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Eternals (Marvel)

Pete-MK (Elite Donator) posted this on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 10:13

It's probably a testament to how amazingly underwhelming the expectation & excitement surrounding this movie that not only is there no thread on here about it (the ultimate benchmark of quality) but the only media saturation most are aware of are 30-second TV-spots that seem to be taken from the first 10 minutes.

Plot - a bunch of demi-gods, the titular Eternals, are assigned by their celestial overlord Arishem (who is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely mind-bogglingly big he is) to protect earth from the Deviants. Not the Deviants from the movie of the same name, nor the rebellious androids from Detroit: become Human. These are completely different deviants, who look nothing like the aliens from Edge of Tomorrow, honest.

It's tricky to get too far into the plot without giving away spoilers & character arcs, but here we go anyway

SPOILER:
Turns out the celestials have a habit of laying their progenitive seed inside populated planets, using the heat from the ever-increasing numbers to grow the new offspring, and placing the deviants on the planet to take out any apex predators who might stop the numbers increasing at a steady rate. Unfortunately, the deviants evolved on their own and just started taking out anything that wasn't them and thus the Eternals were created to put a stop to all that nonsense. Once the planet is warm enough the celestial hatches, taking the planet, and its population with it. Of course, the Earth might have been ok for a few thousand years, in only those pesky Avengers hadn't reversed the blip and put 3.5 billion people back into the mix with the snap of a finger.

The problem with it is, to be invested in the story it helps if you're invested in the characters, and every one here is such a blank slate I struggled to care about the fate of any of them, including the main girl. It's a case study in miscasting, especially Angelina Jolie, who offers absolutely nothing to the role, even though she's the once with an issue that should have given the character more depth. 

I can't even say it looks nice. Most of the backdrops to mighty battle scenes are bland beaches in the Canary islands, with stunt  performers in more or less the same outfits fighting bad guys who aren't there.

The hardship they're having is that the first few phases of the MCU were spread out over several films. We got to know the characters slowly, learning about them and their goals and the kinds of people they were. Trying to force that amount of character development into an hour before the big plot kicks in was never going to work if you want to make an ensemble movie from day one.

So no, not that impressed. Didn't need to see it and don't feel I've learnt anything new about the MCU in general. Plus Ikarus looks so much like Bucky Barnes it's distracting to a fault.

I daresay that fans of the Eternals' comics and metauniverse might get a kick out of seeing the characters on screen, but it's nowhere near as accessible and instant-hit as well-known characters like Spidey or Iron man, especially when you don't have Robert Downey Jr to pin all your hopes on.

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RE: Eternals (Marvel)

Si Wooldridge (Reviewer) posted this on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 10:44

I've seen thumbnails on youtube (not watched them) about how woke this film is.  Bearing in mind, they said that about Captain Marvel (which I thought was OK), how accurate is that?

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

RE: Eternals (Marvel)

Pete-MK (Elite Donator) posted this on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 12:27

If by woke you mean 'alert to injustice in society, especially racism', then it passed me by. There's a touch of anti-global warming, but indirect. One of the characters is in a same-sex relationship and they have a son, but as for 'in-yer-face' liberalism and SJW/Extinction rebellion, I'm not entirely sure what lines they were reading inbetween. But then if they didn't specifically hunt for internally-triggering plot or character points, then they wouldn't have any content for clicks & likes.

If there's one point that could be made from the points in the spoiler block, it's that 

SPOILER:
Over-population will literally lead to the destruction of the planet, but that's like hitting a pane of glass with a hammer to prove that it's fragile by nature
As for captain Marvel (which I also thought was a lot of fun), most of the controversy from that movie  think came from the lead actress spouting off about subjects she clearly knew nothing about. Of course, a point that some elements took umbridge with was that it featured a strong female lead, as well the general matter of female empowerment, which some people find offensive because they're basically cavemen.

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This item was edited on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 12:27

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RE: Eternals (Marvel)

Si Wooldridge (Reviewer) posted this on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 12:37

Quote:
Pete-MK says...
"Of course, a point that some elements took umbridge with was that it featured a strong female lead, as well the general matter of female empowerment, which some people find offensive because they're basically cavemen."

On this we can agree.

On a related but unrelated subject, I always prefer playing a female character in videogames if I have the choice (which I'm sure I may have mentioned at some point many moons ago).

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Si Wooldridge
Reviewer

http://synth.myreviewer.com

RE: Eternals (Marvel)

Pete-MK (Elite Donator) posted this on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 13:40

My Skyrim avatar was female, and I've recently switched genders in GTAV. Partly because my usual guy had done pretty much everything and amassed over $100 million, also because the girls have a vastly superior swathe of fetching outfits to choose from, but also...



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RE: Eternals (Marvel)

sj (Elite) posted this on Thursday, 11th November 2021, 13:45

Where, where?  I wanted to see boobies.  (need more emojis here!)

Ste



We will pay the price but we will not count the cost..

RE: Eternals (Marvel)

admars (Elite) posted this on Sunday, 23rd April 2023, 21:36

hmmn, it was ok i guess, bit long, but as above, at same time, didn't really get to know any of the characters enough to care about them, maybe partially because they're not house hold names.

after reading the above comments I had to find out what the "woke" uproar was, I guess ppl are strange :( At least there are some ppl saying "being woke wasn't one the film's problems" :)

I guess it's fair to say the film is inclusive, but as Kathy Burke had a rant about, being woke/inclusive isn't a bad thing ;)

I'd imagine some younger ppl won't even notice that there's a gay couple, as there was no reason for them to be gay, but there was no reason for them not to be gay, if that makes sense. I mean being gay wasn't part of the story. Some of the kids' tv shows have same sex relationships, but it's just done as she likes her, rather than she likes him, i.e. no big deal, that's just who the person likes.

reading some of the comments (not here) is wierd, it's like at work, like many ppl I suppose, we had to do diversity training, it was like somehting from the tv show W1A, afterwards we joked about it, "did we just do some online training which basically said 'be nice to ppl, and don't be a dick?' "

so there's a group of people, who look and sound like they come from different countries, so they can blend in where needed, they have different abilities.

I didn't feel like I was being lectured at, so we see our first gay superhero, which I guess is a big deal, but wasn't, which I guess is how it should be.

From wikipedia I've found out film also has first deaf superhero, which is interesting, and first Korean superhero.

I guess some ppl don't mix in mixed groups so much? an old ex work mate created a whatsapp group for us, when some us were going out for dinner to catch up, there's me English, someone from India, someone from Poland, someone from Sri Lanka, he named it United Nations and put that badge as the icon :)

on a side note, i though Capt Marvel was better, Shang-Chi was better than that.

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