***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ETERNALS ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

[SpiderByte]

I'm a huge sucker for an opening crawl and was disappointed when I presumed the practice has basically ended with Rise of Skywalker (at least in anything close to mainstream/not a documentary) so was pleasantly surprised for one here.

[Danhjpn]

Love that this movie has an open ending. I'm bored with the typical "good guy beat bad guy and everyone live happily after. "

Edited November 5, 2021 by Danhjpn

[iamjesuisiam]

Doctor Strange's visuals are underrated 

https://www.noelshack.com/2021-44-5-1636152796-vlcsnap-2021-11-05-23h35m45s681.jpg 

https://www.noelshack.com/2021-44-5-1636152779-vlcsnap-2021-11-05-23h19m17s751.jpg

https://www.noelshack.com/2021-44-5-1636152809-vlcsnap-2021-11-05-23h20m22s775.jpg

[Valonqar]

9 minutes ago, Danhjpn said:

Love that this movie has an open ending. I'm bored with the typical "good guy beat bad guy and everyone live happily after. "

 

Me too! Greta hook for continuation of the story. 

[SpiderByte]

Stuff I loved in particular:

Makkari. Hope she has more screentime in future MCU stuff because her and Druig were very very fucking cute. 

 

Dane and Sersi was also cute, wish there was more of it.

 

Ikaris twist was well done, but I do have one criticism of the pacing it. I'll get to that.

 

Loved how big the scale was with the Celestials. All the visuals with them made the exposition go down easier, especially Arishems big master plan. Plus it's David Kaye, which is always fun.

 

Criticisms, which are basically all pacing based.

 

The fight in the Amazon was too long.

 

It wasn't too jarring but I feel they should have established the Phastos not liking humans stuff earlier and not then immediately cutting to his family.

 

Kingo actually sticking with his belief not to interfere was interesting but maybe could have been established further ahead.

 

They could have shaved the entire death of Ajak down a few minutes. Just cut back to the farm after the Deviants jump her.

 

Also Kro was completely unnecessary. Other than that no major complaints.

[Danhjpn]

47 minutes ago, Valonqar said:

 

Me too! Greta hook for continuation of the story. 

For ex: Shangchi 3rd act, big CGI final battle, beat the monster, everyone happy 😑 it just sticks to the generic mcu

And I think the deviant in this movie is just used as a distraction. The real enemy is ..... the characters own's inner mind. There is no black or white, just grey, depends on each people standard, way of thinking.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Danhjpn

[Menor the Destroyer]

Read through the thread. I agree with @Eternal Legion that Sersi was probably the weak point of the film. Not that I disliked her character, I think she worked ok as the "likable relatable empathetic character," but she felt more generic next to the rest and didn't have as interesting of an arc. Chan made it work fairly well, so wasn't too big a drag, but hoping she gets a bit more definition in sequels. 

 

Other than that, really dug this. I disagree with this having bad villains since the Deviants weren't really the "villains" in this, more just an element of the worldbuilding. I agree that Kro was disappointing, but it doesn't hugely affect this imo, because Ikaris, who serves as the primary antagonist here, was excellent. Really dug the character, probably the most engaging in the film, he had that kind of zealous commitment that defines a lot of the better CBM villains. I don't agree that Madden's acting was bad at all. 

 

As far as Sersi/Ikaris romance, it wasn't the greatest romance ever made, but still worked fairly well. At least, I cared enough that the scene where Ikaris can't bring himself to kill Sersi was pretty moving, so...

 

Going through individual characters, my favorites other than Ikaris were Druig, Kingo, and Phastos. Makkari and Thena were nearly there but needed a bit more screentime. Gilgamesh played a fairly minor role despite showing a lot of potential in the first scene where they meet him (can see why Korean fans are mad, but I think his death served the narrative well). Sprite's love for Ikaris felt a bit unnecessary, I think her frustration with being stuck in a childlike body was good enough motivation for a resentment of humanity, the love quadrangle thing just felt like too much. And Kingo's valet was hilarious as well, worked very well for me. Ajak I liked quite a bit though it's hard to compare her with the rest, since her big role was in flashbacks. 

 

Pacing-wise, it definitely was slow and disjointed at the start, but once it gets going it gets going. The third act was easily one of my favorites the MCU has done. Really spectacular visuals and it just keeps building. I saw in some reviews that people felt they had the same debate over and over again, I never got that sense. After the discovery of Ajak's body, the film moves at a very nice clip and presents some pretty narratively interesting questions. Really liked it overall. Upper half MCU for sure. 

 

 

[Menor the Destroyer]

Also, please bring back Chloe for the sequel. Those shots at the end were magnificent. The frozen (turned to rock? wasn't totally clear on that point) Celestial, Arishem appearing over the horizon, the erupting volcano and then the sea rising up around them, Kro striding through the orange-lit smoke. Felt really epic, beautiful, and immersive, and it would be a shame to lose that just because the script didn't work as well for audiences. 

 

Also we are definitely getting a sequel in some form. No way that ending goes unaddressed, even if this film's legs are awful. They might do restyling or maybe shunt to D+, but there will be a continuation. 

