@therealsilvermane

Chloe Zhao was not exactly outspoken against the communist party. She said in a film magazine interview 10 years ago that in Beijing where she grew up, "there are lies everywhere" probably referring to China's state run media. She was also misquoted by another magazine to say "the United States is now my country" which she didn't say. Those two things caused Zhao to be censored by China's current authoritarian regime which is embracing hardcore nationalism and isolationism.

I actually saw Eternals tonight in 3D XD again. It's stunning in the 3D large format and it's going away from my theater Wednesday so I wanted to see it in that format one last time. So now I'm a little more familiar with the smaller details of the story. Regarding your response about the Deviants and their role in the story, Thena's condition, and the Eternals family, my spoiler filled rebuttal is below...

@TupennyConan You should Spoiler proof your above post (click the eye icon) or at least put a spoiler warning over it.

I also disagree with your complaint that the primary threat in the story is pushed aside. Spoiler filled rebuttal below (beware MAJOR SPOILERS):

I disagree with your analysis of the Deviants in the film. Spoiler filled rebuttal below:

Yes, I thought Barry Keoghan was great as the Eternal with an attitude, I just had a hard time understanding his weird accent at times.

At this point, I don't think Eternals is dividing audiences per the Hollywood Reporter headline above. It's the critics who are divided at nearly 50%. On RT and on other social media, audiences are generally saying they liked or loved Eternals. At the theater yesterday, as the credits rolled and a large family in the row in front of me waited for the final credit scene, a young boy got up and hilariously asked each member of his group "Did you like the movie?" down the row. They all answered "Yes" and the boy gave them all a high five. In the hallway, folks coming out of the screening talked about the implications of what they just saw and seemed to be positive about the movie. Eternals no doubt has its pre-haters, but people without that prenatal hate in their heart all seem to agree that Eternals is a good and enjoyable movie.

A third reason I theorize for the critic pig pile goes back to the flashbacks. I really do think this element of the movie's story is key to why so many critics honestly bashed the film. I'm not sure if the following is a spoiler, I don't think it is. Anyway, most of the flashbacks do not directly address the mission or story at hand but rather give us details about a particular Eternals' story. Indirectly, though, the flashbacks do give us insight as to why particular Eternals act the way they do in the present story. In this way, the story can seem as if it isn't a super tight narrative about the present day situation, and it's not supposed to be. The present day situation is rather simple. What's more complex is each individual Eternal and their relationship to each other. After sleeping on it a night, I do believe even more that Eternals is now my favorite MCU film. At his point, I could care less what critics think or how much it makes at the box office. I'm just glad this particular film exists.

Here are some specific reasons why I think a lot of critics may have been triggered to collectively curb stomp Eternals. Again, I'll try to be spoiler-free. 1. The many flashbacks. Anybody who has been to a screenwriting class will tell you that it's almost like a First Commandment that thou shalt not use the flashback. It's considered lazy writing, kills narrative momentum, yada yada. Well, Eternals uses quite a few flashbacks. Now, I think they fit the movie as the story features 10 characters who have been around since the Stone Age. I liked the flashbacks. However, I think the many flashbacks triggered a negative reaction in classically trained film critics who have been taught that flashbacks should only be used as a last resort to tell the story. There is one flashback in the movie's middle that does significantly reverse the dramatic momentum built up after a large present day battle scene with dramatic consequences. So yes, I think the many many flashbacks which prevent the present day story's momentum from turning into a chugging narrative locomotion is a big reason for the critical backlash we are seeing. 2. (maybe spoiler here) The way the Eternals are "revealed" to our movie's Everyman. There are three significant "Everyman/woman" characters in Eternals (every MCU film has one, a non-powered human to give an audience POV), and the first one is Dane Whitman. The movie's initial Eternals reveal to Dane is not particularly dramatic and happens quite quickly at the beginning of the movie. I think the norm might be to hide the hero's identity for a while and when the reveal happens, it might be quite a dramatic reveal, like in Batman or Highlander. In Eternals, it's not really like that and is kind of glossed over. I think I myself was expecting a dramatic reveal, but that isn't really the point of the movie. I guess these Eternals live in a world where being a super-hero isn't really that big of a deal. Anyway, I think the movie's less than dramatic approach to the reveal of an Eternal's secret identity as a super-powered immortal to our Everyman might have triggered some critics. I'm getting tired. That's what I got for now.

