Eternals

Directed by Chloe Zhao (2021)

I won't sugarcoat it: this was a bland movie. My friends and I all left the theater saying "well, that sucked". But after further thought, I don't think it was that bad.

Yes, the plot was predictable - everyone knows the WORLD isn't going to be destroyed, I mean come on. To me, it is the worst thing you can do as a movie with a hero/villain story to have the consequences of the villain winning be the destruction of the whole planet. The audience needs to worry that the villain may actually win! In my memory, the only time a large-scale villain like this worked was another Marvel property: Thanos. But even his victory was only temporary, and it still didn't kill the entirety of humanity. The acting was okay. But I think, as a Marvel fan, I respect the task the filmmakers had on hand. Clearly, the next phase of Marvel movies is going to involve these epic cosmic entities, which are simply a hard thing to bring to the screen in a convincing way, especially when humans are the focus of the franchise. Overall, it wasn't a great movie, but don't be so quick to hate.

(11/05/21)