problem I have with the marvel movies. They kill off almost all of their villains.
This literally should have been a high budget disney plus show...
I had the feeling watching the movie that It was originally conceptualized as high budget serialized show like the leftovers or breaking bad, but when Fiege wanted to up it into a film Zhao thought sure and moved her concepts into a 2 hour and a half film that doesn't get to fully finish or marinate in its ideas.
@@thwipkid I think it was doomed from the start This is the obvious Inhumans replacement
Jolie in a tv show? Idk if that will work.
@@parkeranimations3671 this would be when the show was still being conceptualized, no casting would’ve been done yet, no budget would’ve even been given, at that point she probably hadn’t even talked to Kevin Fiege about it instead just coming up with her own ideas in her own head.
@@jesusramirezromo2037 Yeah, the fact the Inhumans got turned into a cheap TV show and Eternals into a big expensive film still disappoints me
Tbh the eternals could’ve totally been a game of thrones style masterpiece. From first developing humanity, to adapting with them, all while each character branches out
If Game of Thrones was actually a masterpiece, I'd agree with you.
@@Turd_Rocket The first 4-5 seasons are not diminished by how bad the latter ones were, and early GoT is some of the best TV ever created. It became the biggest cultural phenomenon of the 2010s for a reason.
@@Melodeath00 Doesn’t matter, the show still was ass because of the last two seasons.
@@Devinn504 that’s like saying all cars suck because Nissan Sentras exist. Cars are great, so was a large majority of GoT episodes. 2 bad seasons don’t offset 6 groundbreaking cinematic tv seasons., it means it ended poorly.
Eternals can be simmered down pretty much to “wanting you to care without telling you what to care about.” As everyone said a show was certainly a much smarter option for the Eternals and I’m shocked that that wasn’t the course they went down. Especially considering how significant the Eternals are going to be in the larger story.
The exposition was just tell, don't show. They tell us stuff to make us care but didn't show us something to relish about it
God, I hope they just retcon the movie. It will be painful to see future non-Eternals movies depend on the first Eternals. They should have introduced them sooner, or later in another movie. I'm very worried about Guardians 3. I just don't want this mess to be a part of Guardians 3 after they kind of screwed with the established celestial lore from Guardians 2. Hopefully they just say Arishem was a liar and horny celestial and that the celestials are far fewer and more inconsequential than what Arishem said, except there are a few of them and they all have separate goals. Ego wanted to become every planet he seeded, Arishem is horny, and then - say-Galactus is hungry for planet life-force. Problem solved. Also, The Eternals didn't happen exactly the way the movie showed. It gets revealed to be Kumail's character's in-universe movie based on the events and Tiamat's hands and stuff didn't literally push and replace the entire Earth's innards just to be turned into solid rock. The Earth should have fallen apart if the core, mantle, crust, molten nickel, oceans, continental plates were suddenly turned into a giant man and then into rock. Kumail wasn't there at the end so he fudged the details.
idk I’m just a fan of laser man
I'll repeat what so many people already have: this should've been a mini-series, with each episode focusing on an Eternal, an integral time period that they played a role in, and the moral dilemmas they endure. There was simply far too many characters and concepts, as well as obligatory "Marvel-isms" (i.e. quips, CGI fights, and teasers for tie-ins), to cram into a single film.
This got me thinking about what if they did it Haunting of Hill House style, with the first 5 episodes following the 5 main characters and showing us how they each became the person they are in the present, the 6th episode getting all of them together in one place to clash & butt heads, and the last 4 episodes having them all work through their issues & trauma and solve the external conflict as a family
Yes it would've been a fantastic mini series! Such a missed opportunity
a mni series would have been perfect. i think if they dropped the deviant subplot and ran with the whole kingo trying to introduce the world to the eternals it would have been great. still could have kept the celestial plotline as a plotline going through the whole thing while each episode focuses on a single eternal introduce them and give their perspective on the celestial conflict
If I recall this was meant to be a tv series before becoming a film
I don't think it will be a great idea for a characters we know nothing about.Up till now all the disney + shows have done well before as the characters appeared before . Moonknight and ms marvel will decide the new characters will really deserve the show . Plus eternals is a foundation stone for x men so it has to appeal to masses and hence tv show is out of que
To be honest Sprite's "becoming mortal" bit was mainly to address the child actor who would rapidly grow out of the role. They had to explain her sudden growth spurts between films which at this point will be over the course of several years. I figured they'd either kill her off or that. Didn't expect that.
I would have rather she died sheilding Ikaris, sort of make her a Juliet figure, another character puberty led to ruin. Maybe she even made the story herself.
Plus that makes his suicide more poignant
I think the issue is that it wasn't done convincingly enough
She is a robot. She can't be turned into human by another robot. That was really dumb. Maybe it would have made sense if a celestial did it but not another lifeless eternal. They are just droids. Don't forget that. They have no real feelings or souls, they have programs. They would all be evaporated by the soul detector at theTVA or do we not remember what LOKI season 1 taught us.
But at the same time, it makes you think, are other eternals don't want to also get old? Its been thousands of years, atleast one of them aside from sprite wanted to be old or die
The Eternals strategy to defeat the Deviants is also just like: happen to show up when they do, somehow just being in the right place in time over the planet. No sectioning off zones of protection, no surveillance. Then after they defeat them years ago, the Eternals have lives, feasibly on the same "I guess if I see a deviant I'll destroy it" agenda. There's no exploration on guilt from failing at their seemingly part-time job.
So there's a moment that is not just in the film but also in the trailers where Sersi turns a boulder into birds - it goes completely un-aknowledged because its in a climatic fight but if a little more attention had been drawn to it, even just a close up of herself watching a bird quizzically, it would've made for a much stronger lead in to breathing life into inorganic material. theres also a missed opportunity in the 'i can a turn rock into...' scene for Karun to ask her if she can make statues come to life, or something, and maybe lead into a look of disappointment turned hope like "no... I can't..." "she can make water though, and water makes life" "yes. Life isn't something to give any more than something to take away; life is something you encourage and nurture" Then the final scene with Sprite, it could've been sold a little more like a banishment. We can't trust you any more, you wronged us, but you have always been there for us before - shot of sersi watching the birds fly across one of the cliff-face fingers, then at her own hands. I give you life, the life stolen from the celestials, the life you nearly took from the humans. You will grow old, you will die, but you will live. I'm sorry. A pause as Sprite considers this; "...thankyou." (there could even be a nod to Sprite's death in the comics worked in with her saying "I suppose everything was leading to this." "I suppose it was")
Hello? This was genius. You are very creative.
they know talk like actual ancient beings unlike the movie
Awesome rewrite that adds a lot more depth. Cheers and thanks.
The biggest thing that holds this movie back from truly being something special is the fact that it doesn't fully commit to any of the great ideas and questions it brings up. I feel like Chloe Zhao wanted to make a deep thought provoking drama, but was constrained by the fact that it still had to be a comic book marvel movie. For example the deviants hate the eternals b/c they feel like the eternals are the real monsters. When I was watching it I was like, "YES, let's explore that". Then they don't. They bring up that really interesting perspective from the villain, but don't explore any of it. That's just one example. Everything from the celestials, deviants, questions about humanity, and some of the eternals characterizations were all really REALLY great ideas. But they never took the time to actually explore anything beyond just the surface of these great idea. I feel like that's what so frustrating about this movie and why it just didn't connect with a lot of ppl. You can't just bring up questions about is humanity worth saving and never actually dive into that. It just leaves you with an anti climactic feeling.
The ironic part is, when Neil Gaiman did an Eternals run (a run this film borrows distinctive elements from) he made it a point to wallow in the little unpleasant realities such immortals would face.
