My defense of the Eternals movie
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I know that enough has already been said about how good or bad the Eternals movie is and I even understand that it may not be the most appropriate thing to address this controversy now, when its time has passed and other MCU projects are in the public spotlight, but Taking into account that these days I have been assuming the Marvel theme with greater weight within my content, I think it may be time to publish my point of view on this feature film, from the perspective of someone who evaluates the quality of this film as a piece within a puzzle (puzzle), which shows a larger figure than it alone can represent. In advance I must clarify that I do not intend to blindly justify the negative that this film may have, nor to say that those who have a bad opinion of it, is due to having insufficient fanaticism for the franchise to appreciate it, because each opinion is valid, I'm just here to explain mine.
It is well known that this feature film was destroyed by specialized critics even before its theatrical release, since many of the critics who saw it in previous screenings gave it very poor ratings. This was quite surprising, since in the case of Marvel and a super production in which stars like Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani participated... and also that great cast was directed by the winning Chinese filmmaker Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, success was virtually assured. However, it is also possible that all this has worked against him a little, since surely some expected a story with charismatic characters and very well-developed personalities, where the actors could demonstrate their histrionic abilities in a great way.
However, I think it should be remembered that this is a movie that is part of an extended universe and that it is the adaptation of a story from the comics, therefore, it must maintain sufficient narrative coherence that allows it to preserve its compatibility with the other MCU productions, as well as respecting the essence of the original material of the comics. Therefore, Eternals had the difficult task of introducing a dozen super powerful characters, of which no other live action production had ever been made before and who had to have existed since the origins of human civilization (thousands of years ago) , so it would be incredibly difficult to be able to deeply develop each of the roles and at the same time give the film all the action that characterizes a superhero story.
In my opinion, it is totally understandable that the plot is constantly based on flashbacks (retrospective scenes), to tell in parallel to the current events, a story that spans thousands of years, which cannot focus so much on the characters themselves, but in events more generally. Of course, the battles and situations that arise in those glimpses into the past will not generate great emotion in the viewer, because being previous events they do not produce tension or a sense of danger on the characters, they only have the purpose of establishing the importance that have had these in the development of humanity. It doesn't seem reasonable to me that the film is required to comply with so many conflicting aspects at the same time, such as having an intimate and personal narrative, that the plot be full of action and adventure, that it give prominence to all its characters and that it has a short duration; something had to be dispensed with.
It is not about being conformist and accepting a mediocre movie as good, I personally agree that the story could have been better. Some characters, especially the one played by Richard Madden, Ikaris, have an inexpressiveness that makes them cold, which makes it difficult to empathize with them, although I don't think that was precisely a mistake there, neither by the actor nor by the direction. I understand that this is the personality of a super powerful individual who has lived for millennia and who is also not even human, they are all almost robots. The film itself reveals that they were manufactured in a similar way to the Blade Runner replicants; they were not born as babies, they were created with the same size and appearance that they have after thousands of years, that is, they do not age.
Consequently, the construction of these characters seeks to convey the personalities of beings that meet these characteristics. They throughout their existence have been simple tools of a superior being, now after being able to live in a more or less normal way, their attachment and perspective in relation to humans has changed and they reach the point of revealing themselves to their creator by opposing the fulfillment of what was always its last purpose, to produce the necessary conditions for the emergence of a new celestial. The narrative can be somewhat heavy compared to other Marvel works, but that is part of the essence of this story, it takes some time to establish the entire trajectory of the characters and finally in the third act to execute the outcome of the plot of today, which is simple but correct in my opinion.
One of the most important elements in the story is the twist in which it is revealed that Ikaris was the one who killed Ajak, for many this twist does not have much impact because the character is not charismatic and we do not appreciate him, I think that the important thing there is not the empathy that we feel towards him, but that he is the most powerful of the group and who could be expected to be the greatest ally in the case of the one who is in love with Sersi, who is of all of them the most attached to the people of the earth. Another aspect that is always highly criticized is the villain, referring to the leader of the deviants, however, the antagonist here is really Ikaris and also the celestial Arishem, but beyond that, there is a philosophical conflict, since they cannot define themselves. lightly as villains; its intention is to maintain the cosmic cycle of life, as established by the mythology of the film.
