Eternals Rate and Review the Eternals

[Pink Ranger]

Hi folks. In a world of Twitter feuds and polarized viewpoints it's refreshing to hear a civilized discussion, bravo to you all- so refreshing that I have to weigh in

Sadly, you are mistaken. Unbeknownst to most of humanity, @KRYPTON INC., @Prison Mike and I have been fighting each other in an internecine war for centuries now, replete with shifting alliances, treachery and atrocities that defy description. Every year, we recruit thousands of followers into our respective empires, poor naive souls whose only purpose is to die on the blood-soaked altars of our hubris. The original purpose of this immortal conflict has been lost in the dust of time, so now we only exist to destroy, to lust, and to conquer. This forum is the only hallowed ground in which we can engage in civil discourse, to remind ourselves that we, too, were once human.

 

[Holy Slapper]

Quick review, saw it today. Liked it a lot, almost loved it. Had a few issues which drops the score to 9 minus minus. Yes that's 2 minuses. More later.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Just got back. I dig it. 4.5 stars. Between the poor reviews and mixed fan reception I was braced for a disappointment, but this turned out to be right up my alley. Characters were (mostly) well developed, the story bounced around a lot but wasn’t hard to follow and third act twist (which I did not see coming) was very effective.

I had a few issues with a couple of the characters, the Deviants, some of the action sequences and I can see where its length (which imo could be trimmed by 20 minutes without losing anything) and leisurely pacing might turn some audiences off. Wasn’t a big problem for me though.

 

[First Avenger]

7.5, might go lower or higher with a second viewing.

The biggest problem I have is that most of the characters are not relatable, which is One of Marvel's biggest strength. They feel like archetypes and that kinda works when you think about what Eternals are. I liked that they did something different this time, a long, epic, more serious movie. Great visuals and good action too. Not the best Marvel movie but certainly not the worst for me.

 

[Asharad]

Wow, this was weak. I'll give it a 6. My wife rates it 5. The movie never makes you care about the characters.

 

[Asharad]

Don't bother with post credit scenes, they drag down the experience.

 

[jolldan]

Just back from Eternals. It was pretty meh, I was definitely wrong thinking this would be Marvels next GOTG.

Straight after I’m thinking of either giving it a 5 or 6. Just can’t say it seemed memorable or any of the characters were that likeable.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I thought there were good moments in this film. I just didn't think the moments ever wowed and they spread too far out. I actually loved the scope and scale of this and I liked some of the characters. I'm trying to think of what I would cut. Honestly, the action scenes seem the easiest to cut.

Ironically, an overlong drawn-out mess with some good ideas in it feels very true to the spirit of the original Jack Kirby story.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Ironically, an overlong drawn-out mess with some good ideas in it feels very true to the spirit of the original Jack Kirby story.

Lol, I'm usually the go-to answer guy for my friends who only know the Marvel Universe from the movies and have questions about the comic origins of certain characters. Explaining to them the entire origin of the Earth-bound Eternals, Earth-bound Deviants, Titanian Eternals, Thanos, the Olympians, the Inhumans, and the Skrull Deviants makes me realize what a chaotic free-for-all the Marvel Universe is at times.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Don't bother with post credit scenes, they drag down the experience.

Post credits were the only parts that held my attention.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Sadly, you are mistaken. Unbeknownst to most of humanity, @KRYPTON INC., @Prison Mike and I have fighting each other in an internecine war for centuries now, replete with shifting alliances, treachery and atrocities that defy description. Every year, we recruit thousands of followers into our respective empires, poor naive souls whose only purpose is to die on the blood-soaked altars of our hubris. The original purpose of this immortal conflict has been lost in the dust of time, so now we only exist to destroy, to lust, and to conquer. This forum is the only hallowed ground in which we can engage in civil discourse, to remind ourselves that we, too, were once human.

"Heeeeeeeere we are... Born to be kings... We're the princes of the universe!!!!

(Brian May guitar riff)

 

[TheVileOne]

If they ever make a new Masters of the Universe movie, they should use Princes of the Universe for a trailer.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Lol, I'm usually the go-to answer guy for my friends who only know the Marvel Universe from the movies and have questions about the comic origins of certain characters. Explaining to them the entire origin of the Earth-bound Eternals, Earth-bound Deviants, Titanian Eternals, Thanos, the Olympians, the Inhumans, and the Skrull Deviants makes me realize what a chaotic free-for-all the Marvel Universe is at times.

Yeah... This sort of thing is kinda why I became an atheist.