Questions that I believe R Scott wanted to cover in Prometheus, but failed miserably
I've heard the opposite, Marvel Studios apparently let Chloe and the writers to do whatever they want. I don't know if it's actually true but it kinda makes sense (?) The typical Marvel-ism is relatively less than the other Marvel media. They experimented with dual plotline. There's also more emphasize on "Oscar-esque" film-making. It brings up the question on whether the writers actually just want to do everything they want to do at once, but failed to grasp how the movie format (especially the Marvel movie format) is not meant for something so ambitious as this. This movie is basically Zack Snyder's Justice League but forced to be released on theaters, which that movie still have issues due to it still being a 4 hour movie.
Dude I’ve been making this point since I saw the film and I have yet to see a review mentioning it. You’re the first person I’ve even seen bring it up! It’s such a big problem - it’s in fact the main reason I generally didn’t like the film. This being said, my ultimate takeaway wasn’t that the writers were constrained by the devices of Marvel films. In fact, I get the sense that they kind of wanted to have their cake and eat it too - wanted to pay lip service to these bigger, more interesting, more apparently Academy-Award-worthy ideas whilst also doing all the Marvel stuff, I assume as a way of proving that these films can be artistic of their own accord.
💯
The actor playing Gilgamesh was the only one I can think off who managed to convey the world weariness of someone with immense potential who was forced to live small, and somehow made their peace with it. He barely had screen time and still managed to convey so much. After watching Th Train To Busan, to not take advantage of his charisma is quite a waste. The third act was a mess and held this back, but it wasn’t as bad or as preachy as a lot of people have made it out to be. Well, except the part where Fastos out of no where breaks out the ‘I am who I am and I’m not ashamed of it’, I was like what 😂
I was really expecting more of him since the actor who played the character is very charismatic and had a great chemistry with Angelina Jolie's character.
Phastos statement was definitely in-your-face cringy. But it fit into the entire CEU (Cringy Eternals Universe.)
I physically cringed when Druig did the "Upset" spiel during the babylon scene.
@@bluebear3865 I thought he was wong for a bit ngl 💀 but fax I didn't expect them to kill him off like that, especially not so quickly, bro got bested by a deviant and so easily too 🤦♂️
@@kattmilk that line really isn't that bad lmao
Eternals really should've been a series, and Hawkeye really should've been a film. Just calling it as I see it. Both have the exact opposite problems with their pacing. Hawkeye really drags on for too long and probably could've been condensed into a shorter runtime (the subplot with Natasha's sister could've been saved for a different project and teased in the post-credits scene), and Eternals needed more time to tell its story since it basically shares the same issues as something like Zach Snyder's Justice League but to a greater extent (and you know you fucked up when you're doing worse than Zach Snyder).
This is exactly what I told my dad! I agree 100%.
I disagree
@@Adriel013 i disagree about the hawk eye thing but eternals probably could have been a series
@@connorcat7809 Hawkeye is so boring and uninteresting I only saw like 3 episodes and have no interest in it.
ZSJL was good tho :l
i've been thinking a lot about the parts of the eternals that really bothered me most, and i think what would've saved the movie is not having tiamut hatch for another several years but the eternals finding out through the head deviant about that, leading to a confrontation about how to best stop that - the eternals (minus ikarus) wanting to save humanity before it hatches vs the deviants who want to wipe humanity out to give it nothing to feed on - and a looming threat for an eternals trilogy
My take is that the eternals shouldn’t have been a movie set in present day, their days in Babylon and other times and places In the past were the greatest part of the movie. A character driven movie based on the eternals different ideology in terms of serving the celestials and whether not interfering is right, would’ve made for a great introduction in the MCU.
Not one second of the movie or sets was believable, that was a problem. The movie was terrible. Pointless.
@@bartondean4260 I'm 30 minutes into it rn and tbh... I don't know these characters. That's the issue. Each one needs their own movie so when they come together I can enjoy it. It's like the avengers but more mythical and ZERO backstory.
Yeah but if they did that then everyone would already know that the world wouldn't be destroyed (because of future events that happen)
Absolutely! Don't set it in the modern day or cut way down on the flashbacks. I only need small hints of where the characters were, what I want is see where they are.
I like your idea
Ironically I think you could have done Loki and TFWS as movies while it was their big movie that desperately needed 12 episodes.
Yeah, kind of like they did in Haunted of Hill House focusing each ep in a character then having a couple of the whole team.
Falcon especially felt like a movie arbitrarily cut into episodes
Not Loki but TFWS would work much better
@@Maximus-ch4ir Loki could have been a great show with its concept & format, but the actual way they did it would have been better fitted in a movie. They did nothing to actually use their episodic format.
@@Akane1051 wdym could've?
It feels like Marvel thought it had the superhero dream team trope down to a tee and could just play Eternals the way it played the Avengers. But what they forgot was that they had built up the Avengers over several films before they emerge as the Avengers. Whatever you think about the Marvel Avengers cycle, they did at least put in the foundations. With Eternals they seemed to think they could skip all that and simply have the Eternals appear and we'd all think it was great. The other issue is audience fatigue. Superhero films have become so pervasive over the last decade that I think at this point most of the audience for this type of film are somewhat bored. If Marvel thinks they can simply churn out an Eternals franchise in the same well used mold I think they will make a big mistake. I think audiences are ready for something a little different and more innovative and Eternals could have fitted the bill, unfortunately it didn't.
My first thought upon leaving the movie theater was -- that felt like a DC movie. Solid superhero movie. Under utilized/developed character arcs. Just straight into an ensemble film. The Eternals movie style would have 100% fit into the DC movie universe and nobody would have bat an eye, but because it's the MCU, it feels so out of place.
Too dark, not enough humor through most of the film. Took itself very seriously at nearly all times. That’s what made it feel like a DC film to me. I feel that humor is one of biggest differences between the 2 film universes. There were some light and funny moments, but it still always felt so serious.
nice analysis. ye i agree
Hmm I’d say rather different. Say what you like about DC but they at least make sure to give you the best villain at least. Those characters seem very bland.
@@jobsmine That and every film lately has had a different tone from the rest. Yeah, there’s no continuity, but at least there’s a lot of different themes atmospheres. A lot Uniqueness basically
@@gabbyparr6099 nah, DC is colorful and funny, but DC is really pretentious
Besides the 10 character problem, they have interesting concepts about morality, character beliefs, and the Celestials but they aren’t explored. Like Druig’s cult thing he uses some as puppets in a fight(That’s not mentioned again), Phastos guilt of his inventions, The Deviant Kro realizing his species were pawns and he just wants them to live, and so on.
Yeah that smart Deviant thing felt like such a red herring. It kind of amounted to... nothing. I was kind of assuming that they were going to realize that he was the perfect answer to the Uni-Mind thing. Let him absorb them all, then he'd be able to stop the Celestial. As is... he just dies. And then Congratulations Gemma Chan! You can do the thing now! I get that they want these characters to return, so having the Deviant guy absorb them all would never happen, but it's a total missed opportunity to do something interesting.
I'm sure that's intertwined with the 10 character problem, there's barely any time to explore each of their beliefs when there's not enough time.
The thing about the sanctuary that Druig made is i think they all willingly allowed him to use their minds. I can't remember where this was said but all of those people didn't have any negative reaction to him controlling them either.
@@StopReadingMyNameOrElse That's the contradiction tho. He still controlled them, trying to prove his theory correct, but couldn't bring himself to do it to everyone because he was right. Yet, he still controls them without hesitation.
@@blackmanwithcomputer I mean, that was a life or death situation and him mass controlling them gives them a massive tactical advantage, so I really don't see a problem with that tbh.
the most intriguiging thought about the Eternals, is, how the hell are you supposed to process mundane everyday activities if you are thousands of years old? like with Sprite having to go to school, the thought of sitting along classmates, that aren't as nearly as developed mentally as her, could be enough to drive you insane. They clearly didn't have the time to go into depth about details like this, mostly due to the movie consisting of so many characters, I really think a series would have fit better.