I find it paradoxical that many of the people who describe the Eternals as a terrible movie, usually criticize the so-called Marvel formula and the little substance of the plots that the MCU movies present, but when assigned to a director with a style like the by Chloé Zhao and adapts a work of such colossal temporal magnitude, adding philosophical elements to the motivations of the main conflict and something for the audience to meditate on beyond the action scenes and visual effects, then they complain about the slow pace and the unintimidating antagonist. I dare to imagine that if the film did not have the name of Marvel anywhere, possibly a few would say that it is wonderful and would perhaps compare it with Blade Runer or Dune (saving distances), which are also heavy movies to watch and with slow rhythms, only they are not superheroes.
On the other hand, anyone who, without having seen it before, reads the most frequent negative reviews that are made of Eternals, may immediately think that it does not have action scenes or that the few it does have are very poor and boring, but that from my point of view perspective is not like that; It is clear that we are not talking about a film with the level of action of Avengers: Infinity War, but understanding that it is an origin film, I have no doubt that the battles are quite well achieved. Regarding this, I think that the criticism focuses mainly on the lack of originality of the powers that the characters present, in fact, the resemblance of Ikaris to Superman is criticized, but that is not the fault of this film, it is something typical of the comic, he is a character created to be equivalent to the man of steel, even the tape itself refers to that; so there is no point in such criticism, it is like complaining that Homelander from The Boys is very similar to the last son of Krypton, even if this is not a parody or deconstruction of the DC hero, it is obvious that it is his pastiche, but it is not something new, as an example we have the cases of Flash and Quiksilver, Namor and Aquaman, Green Arrow and Hawkeye, Black Panther and Red Lion, Deathstroke and Deadpool...
Before concluding, I do not want to stop raising my appreciation regarding the way in which the original story was adapted to make it consistent with the MCU, I think that having changed its status as an alien race for that of super advanced artificial replicas is excellent, the purpose of his stay on the planet to protect intelligent life and generate the conditions for a celestial to develop inside the earth, it also seems to me a very interesting narrative twist. That the energy produced by the intelligent population of the world may be somewhat far-fetched, yes, but this is not hard science fiction, it is the same universe in which a radioactive spider gives a teenager super powers, everything is in how open it is the viewer's mind to assimilate this type of fanciful concepts. To me, like others, the justification for them not intervening in what happened during Endgame seemed very vague, I think they should have taken more advantage of that situation, but it's not like that completely ruined my experience.
Another point on which the critics gloat is in the forced inclusion that it presents, I imagine that for some people that can be a big problem, however, I find the diversity of the characters quite good, I don't have any problem with the homosexual kiss either. or the brief and not very explicit sex scene between Sersi and Ikaris. The only thing that can shock me a bit is that Makkari was created by a celestial and has this hearing impairment, but she understands and let it go for inclusion. For those who say that she could not use sign language before she had invented it, I remind you that in this universe alien civilizations speak English.
In short, it is clear that it could have been better and that it is a somewhat heavy film compared to what the MCU has accustomed us to, but from there to classifying it as one of the worst productions in the franchise and saying that it is extremely boring, I do not I do not share that idea at all, instead I think that for how extensive and dense its plot is, it is entertaining, at least for me. It has a good background reflection, a relatively unexpected and surprising plot twist, quite good action scenes, the powers of the characters, although generic, are good and it correctly expands the Marvel mythology, with all that for me it is a good movie, my final mark is 7.5 / 10.
Thank you very much for reading my content, I hope it has been to your liking, any opinion, request, criticism or suggestion, please let me know through the comments, it will be a pleasure for me to receive it. See you soon, we will be reading soon.