Eventually discussions on religion all start to sound like Fanboy arguments or discussions. Like... EXACTLY.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Saw it, genuinely loved it, baffled by a lot of the reviews haha. I mean I will concede, it was very long... But I also felt like the slower pace is what led to many of my favourite moments and relationships. The movie delivered all of the otherworldly, cosmic, mythological drama I was hoping for plus dealt a few surprisingly emotional blows and narrative turns I didn't see coming.

I can see some of the points about Sersi & Ikarus's acting but by the end, it didn't matter to me. I accepted those two characters are more earnest than the others and I had fully bought into them, so like, it all still landed for me.

I can understand that this movie won't be everyone's cup of tea, because of pacing and length, but I absolutely loved, loved, loved how different it felt from other Marvel movies and how happy it was to break the formula.

 

[Batmannerism]

Spoiler

If Arishem is operating on a higher level that he never suspected the Eternals would disobey them then it makes no sense why the Eternals are given false memories and a fake backstory to make them believe they have a grander purpose and are interstellar demigod protectors from Olympia.

Well

Spoiler

that is a fair point. I suppose the fake backstory worked for millions of years.....and if it ain't broke don't fix it ?

There are some significant writing issues with this film - and most of them manifest in the first act.

TBH the whole Deviant plot was muddled, and kind of unnecessary after act 2.

It would have been easier for them to have Ikaris frame those last remaining Deviants, and then the eternals wipe them out in act 2 - with the emergence taking 100% of the focus of act 3, which is what it deserved.

I can't get the images of the Celestials out of my head - Arishem towering over the world, and Tiamut 's golden hand reaching up through the ocean. That was pretty staggering.

Honestly, if they'd stuck more to Gaiman's story the film's story would have been tighter.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Saw it, genuinely loved it, baffled by a lot of the reviews haha. I mean I will concede, it was very long... But I also felt like the slower pace is what led to many of my favourite moments and relationships. The movie delivered all of the otherworldly, cosmic, mythological drama I was hoping for plus dealt a few surprisingly emotional blows and narrative turns I didn't see coming.

I can see some of the points about Sersi & Ikarus's acting but by the end, it didn't matter to me. I accepted those two characters are more earnest than the others and I had fully bought into them, so like, it all still landed for me.

I can understand that this movie won't be everyone's cup of tea, because of pacing and length, but I absolutely loved, loved, loved how different it felt from other Marvel movies and how happy it was to break the formula.

The refreshing thing about it is that its bucking the formula more than any post Disney buyout film made by Marvel for sure. And it is a great looking film.

 

[Batmannerism]

The refreshing thing about it is that its bucking the formula more than any post Disney buyout film made by Marvel for sure. And it is a great looking film.

That it is. I'm thinking of going up to a 7 overall.

For me it's like 3 episodes in a series:

Spoiler

Episode 1 a 4/10 at most. The dialogue is awkward and forced, the action has little weight and despite the awesome visuals, well....it's dull and I wondered why half the characters were even in the film. Did anyone like Druig ? Some people rave about Makaari, but to me she felt like a special effect who occasionally got some lines.

Wow, did this movie need Dane Whitman ? God no, his scenes were just painful.


Episode 2
Things start moving, the Deviant menace becomes more substantial and Kingo adds some much needed levity. Found it hard to care about Phastos, got no problem with him being gay, why not? But he was such a whiny bastard, ugh.

Still, felt a bit all over the place. Gilgamesh's death made zero impression on me because he was a cardboard cutout character, with no development ( felt sorry for the actor)
Maybe 5/10.

Episode 3: The truth about the emergence, and Ikaris' murder of Ajak comes out - people should be looking at all of Ikaris' previous interactions in a different light and a bunch of slightly odd things he said, and his coldness in some scenes makes a lot of sense.
All hell breaks loose and the battle suddenly has real stakes and emotion.

My favorite moment is when Ikaris, having freed himself flies down to Sersi, as she's trying to kill Tiamut, his eyes light up to blast her - and in that moment he could have stopped her. No words necessary, but his tears and expressions show clearly that his love for her is greater than his sense of duty. So he allows himself to join the uni mind and kill Tiamut.

Those moments have real pathos, and the actors sell them.
I give episode 3 a solid 8/10. Intense action, spectacle on a cosmic scale, emotional payoffs and character moments- and consequences! The Eternals are whisked away for judgment, and humanity trembles before its creator, Arishem who is grand beyond measure.

I'm a religious person, but I still love the idea of the Celestials as a mythology.

So as a film it's a very mixed bag for me.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

It surprises me to see some of the characters people think were underdeveloped because many of the ones you list in your review, are some of the ones that left the most lasting impressions on me.