You've got the same thing with Thor, everyone seems to forget he also live thousands of years
@@fynnieboy yeah but his past is not connected to earth but on the other side eternals whole life and purpose is saving earth and helping humans.
They're droids tho, I think they can handle a couple of millenia amount of information
As someone who still vividly remembers what utter _purgatory_ so-called 'higher education' was, the very thought of such a scenario is akin to nightmare fuel...
There are also major continuity details being missed when you have a historical theme to it. Tiamut sticking out of the Earth is definitely a massive mistake because Earth would've been destroyed. It is something that has grown inside the Earth's core and the earthquakes are just one of the things that would happen. Volcanic eruptions, ecosystem collapsing and it certainly it should've destroyed the Earth when it came outside unless Dr Strange did something, One above all interfered (not possible) or it's lazy writing. Thanos is an Eternal with a Deviant gene so Eternals not helping with the fight is bullshit.
This is my biggest issue with the movie. It's a huge plot hole that is carelessly dropped on the writers of future movies. It doesn't work. The cherry on top is that Ikarus flies into the sun instead of reversing the Earth's rotation to go back in time to stop Tiamat from being Earth's chestburster.
O pi
@@lordpsi99 what lol.So icurus flying into the sun dealing with guilt is stupid but icurus flying around the earth and making time reverse is better lol.Now i eternals was a good movie.Now i know channels like these are doing it for views.
Maybe it's because I went into this with exceptionally low expectations, like subterranean low, but I ended up really enjoying the film, and I only agree with a couple of your points. Maybe this is giving the film too much credit, but I feel like we got just enough from each character that our imaginations can fill in the gaps, and that's not a detriment. Is the result that some of the characters feel half baked? Maybe a little, but it didn't hurt my experience at all coming out of the film. If anything, it just made me want to see more of these characters, either in follow-ups or prequel stuff.
I just watched the film and that's exactly how I felt. Sure, their stories aren't 100% fleshed out, but in a 2.5 hr movie, I didn't expect it to be. I thought it was a good mix of history, present day and tension. My biggest issue, tbh, is seeing them struggle with such "human" feelings. Part of me felt like they should not have those petty struggles. That aside, I really enjoyed the film and I'm looking forward to the next installment.
Yea i heard the movie was bad so i had no expectation. But this might be one of my favorite marvel movies. The scope of the MCU is actually fairly small. The amount of interesting stories and movies we can get because Eternals was made is much larger now. I can understand why the average mcu fan wouldnt like this movie but im happy this risk was taken.
I expected nothing and was still disappointed.
I honestly felt like I was connected to most of the characters they did a great job with just 1 movie and 10 main characters
Exactly how I feel, I think people expect too much from their first movie together, it all is supposed to come together in the end
I think there's currently a pandemic of 'centuries old characters who act like they're 17'. I think it just shows a lack of creativity on the part of the writers, like they can't imagine how different the perspective of such a character truly would be.
Spot on. I think that they know a story of beings who keep on living and loving only to lose it all over and over is really tragic. I think it's cynical to believe that the audience can't deal with that. It doesn't have to be so quippy all the time. The real feat would be to surprise us every now and then and break from the formula
It’s just a way to introduce weird pedophilic desires
It doesn't have much to do with the movie, but a good example of this trope done right (at least for me), is The Man from Earth, a film about a college professor who has a small reunion with friends and collegues because he's about to move to a different state, and he tells them that he is a 14,000 year old Neanderthal who doesn't age, and has lived in multiple places with different names. Really good watch.
@@guido.degenaro Interesting, I want to check that out. Are you referring to the 2017 adaptation of The Man From Earth?
@@LanceAvion I'm referring to the 2007 movie. The 2017 one is a sequel to that one, but I haven't seen it. Check it out! It is definitely very different in tone, pacing and stakes to a typical MCU movie, though, so take that in mind.
Other than stating the obvious in that Eternals should've been a series as opposed to one movie, my biggest gripe is them killing off Gilgamesh. I wanted to see more of what life was like for him taking care of Thena, or an explanation as to why they're so close in the first place.
trueee. i feel like so many things weren’t completed because the movie was like 2/3 hours long. it wouldve been nicer to dig up more of their personal lives and build a connection like we’ve seen in the past with other characters
that's ironically enough the only thing that they actually gave an explanation as to why this is the case (and even then I feel like we barely got enough to time to the point where we don't care when Gilgamesh dies (honestly give Angelina Jolie credit here cause she actually did a very good job with that scene))
They wasted my man Don Lee
@@antismo9998 :(
Eternals when they die there memory is restored read the comics
Easily one of the most frustrating movies I have ever seen I was actually angry when they saved the planet like I wanted them to lose it was so aggravating
I think this story could've worked perfectly as a ~4 hour two-part story (something shot back to back and released just months apart). The first part should've focused on their arrival on Earth, their battles with the Deviants, and served to flesh out each character a bit and the team dynamics - ending with the team seemingly defeating all the Deviants and splitting up. The second part could picked up the story in present day and revealed the truth of their existence (which would've been a complete shock and recontextualized everything from the first part) and filled in the holes of characters who had took a background role in pt. 1 but had a more interesting story post-team breakup like Phastos and Kingo.
I wish they had fleshed out Gilgamesh and Phastos. Gilgamesh was a guy that had real hobbies and talents outside of being an Eternal, much like Phastos. Family men who loved deeply and had a deep need to protect. Would have been great to see those stories go deeper.
not to mention him literally being Mesopotamian and marvel casting a south asian actor???
@@m9rcelin3 The Eternals are aliens, they're not being subjected to a single human race
i hated that the most interesting eternals were pushed to the back or killed off so sersi and ikaris had the spotlight by force. they were super boring characters, i couldn't care less about their love life.
@@m9rcelin3 what?
@@m9rcelin3 im pretty sure the guy who played gilgamesh was korean
My interpretation of Ikaris is he was a “sheep in wolves clothing” in the finale; saying things like “I’ll kill you all” with no follow through because he just wants them to stop interfering with the emergence so they get mind wiped and go to the next planet together.
I thought the same. He clearly wanted them all alive and together. He just didn't want the emergence to be stopped. Even when he was fighting them, he didn't seem to be going for the kill like he could have.
But I also think that a part of his character is this undying loyalty, and to something I found myself understanding too. To me the externals and this birthing process of new galaxies and planets and worlds, felt eery and grim but also necessary. I didn’t want to dismiss it right away when I first heard it because I know nature is not all rainbows and butterflies though we might want it to be. It really is about destruction and creation. So I loved that they used his character the way they did because he demonstrated the pain of having loved them and loving the humans, but also this greater caking, a duty to what was essentially (in this world) the very design of nature. Idk if that makes sense but it read as something greater than even the celestial. It was nature’s own force and though it might seem cruel to us it had its purpose. However, there is also the point they made that surviving and protecting those we love is also natural. And so without making this comment any longer than it needs to be, I totally agree with you! But I also think his dilemma came not just because he wanted to live with them together, but because he was bound by duty, a trait I think gives his character a lot of depth and power.
To be honest, I found Ikaris' motivations to be most 'believable' in the end. It seemed to me that his laser eyes were fairly useful at killing anything until the end when he splits the spaceship in half. It was difficult to get a sense of how powerful these Eternals were given the rather pathetic battles they had with the Deviants. I thought the Deviants looked very 'Edge of Tomorrow'ish but not as intimidating - we needed to be given an idea about how powerful and difficult to kill the Deviants were. To me they were just big things.
Same he didn't want to kill them he wanted to be with them
It was just me that think he received a order to let the Tiamut be 'killed' when he faced Sersi? And them he didn't want to deal with more information that he couldn't share (again), he killed himself.
This story would have been so good in a series. These are legit actors that all deserved time to feel out their characters
A tv show with each character having their own episode dedicated to their character and background before finally in the last 2-5 episodes they get together to save the world would have been so much better.