Before digging into my theories of possible issues some critics might have had with Eternals, I just wanna say that some critics are just dummies. I do think the low RT score does have a bit to do in part with groupthink, some critics just afraid to give the movie any positive thoughts in fear of looking dumb because they really don't know how to critique a comic book movie and everyone else is giving it bad reviews so there must be something there. I also think that some critics might be scared to jump in the water with this movie because of Wonder Woman 1984. Remember how critics initially praised the movie only to have it backfire on them when the movie was almost universally ridiculed after its release? Like WW84, Eternals also isn't just about beating up people but about trying to find love and humanity and stuff at its core. Critics might have saw this and sensed another dumpster fire like WW84 and jumped on the bad reviews so they don't look dumb like they did last Christmas. Instead, I'm afraid they might look dumb again with Eternals, because Eternals is a good movie.

Or just add another 5 minutes or so of Makkari time to the overall the movie. Yeah, I really liked Makkari.

My favorite Eternal in the film: Makkari. I liked them all really. Sersi and Ikaris as the leads were great. But Makkari was so understated in her role, in part because she's deaf I guess. Towards the end of the movie, her reaction to a particular incident and the way she reacted in the movie was so palpable that it really hit me in the gut.

Just got home from seeing Eternals in 3D XD (Cinemark's version of IMAX). I was going to go to the regular IMAX, but as Cinemark had theirs in 3D, I opted for the Cinemark. I don't regret it. As for Eternals the movie itself (and I'll try to be plot spoiler free)... How ironic for me that the lowest RT scored MCU film ever, is also now possibly my favorite MCU film. I know, I know, I'm a resident Marvel shill in these parts, however, I didn't think Black Widow was that great (and posted my thoughts over in BW), so with that, I can say I don't automatically love every new MCU movie. I did love Shang Chi, but I loved Eternals even more. Eternals is the MCU movie I've been waiting for. It is the first MCU movie, I think, that is about things outside of the usually hermetic world of the MCU. In other words, while MCU movies are pieces of a larger whole, they also obviously serve their own story, usually involving a Marvel hero or heroes powering up physically spiritually and mentally as they try to stop whoever is threatening the world or galaxy. The stories, as good as they are, don't really exist beyond that. With Black Panther and Black Widow, I saw the honest attempt to touch on other things not necessarily MCUish like themes of family, leadership and responsibility, etc. Now while those movies did touch on these themes I mentioned, they didn't necessarily affect the outcome of the story or the hero's journey. In the end, the plot of movies like Black Panther or Black Widow is still reliant on the hero themselves overcoming odds placed on them by an adversary (I guess Killmonger is an abandoned royal family member) which leads to the hero powering up and stopping the bad guys, regardless of love or family or humanity. Eternals on the other hand, besides being about a group of super-powered beings and their journey to powering up and saving the world, directly deals with themes of love, humanity, family, and human history and evolution(in a fictional 2001 Space Odyssey sense) and has these themes at its core. Eternals as a movie takes these themes so much to heart that these themes affect the outcome and plot of the movie. And the reason these themes are so engrained to the plot of Eternals, is because the Eternals have spent an eternity living with humanity. I loved the story. As for more technical issues: I thought the cinematography was great. I didn't see any plot holes to the story. I liked the music. I do have distinct theories why so many critics disapproved of the movie. I'll post those theories later. But yes, I think I can honestly say that Eternals is my favorite MCU movie. Even over Captain Marvel.