The relationship between Gilgamesh and Thena was one of my favourite parts of the film, and I felt Druig had one scene early on that was quite powerful - In fact, one of the turning points of the film for me, when I realised this was something very different from the usual Marvel plot.

 

[Zyraquis]

I am also Druig has a short, but probably the strongest arc. Sprite has a good arc too but seems a bit petered out unfortunately, right off the bat they laid the foundation in the brief pub scene. Not to mention the Thena-Gil relationship. There are good human stories told by alien synthetic characters. I am sure I will pick up more in my second viewing.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

See... "short arcs" is an issue with it.

Spoiler

Like... They go to get Phastos and in a film already TOO long they pad it out with the fastest arc imaginable.

"I can't trust humans."

"I love a human now and won't leave my family to save the Earth."

"Alright... I'll go save the Earth."



This all goes down in less than 15 minutes of screen time.

It felt like the totally manufactured "drama" of the CW DC shows.

Gil and Thena have a sweetness to it but... It doesn't get much sceen time either and then Thena gets her revenge and... I didn't feel much either way.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Another thing I quite liked is, while slower in pacing, it almost had the narrative flow of a book or an epic saga over a typical film. The way the story chose to flow between past and present, and giving characters plenty of down time to bond. The order in which some details were revealed and withheld. The slow unravelling of the main threat, villain and the stakes. A lot of that stuff is largely what kept me engaged.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

Should probably slap some spoilers on that stuff.

Also, I think this might be where we differ largely. Because I don't think those arcs were rushed, I think there were seeds sown all the way through. Those characters you mentioned, you see the early stages of their arcs in every single flashback.

Take Phastos for example. I think it's a merit of the good story telling

Spoiler

that the MOMENT I saw the words "Hiroshima" I knew what had happened with his character. Because Zhao had shown us his impatience to advance humanity's technology, it was a key detail we knew about him. So what you feel was rushed, I felt was a super effective way of giving the audience a big character gut punch in a short amount of time. Given the last time we saw him, he was babbling excitedly about technology, that one shot of him looking devastated in the aftermath said more than another 5 mins of screen time in the lead up would have said.

I mean, if you think his arc was rushed, what else was really left unexplored there? He became jaded about using his powers and managed to live a quiet, peaceful life. And then the highest possible stakes brought him back into the fold. It was pretty clear cut to me. In fact, I was super impressed with how naturally they folded him in so late in the story.

To me a good arc isn't screen time, it's the impact it has. He had one of my favourite arcs.

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Should probably slap some spoilers on that stuff.

Also, I think this might be where we differ largely. Because I don't think those arcs were rushed, I think there were seeds sown all the way through. Those characters you mentioned, you see the early stages of their arcs in every single flashback.

Take Phastos for example. I think it's a merit of the good story telling

Spoiler

that the MOMENT I saw the words "Hiroshima" I knew what had happened with his character. Because Zhao had shown us his impatience to advance humanity's technology, it was a key detail we knew about him. So what you feel was rushed, I felt was a super effective way of giving the audience a big character gut punch in a short amount of time. Given the last time we saw him, he was babbling excitedly about technology, that one shot of him looking devastated in the aftermath said more than another 5 mins of screen time in the lead up would have said.

I mean, if you think his arc was rushed, what else was really left unexplored there? He became jaded about using his powers and managed to live a quiet, peaceful life. And then the highest possible stakes brought him back into the fold. It was pretty clear cut to me. In fact, I was super impressed with how naturally they folded him in so late in the story.

To me a good arc isn't screen time, it's the impact it has. He had one of my favourite arcs.

Spoiler

Yes they gave us Phastos as geek of the group chomping at the bit to further human technology and advancements. Fine. But we don't see any spotlight on that or him generally until the Hiroshima flashback. Then Sersi and Ikaris visit. And again in ten minutes we go from He was jaded about humanity then he found love and made a family and won't leave... But he does after his husband does the love interest sage words thing.

This felt like it's done just cause and is resolved just as soon as it is introduced.

 

[Wolvieboy17]

I totally didn't read the scene like that, but I do see what you're saying.

Spoiler

I didn't see it as a flip flop though, as Phastos clearly didn't want to leave. To me, it invested me in him more because he clearly had far more at stake than the other Eternals up to that point, which I assume was the intention of the scene.

 

[Zyraquis]

I also don’t feel short necessarily means unfulfilling. It can be long but still unfulfilling (and drawn out). Sometimes less is more. I can understand the criticism but that’s not how I feel mostly watching the movie.