Sprite becoming mortal was just an easy way to keep Lia McHugh in the role.
cant fault em. shes ridiculously talented for someone that age. i can see her reprising the role of like the kids from modern family or boyhood where the character sees the changing world through the eyes of someone growing up in that universe
Duh. She’s not going to stay the age she was filming this movie forever.
Yeah but dumb cause she has no powers now and is completely useless
@@StillTendo she still kept her powers
Maybe, but narratively it works perfectly
That Deviant was such a red herring, like so much so, I think it would've been better if he joined the Eternals and offered his energy as well. Like the more he evolved the more he understood that the Celestials are the true villains. Could've also created a unique dynamic between the Eternals and him.
Imo that would just be the predictable "bad guy turns good at the end of the final act trope that's been so overdone now. But yeah he was so so underutilised
the only thing is I don't think he should have been good. just wanting to take the Celestials' plan out for selfish reasons. maybe cause he wants them to pay cause the Deviants were replaced.
@@suhailmall98 Literally everything in this movie has been predictable and overused. With the Deviant they just killed the only cool concept about it.
But the eternals aren’t villains tho
He reminded me of ultron
I recently watched this having no real background on these characters and couldn't agree more with your take. It feels underdeveloped and feels like it would have translated better as a tv series rather than a movie.
My initial takeaway when I saw the film was I absolutely loved moments in the film…. And then it would cut before it became legendary. There were soooo many opportunities for huge emotional punches, but the characters dropped like flies so quickly it was difficult to care. Even though I wanted to! It probably would have been better off as a trilogy. Then they could have taken their time. Considering it takes place over thousands of years, even a trilogy would be a bit difficult to jam pack.
There are 2 other problems with the Eternals. First, the movie contradicted Ego's origin story in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2. He says he's the only living celestial in the universe and that he couldn't find another celestial to help him complete his expansion plan but we see other celestials like Ashirem, Eson, and Jemiah roaming the universe the whole time. Why didn't Ego know about those guys? You think he would've found one of them while he's impregnating trillions of women from different planets. Second, the director says that the Eternals weren't in Infinity War or Endgame because they're not allowed to interfere with human history unless the Deviants are threatening that history. The problem is that Thanos is the son of A'Lars (an Eternal) who was born with a deviant gene so shouldn't that gene alone give the Eternals probable cause to interfere with his plan to collect the infinity stones and wipe out half of the universe with them? They are nothing more than absentee landlords just like Captain Marvel.
Iv only just today watched this movie and that was first point then they said they wasn't allowed to interfear 😂
Tbf I think the ego one could be explained by ego wanting to lie to Peter and tell him he’s the last living celestial to create an illusion of rarity & special-ness in Peter to get him to accept his birthright more
They wouldn't have known what Thanos was since they rely on Ajak or Arishem to tell them, and if Ajak found out she would've been in support of Thanos since he delayed the emergence
Maybe it's the horny giant man that's lying about his race? Yondu: "that guy is an asshole!" We've literally only seen 3 or 4 of them in space out of all the area covered in Guardians of the Galaxy 1+2 and Avengers, and they are very different to each other. There's Ego, possibly, then the dead one in Guardians 1, then Arishem who lies again and again, and then there's Tiamat. I'll give it that there's possibly another one from the previous planet these eternals were on but any else was just implied by compulsive liar. At least that's something that he has in common with Ego.
@@whatsyourname9581 No he really is a celestial, he was just lying
For me, Eternals suffers from Marvel's current need to make everything huge and a spectacle on a galactic scale. When you do that, you lose the smallness and details that make characters relatable and compelling. I can relate to Peter Parker with his financial issues and family commitments more than I can a bunch of immortal gods who plod around the Earth dancing and quipping. Characters like Thor are ancient but they are flawed and that makes them interesting. The whole MCU also has issues with the feverish fans who jump on anyone who does not immediately love the newest Marvel movie. Too many throw around race and gender attacks on people who simply didn't like the movie as it didn't connect with them or entertain.
I totally agree. These don’t feel like heroes. Captain America saving soldier, Ironman stopping terrorists, Thor sacrificing himself for a town. The Eternals just explored the idea of “humans are bad, but the little bit of good in them is worth saving,” which takes away from their heroic traits. Captain America was all about standing up to the bullies. Iron man was all about the consequences of giving man kind weapons and the people who get hurt. In fact, the idea of giving mankind super weapons was already explored by Ironman, and instead of losing faith in humanity, stark decided to promote his ark reactor and stop producing weapons. These stories connect back to the average person, the reason why they are heroes. They don’t need to understand that imperfection is a human quality to decide they are worth protecting. You don’t feel this connection when our heroes are in the middle of the ocean away from humans who don’t even know their in danger. The difference between the avengers fight against an overwhelming force and this one is we got to see our heroes save the people directly.
But they don’t make a spectacle out of everything.
Totally agree with you.
@@melt6894 But the thing is, they weren't heroes to begin with. As they themselves said, they were the villains. For millions of years, tens of thousands of worlds. This is just a tale of sacrifice for the 'greater good' and whether or not it actually is 'the greater good'. A lot of decisions we make are exactly this question, only in smaller scale.
@@amf0078 they very much do
Also: The choice of using the nuclear bomb as humanity's low point is odd. I somewhat understand it, because of the angle of technology, but technology has been used in wars as long as it existed. Phastos giving up on humanity at that point felt completely random. How about toxic gas in WW1, how about using toxic gas to murder Jewish people in concentration camps in WW2? The entire movie felt like they tried to do so many things that none of it works consistently.
I think what they should have done is made a 12 episode Disney plus show on the eternals. Each character gets there own episode that really dives into there character. It shows there perspective of the world but also continues the story in the present day. The last to episodes are about all the eternals and the finish up the main story line.
Makari was not really isolated for thousands of years. She is the one who talks about DVD players, so she at least has gone out in the last 30 years or so
But how do you know they don’t have technology inside the ship which allows them to view what’s happening in the rest of the world without leaving the ship? It makes sense given that their entire purpose is to be aware of what’s happening in the world so their ship would probably have something which quickly lets them view that so that they can intervene whenever they need to.
@@CeruleanSword they could, but we don't know if they have. To assume that she was isolated for thousands of years just because she was living in the ship doesn't really make sense, and the fact that she mentions things from the outside world points to the opposite
@@caiodiniz7371 But it doesn’t make sense to assume that she wasn’t isolated for centuries or however long it was, because the ship was literally buried underground in some archaeological ruins. How would she even leave??
Can I call her Makar
@@CeruleanSword there was also some potato chips in there with her, so she indeed got out at least to grab food
Also now there are SO many magic systems in the MCU, I really wonder how each of them will be explained, in Shang-Chi we even se this world with fantastical creatures, Blade will probably introduce vampires, idk there has to be something to make it feel like it's all one big universe again
Maybe Multiverse of Madness will help with that
Just tie it all to celestials. Problem solved. A universe problem that can't be solved however is the time travel lol. (Thanks Loki)
I didn’t like what they did with Shang-Chi, the movie should have been about Shang-Chi fighting street level threats, that way it would have open up the street level universe introducing several grounded hero’s including the Defenders, The Punisher, and maybe even Blade. Instead they took the magical Disney route making it a complete fantasy were Shang-Chi barley even used Kung-Fu, he’s suppose to be the Master Of Kung Fu! And we have yet to see that.
@@russiankodiak6849 The problem with making an 'Actual' martial arts superhero film is that 9 times out of 10 even the most skilled martial artists will lose to even a middleweight boxer, hence why we need 'Chi' and ninja magic to actually make these non brawler heroes catch up
@@oakleyraverty1030 you must be joking? A skilled mma fighter will beat the crap out of a boxer at the same weight class.