Zhao: "I remember thinking it was Superman by Terence Malick when I saw the trailer" And then she saw the movie and said "Never mind"

Okay, because I'm all about accuracy, I did go look at the Venom 2 credit scene again on YouTube just now. I guess the hotel room scene does go to a different location from a city to a beach and I guess I remembered it differently. But the room layout itself is exactly the same. I guess as I watched it, I had no idea what was happening so I didn't really take notice (or maybe care?) until Tom Holland showed up on the TV screen and then I was like "oh that's kinda cool, I guess this wasn't a complete waste of my time then."

No thanks, seeing Venom 2 once was enough for me and this conversation is now jumping the baby shark if that's an accurate use of the phrase. I'll be posting my unbiased thoughts on the Eternals movie later today after I see it in 3D XD. You should post yours too after you go see the 3D matinee show.

Did YOU watch Venom 2 and the mid-credits scene? Because they remain in the same hotel with the exact same look and feel. It was the same set. It just seemed to be a parallel mirror version of the original hotel room except now Tom Holland's Spidey was on the hotel flat screen.

I didn't read the spoiler filled section of his review if that's what he said. I'm just saying he tries to give himself comic book credibility by prefacing his review with some comic book Eternals history, but his history is not really accurate. Whether he liked the movie or not, that's his choice, but if he's trying to judge the movie based on what is or isn't in the comics, he doesn't seem to actually know the comics. Just sayin'.

Without watching the spoiler section of that guy's video, does he know his Marvel stuff? I'm not even sure this dude knows what he's talking about. The Eternals didn't become obsolete in the comics because they were replaced by X-Men and Avengers etc. The Eternals were never that popular to begin with because none of Jack Kirby's 70's Marvel creations, including Devil Dinosaur, 2001 Space Odyssey, and Machine Man, sold well and never really stuck with the readers. Eternals I guess hung around because at least they looked like humans and Sersi did become a full fledged Avenger in the 90's. And in the context of the overall Marvel story, the only Eternals who hung around with humans were Sersi Ikaris and Kingo Sunen as they pretended to be human (and Ajax who remained buried in a subterranean Eternals city until Ikaris freed him). The rest retired to the Eternals City of Olympia long long ago. So in that context, the Eternals were never a super-hero group in the Marvel Comics universe until the 70's. They were never replaced by other heroes. And then this guy says a compelling Eternals story has never been written. Sure, the original Kirby series wasn't that compelling, but nothing he ever wrote was that compelling and was just too far out, but did the guy ever read the Neil Gaiman Eternals limited series? That was actually pretty good. Sorry, but this dude lost credibility with me at his opener.

Wait, in that spoiler reply I posted over in Venom 2, I detailed the mid-credits scene almost frame by frame. Ha ha, what the heck did I leave out? And do pirate torrents leave out the credit scenes? That sounds like a rip off.

I guess I do look a little like a pirate, mate.

Glad you enjoyed it. I'll be seeing it for myself probably in 3D XD later today. Now for discussion, do you think the movie still spells the "death knell" for the MCU? (this is a kind of sarcastic rhetorical question so no answer actually needed, of course it doesn't) Referencing that ridiculous New York Post article that says the MCU should commit suicide or ritual seppuku or whatever it was, you know who should off themselves in the goodwill of sparing humanity from the horror of too many comic book movies? Sony and WB/DC. If Sony and WB/DC just stopped making their own comic book movies, there would suddenly be like 45% less superhero movies "inundating" the multiplexes. Sony actually does make subpar live action comic book movies. Please Sony just hand the Spider-Keys over to Disney already. You'd spare the world a slow and painful demise and also a lot of confusion of what's in the MCU and what's not. If WB/DC would just pull the plug as well (okay, with the exception of solo Batman and Joker movies I guess) and stick to television/animation, they might stop losing money and save the dignity and IP value of their legacy characters. There's always merchandising, WB. Problem solved. If only.

Do I look like a pirate to you? Listen, you said you'd watch Eternals the same way I watched Venom 2, so go reserve your 3D matinee ticket if you're a dude of your word.

That would be the 3D matinee show on the Saturday of opening weekend. Get your tickets now!

So obviously the box office numbers this weekend for Eternals will be artificially inflated, too, from this damning evidence. Got it.