Eternals is an American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name. Directed by Chloé Zhao and released in the USA on November 5, Eternals is the 10th highest-grossing film of 2021.
The plot is about a race of Eternals, immortal beings who have been on Earth for thousands of years protecting mankind from the ancient threat of Deviants which look a lot like cable and wireframe lizard wolves….
The movie has a star-studded ensemble which includes; includes Angelina Jolie as Thena, Salma Hayek as Ajak: Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, and Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos and Kit Harington as Dane Whitman.
The Good
Eternals has exceptional cinematography, with sweeping landscape shots that capture the natural essence of planet Earth. It also blends nicely into the MCU and there’s plenty of easter egg references to MCU canon.
The casting and characters have been hailed for their diversity and inclusivity, for example in the way Angelina Jolie’s character battles mental health, and Lauren Ridloff as Makkari has a hearing impediment, Phastos is the first gay superhero character and Sprite is somewhat androgynous…
The Eternals have different skillsets and part of the fun is in figuring out what their superpowers are, from mind control and transmutation to conjuring weapons from thin air and super strength.
The Bad
There are a lot of characters and there is a lot of back story that needs to be covered for the plot to make maximum impact. That’s a lot of material, and at 2 hours and 35 minutes it’s a long movie and you will feel every minute it.
The back and forth in connecting up the backstories can get a bit a jarring and downright confusing as the first half of the movie is somewhat non-linear hoping from present to past back to present.
The Ugly
For an ancient race that was supposed to be specially skilled to fight deviants they didn’t seem particularly equipped to handle them. Ikaris had some superman vibes going on since he flies and shot lasers out of his eyes which at best seemed awkward in actual combat.
I felt Angelina Jolie’s character Thena was somewhat sidelined and while being part of the more central characters never actually lived up to the rep of Goddess of War.
There were other characters who also deserved more screen time or at least more coverage of their backstories and there were interesting plot points that could have been further developed but instead just used and discarded as plot gimmicks.
Eternals tries to do so much and be so much but ends up spread too thin.
Final Thoughts
Its another MCU production, beautiful cinematography that tries to be so much more and ultimately doesn’t tick all the boxes. If you are not a Marvel fan and haven’t seen the other movies then wouldn’t recommend this one even though its a somewhat standalone installation. Eternals is set soon after the events of Avengers Endgame…. And by the by if the Eternals have been around for thousands of years where were they when Thanos was doing his thing hmmm.
Have you watched Eternals… is it something you would watch?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
I liked the movie but doubt it will age as a classic like Star Wars for example.
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I agree with you…. It’s been a week since I watched it and I can barely recall it also I don’t think I would want to re-watch in the foreseeable future 🤣
~B
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Watch “Judgement at Nuremberg” It’s from 1961 in black and white but an excellent movie and even has a young William Shatner in it for a piece of useless trivia.
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I have queued it up for the weekend, and I love William Shatner so just for that would watch it to see history in the making
~B
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Shatner was a bit actor in that one. Spencer Tracey steals the day in this movie.
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Yeah, a lot of people I know asked that same question you did about Thanos and the Eternals. I haven’t seen this as I’m done with the MCU. Endgame was my final movie.
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After doing some background digging looks like Thanos might have been aware of the Eternal…. And the end credits have a clip which introduce a character as Thanos’ brother so I guess when ,The Eternals return… They might play around more with the mad Titan’s family
~B
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Hahaha!!! Your description of a long movie and you will feel every minute of it is so recognizable!!!!!! (Haven’t seen this one yet, but if I am gonna watch it I will be prepared!)
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🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think it might have served best as a series with each episode focussing on a different character.
But trying to unpack all ten at once, you get too much of some things and too little of the other stuff….
And as a rule I think movies should be very careful about going past the 2hour mark every minute after that feels longer 🤣
~B
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I love MCU and I will definitely watch this. Question like asking where the Eternals were when Thanos snapped his fingers are anti-progressive, let’s be open minded and just get swept up in to the current story.
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Hahaha here’s to getting swept away with the story and not asking antiprogressive questions 🤣🤣🤣
~B
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No interest in z grade tier comics turned into films. I was a huge Marvel Comics collector as a kid, I don’t remember even reading them as a guest in someone else’s comic.
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Interesting, “canon” makes it seem like they were major players back in the day… But I suppose that’s how they make it work just mention a character(s) that remotely got referenced in comics even as a concept and claim hey they were big deal in the comics….
🤣 and like the emperor’s new clothes everyone comes up to say yes I read the comics I remember these guys 🤣 and those who didn’t just go along with it hmmmm
~B
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Yeah I had to research who the hell they were 😅
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I just looked up their history. The book had five volumes lasting no more than two years each time it surfaced. That’s not “canon” that’s gun powder 😂 Vol 1- 1976-78 (30 months), Vol 2-1985-1986 (11 months), Vol 3-2006-2007 (7 months), Vol 4- 2008-2009 (7 months), Vol 5- 2021 to present (14 months)
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Reblogged this on Whipped Owl.
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If a movie is more than 120 minutes, I start to wonder. Very rarely it’s worth it.
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