I enjoyed “Eternals” a great deal - even saw it twice in theaters - but you do bring up a number of good points. Things such as the Kingo situation, which I thought about but just let slide, but also like Phastos’ situation (and to a lesser degree, Sersi’s), wherein he’s married to a mortal and raising a mortal son. Reminds me of when Odin (or was it Loki?) tells Thor to forget about Jane because her life is fleeting, a mere heartbeat compared to their lifespan. I agree that maybe a TV series would’ve better served these characters. But again, I did enjoy the film. And if nothing else, it’s a gorgeous film to watch.
True but the movies main point is about defying creation and purpose for love. So the fact that a character chooses love regardless of future problems isnt surprising
I actually have a huge problem with Ikaris' betrayal in that his point of view seems really difficult to empathize with. Arishem has already lied to everyone about their purpose. The benefit to the birth of Tiamut is so abstract and I feel the movie lacks a human perspective to bounce off of Ikaris. Nobody makes the case, for instance, that humanity is self-destructive, living on borrowed time or not worth saving, there's just this nebulous statement that Tiamut will create more worlds (presumably also to be sacrificed for the Celestials). No sense that defying Arishem would be dangerous to them or even that they are certain to survive the destruction of Earth. Why is Ikaris loyal to this lying god that obviously does not care about anyone else, to the point of wanting to murder the only family he knows? Why does Kingo agree with him? I personally think it would be more interesting if this central conflict was more personal and more explicitly about humanity's worthiness. And I think that could easily done by making it a choice between the humans and the eternals. Maybe the big twist is that the birth of Tiamut is actually the only way the Eternals can survive, and some Eternals are ready to sacrifice themselves to save humanity, but Ikaris and some others (I think Druig and Sprite make the most sense) will not let them, trying to save both their own lives and those they love. In this case, Ikaris' goal isn't even to kill them, it is explicitly to save them at the cost of life on Earth. The battle doesn't have to be about life and death, it could be Druig forcing them to fight humans and Ikaris and Sprite trying to delay them by force, illusion and such. That could be dramatic. Kro could explicitly join the side that is defying Arishem (and/or betray them to force both sides to join up temporarily). It is weird that the Eternals were originally created never to evolve beyond their purppose, and yet they are the ones defying Arishem. Meanwhile, the Deviants remain predators to the end. Seems weird and foolish, a missed opportunity. My last pet peeve is with the excuse for their lack of intervention. Phastos already intervened in history a lot, and second of all Thanos would be seen as a serious threat by the Celestials (at the very least delaying all celestial births). I would solve this by making it so that it is not really intelligent lives that Tiamut needs to grow, but either a) Tiamut needs nothing, only direct protection from deviants or b) it needs intelligent life to die a certain number of times. This would explain why they would want humanity to fight all the time but not be eradicated by the deviants. Would also explain why Thanos wasn't seen as a threat by Arishem.
I would say it’s pretty reasonable for ikaris to betray everyone. I wouldn’t believe killing Ajak immediately was something he would do but I guess he thought it could work at the time. We know that the eternals do comeback after the emergence, just with their memories wiped. The celestial lied but his point is valid. Planets have to be destroy for the universe to keep going it’s a cycle-if they don’t destroy planets just because they feel attachment every time then it would be in vain because the universe would stop growing ending all life. The movies clearly wants us to view the idea is humanity worth saving? In their perspective as these godly figures. The problem is that humanity is obviously worth saving because they’ve stopped Thanos and have created the greatest heroes, even inter-galactic heroes like Captain Marvel. Ikaris would be valid, if this wasn’t in the mcu where humanity has proven to be special. So having the character want to sacrifice themselves for humanity like you purposed would make ikaris move selfish compared to what we have where both sides want to protect life.
Also stopping Thanos wouldn’t have worked because how would they had known Thanos arrived. He shows up at Earth and snaps his fingers then leaves and when he shows up again he was going to destroy all life and recreate again which would make sense for the eternals to interfere, but how would they have known? Thanos shows up and tells the avengers what he is going to do after he say his future self die, so this wasn’t a planned event nor is Thanos a human, he is an alien so they wouldn’t know what his goals are. By making it about the death of human lives you get rid of the narrative that this movie is going for, that not everything is black and white-no one in this movies is straight up evil. Making the celestial the bad guy means morality doesn’t need to be questioned and the eternals are doing the right thing.
@@hopelesslyoptimistic8231 So, the idea that humanity is worth saving because of its heroes is horrifying. It is not obvious. That's a bad argument for humanity's worthiness and it suggests that you actually have to earn the right to exist. This implies that killing people is not wrong by default, but only if they're heroes. If humanity wasn't 'special', their eradication would be morally acceptable? Seems fucked up. Also, why do you believe Arishem when they say they have to destroy planets to keep the universe 'growing'? Seems to me that consistently killing entire worlds just to keep producing new ones is not obviously better than the alternativee: the universe naturally coming to an end billions of years from now. If you could only have children by killing other children now and again, it is not obvious you should do so. It is entirely reasonable to decide that the continued existence of humanity is not worth killing children over. Creating a new world (or even a million) doesn't morally cancel out killing one. A midwife who murders one person and delivers a hundred is still a murderer. I grant you that the Eternals couldn't have helped with Thanos, but they don't give the valid reasons you suggested. They say they weren't allowed, which makes no sense as Arishem clearly needs there to be as many people as possible. So the rule that they can only intervene if Deviants are involved is dumb. What if humans had destroyed the planet (like we almost did several times during the cold war)? That would have been worth preventing, no? Druig alone could have made sure that we didn't nuke the earth. Would that have been against Arishem's rules? My problem is not with moral ambiguity (I think thart Arishem and even Ikaris not caring about humans makes complete sense.) I just don't think they do a good job of showing why anyone would kill their families for a lying God just to ensure that new planets can be born billions of years later, but I guess it's a viewpoint. Real people won't even recycle to avert climate change, but Ikaris will straight up murder everyone he loves because a proven liar told him the universe will eventually die if he doesn't commit genocide. His best case scenario is not even remembering the people he loves. Can't relate.
Because he is loyal unlike the other traitors what you are talking about what he(superior) can do the eternals and that's why they should be loyal that wouldn't be loyalty that would be fear that was his purpose for existence it wasn't just some day job to abandon choose another one you are thinking from your own perspective
I feel like to a lot of people (including Marvel) Eternals just didn’t matter much. It came out after right after Shang-Chi and Venom and right before Spider-Man, ultimately making any identity or hype of its own be lost.
I don't think that is true as Marvel heavily marketed the film. Heck, this film got more marketing than NWH.
@@camerondalton1495 "got more marketing"? NWH hasn't come out yet. Additionally, you're talking about a known commodity: Spider-Man. It almost sells itself. Meanwhile, even a huge nerd like me isn't very familiar with the Eternals or why I should see a movie about them. It's the one key point that none of the marketing actually addressed; they seemed to be relying entirely on investment in the MCU to get people to see it.
@@Semudara NWH comes out next month and we have only a poster and a teaser trailer. With plenty of leaks. Eternals more than that.
I was really hyped after Venom 2 and especially Shang-chi. Eternals kind a killed that hype train. definitely excited for more Venom, Shang-chi, and spider man(and I actually kind of want to see what John Snow does in the MCU), a little iffy on everything else(I haven't kept up with the shows, I liked the three episodes I watched of Loki though)
Not necessarily, I think Eternals found itself between 3 problems: 1) it seems needed for the rest of Marvel's overarching narrative arch, 2) it's a franchise they knew they couldn't develop on the level of even something like Antman (also showing by the extra A list actors enlist to support the movie) and 3) so many characters... As many have pointed 3) should normally lead to mini-series territory but - at least at the time of development - D+ series were still intended as side shows of the movies' storyline. A 2-(or 3-)movie option could have maybe help but this format has also proven its limits and wouldn't be used for an origin story plus the belief that the franchise can't be strong on its own from scratch. Overall we end up with a movie that needed to be done, but could not be a great movie. Tbh it's a bold choice, especially when one considers the payoffs this movie could have for the coming decade. But on its own it's only a decent movie considering all the constraints it had to work with.