 

As far as post-credits scenes, Starfox is whatever but I am really excited for Black Knight and Blade. Didn't know it was Blade before reading it here but that is really intriguing. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Menor

[Legion Again]

4 minutes ago, Menor said:

Also, please bring back Chloe for the sequel.

Cap and I were talking about this yesterday, agreed.   
 

I think Feige will want her back if she wants to come back.

[Cap]

3 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

(click to embiggen)

 

 

Example #5,901,357 on why Social Media Was A Mistake.

I don’t think I have ever been as angry at fandom watching a movie as I was during that scene. I was like this is the Mistake Spoiler TM that Twitter/Tumblr is fucking pissed over? Are you kidding me? Talk about taking things out of context!!!! Why is tumblr trying to cancel my first explicitly gay superhero??!?

 

🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪

 

It was legit described to me as like he invented the atomic bomb. I’m like no that is not what the scene is about. And if we want to get really into this, the person who invented the Atomic Bomb in the MCU is HOWARD STARK. And you know who was PROUD OF THAT?  Tony. 

 

I literally was prepared to fight every single person before the movie release for Phastos. I was so sick over it. 

[XXR vs XXR]

23 minutes ago, Menor said:

The frozen (turned to rock? wasn't totally clear on that point) Celestial

 

Turned to marble. 

[Cap]

@Menor @Eternal Legion

 

As I said in the weekend Thread, Chloe is going off to do her Dracula. And Nate, who was the head producer other than Kevin on the movie, is trying to keep Black Panther together right now.

 

So it’s not like they could start work on it tomorrow anyway. I think you give everyone a couple months and then go back to it with fresh eyes.

 

because to be objective about it, there definitely is room for finessing. I thought the real struggle with it was the concept is not as easily accessible as some of their other superhero origin stories.
 

Boy gets bit by a spider, has spider powers.

 

Man gets special steroids, literally becomes the hottest person in the universe in all existence of all time.

 

You know that North mythology you’ve grown up with? Here’s our super version love it.

 

Now that we’ve gotten a lot of the they are space aliens/Thanos is involved/cosmos stuff out-of-the-way, we can really just hit the ground running with the second one.

 

I also think a shorter movie would be good. I know I feel like I’m screaming into the void, but two hours. Why can’t we make movies that are two hours? Where did they go Hollywood?

[lorddemaxus]

9 minutes ago, Cap said:

I don’t think I have ever been as angry at fandom watching a movie as I was during that scene. I was like this is the Mistake Spoiler TM that Twitter/Tumblr is fucking pissed over?

I thought it was a pretty funny bit.

[Menor the Destroyer]

4 minutes ago, Cap said:

@Menor @Eternal Legion

 

As I said in the weekend Thread, Chloe is going off to do her Dracula. And Nate, who was the head producer other than Kevin on the movie, is trying to keep Black Panther together right now.

 

So it’s not like they could start work on it tomorrow anyway. I think you give everyone a couple months and then go back to it with fresh eyes.

 

because to be objective about it, there definitely is room for finessing. I thought the real struggle with it was the concept is not as easily accessible as some of their other superhero origin stories.
 

Boy gets bit by a spider, has spider powers.

 

Man gets special steroids, literally becomes the hottest person in the universe in all existence of all time.

 

You know that North mythology you’ve grown up with? Here’s our super version love it.

 

Now that we’ve gotten a lot of the they are space aliens/Thanos is involved/cosmos stuff out-of-the-way, we can really just hit the ground running with the second one.

 

I also think a shorter movie would be good. I know I feel like I’m screaming into the void, but two hours. Why can’t we make movies that are two hours? Where did they go Hollywood?

I definitely think there is room for changes on the script level (would have preferred a linear format rather than the flashback approach) but shouldn't be an issue for the sequel anyway. And I don't want some other director coming in when I liked the direction of this one so much. 

[XXR vs XXR]

Eternals 2 will be 2025 at the earliest, maybe 2026. 

[SpiderByte]

1 minute ago, Menor said:

And Nate, who was the head producer other than Kevin on the movie, is trying to keep Black Panther together right now.

Well he's part of the Marvel Parliament so he's involved to varying degrees in everything

[Legion Again]

Yeah a lot of the issues with this one simply wouldn’t exist for a sequel for structural reasons. And I assume it would be more like 130-140ish minutes.   
 

A sequel could hit in 2024 but I agree 2025+ is more likely, so no rush at all. I expect we may see Black Knight in like 3-5 different projects before we see, e.g. Phastos and Kingo again.

[Cap]

9 minutes ago, Eternal Legion said:

expect we may see Black Knight in like 3-5 different projects before we see, e.g. Phastos and Kingo again.

This would literally be a crime. You’re not taking my children and leaving me with Jon Snow.

 

 

[AJG]

COVID scheduling is wild because that man Kumali Nanjiani not being in the entire third act set-piece is crazy to me. Best character in the film. 

Edited November 6, 2021 by AJG

[SpiderByte]

39 minutes ago, Eternal Legion said:

A sequel could hit in 2024 but I agree 2025+ is more likely, so no rush at all. I expect we may see Black Knight in like 3-5 different projects before we see, e.g. Phastos and Kingo again.

I got the vibe that the scene at the end is like the Ant-Man post credits scene. A scene literally from another project. Maybe Moon Knight or the Halloween special they're doing?