That was a brilliant analyses.
Eternals is a perfect example of how a movie should have been a tv show to really give time to flush out all the characters. A Disney+ original with each episode an hour giving each Eternal their own dedicated episode.
I think a big bit of why Cersei and Icarus’ relationship feels “lacking” is that we saw a lot of them growing close, a few shots of them happy together and then them after breaking up. We never really spent any snapshots on how they were deeply in love, compatible and comfortable, any of the really relatable and wholesome things that make a relationship worth investing in as an audience member. Also that “Deviant Prime” becoming more sentient, sapient and “humanoid” was a very interesting arc. It seemed almost like they were pushing for the Deviants moving away from base animal instinct and developing consciousness to be a bigger part of the movie/universe. I would have LOVED for maybe the Deviant to have killed and sapped Icarus or something and reached a completed level of ascension to Eternals status and developed a full conscience, becoming a bit of an antihero or side narrative for maybe another movie, battling with his anger and betrayal alongside his newfound recognition of right, wrong and millennia of Eternals memories to sort through and shape his morals.
You are delusional.
@@Tiberious_Of_Elona why? There’s a lot they could have done with the character.
@@jonbodhi the guy’s a troll and no one’s ideas or views are valid except his, judging by his other comments on here. Don’t waste your time.
*Sersi, *Ikaris
We also never see why they like each other other than they're both good looking
While I thought Eternals itself was okay but not great, I’m just happy that between this and Shang-Chi, we have been getting more self-contained and character-focused MCU movies.
more? the MCU didn't have that before?
Yeah the series were really good to. Can't wait for Agatha, Hawkeye's, and echoes series. Also I'm excited for nwh and multiverse of madness.
I will say the fight between Ikaris vs the rest was basically the fight I wanted to see between Superman vs the Justice League.
I’m glad I went into this with low expectations. Having seen No Way Home the night before, this was such a mcu downgrade. Rushed and emotionally empty. I just didn’t care about any of the characters and therefore their stories. I like how the eternals are so insanely powerful, yet they can’t save the kid’s dad in the beginning…. after the battle they’re standing there all heroically and triumphantly and I’m just thinking “wow way to go guys, that little boy just watched his dad get killed and is probably traumatized for life.”
I feel exactly the same. The movie is just a hot mess. The first scene already threw me off. Dad got eaten by a monster, kid had no reaction. Then instantly good guys shows up, killing monsters in a matter of seconds, let alone someone who could move incredibly fast and could have saved the poor guy. The rest is just boring, pretentious and dumb. I couldn’t bring myself to care any of them.
@@twinkybirky1291 my sentiments exactly…
LMAO fax, when I saw the deviant get lasered I was like "why did he wait until after it ate his dad", and then it just shows them all standing in a line so they weren't even doing anything 😭
Sprite’s refreshing lemon-lime powers were my favorite part of the film.
I think they should have told the story in a chronogical order (except the twist of course). Give the eternals more time in the 5000 BC time and show the audience the eternals as a team in big intro action piece. Longer than in the movie. Getting to see how they interact with humanity for the first time etc..... Showing us more chemistry and interaction between them.
The super long flashbacks got really annoying. I was wishing they would just tell the story linearly.
That was exactly what i thinking when i watched it having flashback every few minutes is just so annoying
It literally broke the tension for me when they kept cutting back and forth. They should've tell the story in chronological order seriously
genuinely loved it wish it was longer so we could get more interactions and it contributed quite a bit of lore and world building which I enjoy immensely
Ever since announcing the Disney+ I always thought Eternals should be adopted into a series first due to its new many characters and story arcs
Imagine if Marvel just dropped The Avengers. There were so many movies beforehand delving into each character. There is no way to introduce all these characters and have people connect to them. in just one movie
This is actualy how I watched the movie. Im not from the US so never seen the comics and Avengers were my introduction to the characters. And it was very Meh for me. After that I have seen all the pre-avengers movies and it makes more sense now.
a la a justice league situation. makes sense why eternals is described as "dceu-like"
i disagree. i think people just aren’t connecting with this movie. Gilgamesh’s death isn’t supposed to be sad for Gilgamesh, it’s supposed to make us care about Thena. same with Ajak’s death/Ikaris’ betrayal. it’s supposed to make us care more about the main Eternals that the movie focused on. we’re not supposed to care about all 10 of them equally, which is exactly why they kill off 3 of them and sideline 2 of them. the next Eternals related film will probably only focus around Sersi, Thena, Druig, Makkari, and maybe Kingo.
@@alexforce9 Yeah but these characters stories start off together. There a family unit and that's very prevalent through the whole movie. It wouldn't make sense for there to be individual movies for each character when they all grow together.
If you actually have a brain it is pretty easy to connect with them lol.
Honestly, I’ve been much less invested in the MCU since the conclusion of Endgame. It’s still enjoyable but it doesn’t have the same impact in my opinion.
NWH will be pretty good.
Endgame was, in a way, an ironic victim of its own success.
Same I haven’t bothered with the movies since endgame but the disney shows were pretty fun. Spider-Man NWH is the only movie I’ve been looking forward to.
@@John-Doe-Yo and doctor strange but maybe that’s coz I love that character
That’s kind of a given. Infinity war and endgame were the ending of a story built up for ten years. That’s way more exciting than starting a new one. We can’t expect the same feeling right now
I loved it. So much can come from this. Celesials and You heard Blade.
Yes! I agree this should have been a 6 or 7 episode mini series, to further character development. All the pieces were sort of there but the lack of dialogue (mostly during the end) and how rushed it was took down the stories weight and emotional impact.
The thing that got me was how cliched and trite The Eternals' relationship to humans. There's a moral judgement going on but based on what? Humans wage war but that's OK because war leads to innovation. The Eternals don't interfere in human life until they do, "giving" us the plough. And it rested on totally wrong and out-dated ideas about "Evolution and "progress" of societies.
Every problem with this movie comes from it's script. It had great ideas, great actors, great director, great representation, great action, great vfx...and then there's the script.
If the script is bad then the director isn't good either.
I agree, except for the actor part because most of them are good but the main character Sersi's actress just plain sucked. That performance is basically Bella from Twilight
@@user-wm1zg1dh8f I think Zhao did a great job directing the movie. It's an extremely beautiful looking movie, the action scenes was fine too, she didn't use those shitty shaky cam and quick cut editing that Hollywood has been obsessed with action movies nowadays, you can see the action in wide shots as she used The Revenant as prime inspiration for the movie. This is all just script problems. Some directors have misfires, Eternals is Zhao's misfire but doesn't changed the fact that she's a good filmmaker, she won an Oscar for Nomadland which is also a good movie imo
@@4deleDaz33m If like you say, she is responsible for the aesthetic, editing, cinematography etc then she is also responsible for the script. She doesn't do the editing, write the script or control the camera but she does direct it and can influence it.
@@user-wm1zg1dh8f she doesn't control the camera, she's not the cinematographer but she orders the cinematographer to give a beautiful shot of the movie the way she visioned it. Like she wants the shot to be like this, the cinematographer will give the shot in the way Zhao visioned it. Also she co-wrote the script (she was credited twice in one screenplay credit god dammit 😂) and she didn't do the editing but as a director you sometimes supervise the editing activities too. I've been a film project before and basically a director is like that. Directing is about handling the performances, the way the actors are reading their lines, the shot structure, the way the film moves all that stuff, the cast and crew's job is just to follows everything that Zhao orders, everything that Zhao visioned for Eternals as she was given lots of creative freedom for the movie. Zhao's directing was wildly praised by critics and audiences, the rest is just script problems which is also comes from Zhao
It would be really cool to get a Disney+ series where each character gets an episode to fill out their motivations
i love how when he started “well see what we liked … and what we don’t” and IMMEDIATELY switched to sprite
Honestly, it's baffling that Disney saw how WB flopped with "Josstice League" trying to cram introductions/worldbuilding into a team-movie & said: Hey, let's do exactly that...but instead of six of the best known superheroes, we'll do even more randos the average fan has never heard of!
To be fair Eternals is better than Josstice League. That movie was legitimately garbage.
Dude even in comics eternals were never known individually. Josstice league got boched as the characters they were sidelining were s tier characters like superman and flash
How is Eternals even comparable to josstice league.
@@parkeranimations3671 conceptually/structurally ("let's jumpstart a new Avengers team!"), and both failed for similar reasons (it took the better part of a decade to get audiences on-board with Avengers - you cannot do that in 2hrs). Both ended up quipy & generic, hinting at the spectacle of a cosmic-scope universe...w/o getting us to really invest in the characters themselves. Obviously differences in marketing; JL had big-name superheroes & a few movies to pull from, Eternals had diversity/inclusion & the MCU's good name to draw people in.
@@DarthVaderOfficial agreed - but still a tale in hubris for Disney/Marvel. Even they cannot forge a team-flic ex nhilo...
I think this should be a Disney Show. With that, they would have the time to explain the characters and the entire celestial ideas. My fav character was Makkari 😍 love her power and acting. She really has a strong presence, even bigger than Gemma Chan (wich is really plain).
Honestly, it's a wonder with all the stuff they had to juggle, why it wasn't a D+ show to begin with. Shrug*
Yeah you know what? Maybe if this was a show with multiple episodes they could take their time.
If you're saying this then why didn't Disney make this a seires to begin with 🤔🤔🤔
I kinda liked druwig, he is the first one to question Ajack, and a war between the eternals would be cool
I think they were going to, but due to the failure of Inhumans, they didn't.
Just watched it on stream. I'm pretty much completely in agreement with everything you've said. However, I found that the good parts of this movie, the action, some beautiful shots, and the awe inspiring scale of cosmic beings made the movie enjoyable. I'm glad I saw it. Shang Chi and Black Widow, though, I did not enjoy. I would say that, the somewhat "off" feeling chemistry between the Eternals during the final battle, I think, is somewhat justified by the context. I don't think any Eternal was 100% convinced that they were doing the right thing. They were all forced into making a choice of unfathomable consequence and scale. I think they understand each other, and though they don't want to fight, they are doing it because they have to. There was no time, each one of them had to make an insanely difficult choice and then do what it took to see it through. But I do think they could have addressed Sprite literally backstabbing Sersi instead of just brushing past it. Anyway, good video.
There was SO much exposition in this movie and I still didn't have all of the 'eternals vs celestials' terminology straight by the end of it. Essentially what I got out of the whole 'killing deviants and moving planets in an endless cycle' was that is sounded a lot like Madoka Magica
Would be cool to see a 10 episode Disney+ show. Each episode having a different genre based on each Eternal. Example: Kingo = Comedy Sersi = Drama Ikaris = Superman-like story Phastos = Sci-Fi Druig = Psychological Thriller Thena = Action Gilgamesh = Romance
Sprite's episode would obviously be a coming-of-age story. Makkari's could be a heist. And Ajak's would be some sort of family drama.
I like how you just said "Drama" for Sersi bc she literally has no traits that suggest any sort of specific genre😂😂
@@willl604 rom com maybe but I find Gemma Chan (as beautiful as she is) a very wooden actor with little charisma
It's crazy to think that for 8 years, _Thor: The Dark World_ was considered to be the lowest reviewed film in the MCU at 66%, now with the release of _Eternals_ at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes the film is now considered to be the lowest reviewed film in the MCU. Now Granted, the only negatives _Eternals_ had were the films runtime, pacing and lack of character development despite praise for the themes, visuals and Chloe Zhao's direction. But you know what they say in almost every film, just because you got a Critically acclaimed Director or Writer who previously made a Critically acclaimed film and attached to an upcoming film, doesn't always mean the next film will get positive Critical reviews as the previous movie they were involved in (e.g. Josh Trank directing Fantastic Four (2015) which led to the film being panned after he directed the Critically acclaimed _Chronicle)._
Moral of the story; Don't give multi million dollar projects to directors who have only done small scale low budget projects
It definitely wasn't a favorite but I'd still watch it over either of the first two Thor movies any day.
@@rollcaskett1812 I'm with you mate, those are wank and so is captain America 1. Don't think marvel will ever make something worst than those
@@kylekgh What are you talking about? Captain America the First Avenger is great
@@someguynamedmike4766 lol you mean like at least 70% of marvel's movies, including the most critically-acclaimed one like those by Russo brothers? It's a gamble but Marvel is actually quite good at that, Eternals just happened to be a lost. Your point is not quite valid.
I agree with EVERYTHING about this video. This story feels VERY truncated. I appreciate this film. But I needed more than it could ever give me. There is just not enough time given to get as invested in these characters as I wanted. It makes me feel like Phase 1 of the MCU again.
What was the point of giving the Deviants a consciousness? It became a main villain that resented the celestials and the eternals for killing off it's species across several galaxies. Which is such a cool concept yet they're totally and utterly wasted And Ikaris killing himself was really stupid imo
The one word that comes to mind with this movie is ‘frustrating’ so I’m glad you led off the video with that. The movie keeps giving us more characters and information as the story progresses, but never stops long enough to give us a reason to care. Really wish they picked three or four eternals to focus on and then we can get different perspectives and pov’s throughout a trilogy/franchise.
👍👍👍❤️😉💯💯
THIS right here. This is what I think they should've done. Instead of introducing all of these characters at once, have only half of them and tease us about the rest. Build the story along the years, don't just cram it all at once like someone else did *cough* Justice League *cough*
trueeee just like what they did back then with avengers
i know everyone thinks a mini series would have been best, but honestly i think the perfect solution would have been to make a single 7.5-hour movie for everyone to sit through in one go
Isn't that basically how most people consume a mini series nowadays?
That's just a miniseries at gunpoint
or... now here me out... a tv show
That pretty much is a mini series
7.5 hour movie? Bruh... no.
I completely agree with your takes, and yet I love that the movie indirectly took on a very contemplative question: how do we learn to live lives of purpose? How about when the purpose we thought we had is taken away, or when we are so world-weary we have trouble with the very idea of it? And like you said, it didn't explicitly trace out how their very long lives changed their personalities. We don't have any such real people who live that long, so we don't know what would be "realistic" (one way to cope might be to stay hip to changing trends to make it feel like you're living many lives, or you might get fed up with the brutal unchanging human nature and become a hermit, or you might keep your speech and behavior from the Norman era because you liked it best, or anything else), but showing the "how" of that would be really cool and a good challenge for what are very well-paid writers and actors. But even showing that would strengthen what I see as that very cool theme of finding one's purpose and kind of triumphing over despair, kind of the existentialist task to which we must supposedly all put ourselves. I do admire the effort to do something different!
I agree. I really liked it, but walked away feeling like there was no way that it could reach its potential without something insane like being 5 hours long, or being the highest budget TV show ever, or something. Really sucks because it was chalk full of amazing ideas.
Ancient characters are so hard to pull off, especially in such a limited run time. I’ve only really seen them well done in long format media like TV or books (comics too probably but I’ve read very few). Nailing the dynamic between people who are essentially gods is another feat altogether.
Eternals would've been so good as a Disney+ show with hour long episodes and so much to show about each Eternal. Still, I enjoyed the movie for what it was and definitely not the worse MCU film.
What then is the worst?
@@demagoss21 probably black widow?
The biggest reason I have always disliked the Eternals in comics is cus it's really just Kirby borrowing from Ancient Aliens theories like "Chariot of the Gods" and that's something that always leaves a bad taste in my mouth (doesn't help that I'm now an art historian and these theories really do harm the field). I was really hoping the film would reduce that part of their story and have them not be as involved in human affairs (like they say they are when they don't help fight Thanos/Ultron/Wars) but... nope, they still used that muddy old unnecessary trope.
I appreciate how fair you were with the film. A lot of youtube critics just get off to shitting on things and not giving credit where it's due. The film may not have executed on ideas well, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't anything interesting there.
It's really weird how marvel generally don't write good romantic relationships. Sersi and Kit character should have a vibe more like Yennifer/Geralt from Witcher series, they know each other for a really long time, had lots of experiences together and ultimately still like each other. Unfortunately they come of more like a couple that dated for a couple of months and had a shitty breakup
That's exactly what I thought. They should still be comfortable around each other and should have an deep understanding on what the other person is and what their short comings are. They just should have been played like they know each other in every detail and be used to it
Thought you meant ikaris
It doesn't help that the way the director made them act so distant. Sersi barely emoted even at the end. And Ikaris, I literally have never seen Richard Madden so distant in a role. I know they were Gods and had to look "different" but still.
Kit's character is dane Whitman, the Black knight.
@@themarinefan no way! here I thought he was the purple umbrella! ;)
wow you’re right a series would have made this so much more interesting. The twist about the celestials would be the season one finale, ikaris’s betrayal would be the season 2 finale, and the emergence would be the season 3 finale, we would have gotten flashback episodes, fleshed out everyone’s relationships, drama between couples in different moments in history, I could easily see this as a high budget Disney+ series or even a campy, low budget CW series
I choose to believe the fact that I didn't think about any of these inconsistencies is a testament to my ability to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the moment.
Eternals isn't the best Marvel movie, but it's definitely up there as one of the most mind-bending. I'm loving the Celestials and those crazy visuals; it's like being transported to another dimension. Honestly, I'm more into the comic's version of the Eternals and Deviants, but this movie still has its own charm.
I loved Eternals for what it really is a Bionicle movie. From these lences the overall product is worth watching in Imax
What are the parallels you see with Bionicle? That's fun
@@AlexHuneycutt Synthetic beings who live billions of years and have no free will, a giant robotic being who has slept thousanda of years and is waking up a Celestial/Mata Nui the Great Spirit. Color-coded beings with powers and an ability to combine their powers to create unified mind.
@@PS-it1dm the eternals had free will when they arrived to earth though.
I liked it. It certainly flawed, but it’s nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. But yes, it would have worked better as a series. In the end, I’ll take an overly ambitious, messy “failure” like Eternals than a lazy, rote Iron Man 2 or Thor: The Dark World.
At least Iron man 2 was actually fun
What's wrong with Iron Man 2?
Yeah. Not perfect but it thought big and was epic and ambitious. It was just a really cool concept to me.
@Julian R Honestly I wouldn't call Iron Man 2 boring if anything. There are problems but that aint one of em
They ruined it with the “diverse” political agenda , I could care less if the character is gay and has a relationship… don’t rub it in my face … they totally ruined the seriousness of the movie ! Made it like a shitty reality show..
Very true maybe break down their stories in a series episodes ..
Lets hope there next movie gives more background and more feeling to the movie
"I honestly loved this movie! Now that we’re in Phase 4 and introducing new characters this was a dope intro. I loved the high level concepts and the twist towards the end." - Thanos
Should have just adapted the dreaming celestial story: amnesia, the true abilities of the deviants, and a battle both external and within would have explained more in the form of memories. Plus seeing a version of the unimind would have been cool. Having the Avengers showing up after everything was done would have been the icing on the cake, tying the eternal movie to the rest of the MCU.
I hope Marvel isn’t going to give up on the Eternals because despite its major flaws this movie kinda stuck with me in a way many other lesser Marvel movies haven’t.
Tbh, the story from Eternals comic book is way more comprehensive than this one. I dunno why they changed it
I really wish this was a series, with all the potential it has if we had more time I really think this would be a series I love
Tangentially I think we're living in the golden era of Television/Syndicated Content. Shows like Breaking Bad really moved the bar on character stories over a long term, and I think any modern writer is hard pressed not to be influenced by some of the amazing TV that's come out over the past decade or so. I think the Eternals is a victim of this. Eternals really SHOULD have been a D+ series so we could have an episode for each character and then a 2 hour finale for 12 full episodes. There was more than enough ideas to flesh out into that much run time, and we'd all be better off for it. Also, even more tangentially, Dune should totally be a HBO miniseries.
Even with Dune the filmakers made a wise choice to split the book into 2 parts. I followed the plot fine & yes while I think an HBO mini-series would have been better it still was received well by audiences who loved it & wanted to see the story conclude. With Eternals even the audiences that liked it had MANY MANY PROBLEMS with it, unlike Dune where they said it could be an HBOmax mini-series they all AGREED that Eternals should be a Disney+ tv series rather than a movie.
Dune is just that hard even as a series
Dune was perfectly fine as a movie, I probably wouldn’t have watched it as a series alone
it's like a fight between marvel lightness and diguestable uncommitted story telling and some bigger than life storylines of a lot of characters and the universe around them ^^ this could have been a neat mh 11 episodes maybe 12 episodes Series where every character get's their dramatic and poetic piece told, so that it all can flow together into that marvel finaly everyone likes so much :).
I enjoyed it. I agree with the assessments made here. I really wish we could have seen more of these stories, but I doubt Marvel was willing to risk that much. All the series are of existing characters in the MCU. It could definitely have been better, but honestly, I think this too was a big risk.
Everything was heading towards INFINITY WAR and ENDGAME Now the MCU is just a bubble that can burst at any minute
Im starting to think the bubble bursted a while ago.
@@galactic85 Nah, but seeing how many new shows they announced TODAY alone, it's probably going to do so soon.
i agree, i was invested before but do far this new phase hadnt hooked me with anything like the original iron man did
Of course you can go bigger than those films but it isn’t as engaging the magic is gone there isn’t a hook anymore, the MCU will slowly die out like every trend taking the shared universe trend down with it
Honestly, Shang-Chi is the only Phase 4 project so far that I feel has been really fresh, has stood on its own and has also been really good and entertaining while doing so.
You spelled out exactly how I felt about the film. It would have worked SO much better if it was a show with time to develop the characters into people we understand and care about. I felt more connection with the main deviant than the Eternals, and I was actually rooting for it to win in the end. It actually had some character development, for one, and I thought it might actually help the Eternals in the end, but was disappointed when it was killed by Thena. The only main characters I liked were the Baliwood star, his human pal, and the strong man, mostly because they were the most fun characters in the movie. To be clear, I don't hate the movie, I just don't think it lived up to what it could have been.
Thing is not EVERYTHING has to be a fucking show. I mean Jesus Christ. We have enough as it is. And MCU has plans set in motion for things to happen cinematically and also things to happen through a series. Can’t just make EVERYTHING a fucking TV show. The Eternals will have more films to explain and show themselves more in depth because their position in the MCU is important due to the scale of having to go up against a celestial and a villain like Galactius once his character is unveiled. Y’all gotta start seeing things in the bigger picture and not just with YOUR view on it.
Well......supposedly they gonna get a Secret Wars type of movie. Maybe give them a chance to reboot/change certain things that didn't work.
imo eternals has the most beautiful cinematic shots probably ever in the mcu, but storyline wise it just feels like the writers just tried to choke us down all this information and stories in one go. honestly the characters deserved better writing.
I strongly agree that this shouldve been a series, just look at how Kate Bishop story is in Hawkeye, we got to connect to her and learn to appreciate her story more in that series, I just love the recent Hawkeye series