Eternals - Review/Best Marvel Film Ever?

Welcome back to the channel, and I hope you all are having a great day. So we're going to review Eternals, um, and this is a, a movie that's been quite controversial. It's, it's a kind of divided audience. It's, it's almost like you love it or hate it. And I'm, you know, posing the question, what's this Marvel's best movie? And I know people are thinking, well, according to Rotten Tomatoes and many other, you know, critics, it's done horribly, right? It's terrible. But what's really going on? And why are people so divided? And why do I feel, or am even asking the question, is this one of Marvel's best movies when people are saying it is clear that it's one of Marvel's worst movies? But I think when I really line up Marvel films, I'm more prone at this point to think Black Panther is still the number one Marvel film. And I think that's because of the, just the impact that it had globally, socially, to an entire group of people. The acting was great and it was a, it was a very well done film. Um, it was just a great acting cast, right? But before that, from a comic book standpoint for Marvel, I'm pretty sure it would have probably been like between, uh, Captain America: Winter Soldier and, um, probably been, um, the event, the First Avengers, right? So probably for me, it probably would have been Captain America: Winter Soldier, and then, um, uh, the first Avengers. And I know a lot of people think about, well, what about Captain America: Civil War and that and those things? And so, um, somewhere down the line, I think that Civil War gets in there, but I think I would probably look at something like up and up until Eternals, I would look at probably something like Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, First Avengers, probably then Captain America: Civil War, then the first Iron Man, right? I think that would have been my first. If you, of course, if you want to get really technical and go all the way back to the original Marvel films to start off, probably would be Blade, right? You know, and so Blade would probably be up very, very high, right? And so I'm going to explain a little bit why, you know, this is so important in putting Eternals in there. Because for me, then Eternals gets up there, I'd say probably right after Black Panther, probably in spot number 2 or number 3. And I know a lot of people be like, wow, you know, how could you put a film that is, you know, clearly um, by many critics, uh, seen to be considered to be a failure and a horrible film. And so, um, um, you know, I think the first place to start with Eternals is going to be, uh, just Marvel burnout, right? I think Marvel has just— it had a successful blueprint were connected, all of these, uh, you know, storylines into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and everything was an Easter egg into the, to the next film. And that worked very, very well, you know, for, for over a decade. But I think now, you know, Marvel— people are just burnt out with the Marvel formula. And I think Eternals just kind of came along— excuse me— it just kind of came along and, you know, uh, uh, took on some of that, right? Because it is some of the— it's, it's connectivity there. But I think what Eternals also got right was Eternals worked well as a standalone movie. Like, it didn't, it didn't really need the Marvel connectivity. And I also think what made a lot of sense, um, with it, you know, feeling more standalone was that it really is predating, at least in the Marvel historical chronological order, it's predating all the other Marvel films, right? So it has, you know, been the part of history and everything is kind of pulled out of Eternals to get us to this point. Right, but you know, the thing is about the Marvel formula, and, and I think maybe this will kind of bring it home as to why I found The Eternals to be such a great Marvel film, one of the best, uh, you know, in my opinion, um, you know, was that it's— it stepped away from the Marvel formula to a great degree, and that was refreshing. But there was just such a well-balanced for me of many of the elements I look for in, in, in many of my superhero films. And, and I think that breaks down to first, uh, I would say pacing, right? How it moves. A lot of superhero films, um, you know, they do a lot of, uh, filler type stuff until you get to the special effects and, and the main showdowns, right? Um, you know, but they, when they're in, in the pacing of it, they don't do a good job of the transition, right? So you sometimes find yourself watching the time, or you're like, uh, this is slow, or it's boring, or, uh, it's not a good balance of storyline. It's just CGI, and you get exhausted from explosions and these Dragon Ball Z-like fight showdowns, right? But the Eternals— and I can't think of the director's name, but I think they won a— they're, you know, highly acclaimed. And if I'm not mistaken, they may have even won an Oscar. But they really knew how to put this film together. Because it moved along, you know, even though it's a very, very long movie. It's like over 2 and a half hours long. It moved along very well, you know, um, and I never felt bored. I never had to watch the time. I was interested the entire time, and it held my attention, you know. Of course, you got the big actors in here. You know, from, you know, some of them are from great television shows. Got, um, you know, big A-list celebrities like Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie, uh, Richard Madden from Game of Thrones, and of course, you know, Kit Harington, Jon Snow from Game of Thrones, he's in it. So you got that whole alumni, and I can't think of this character's name. Um, you know, who he's kind of like the, the person who kind of possessed people. Uh, but I believe I saw him in The Green Knight, which I thought was a very interesting film. But, um, just well done, you know, um, acting. And, uh, so there's no problems there. Um, well pacing, you know, well paced. Um, and getting back to the, the other dimensions and the elements of what I was looking for in great films, my great superhero films, um, was the good storyline, which it had, and then the, um, uh, you know, the special effects, the CGI, which I thought were pretty darn good at, you know, different points. The action sequences, I thought they worked well. I wasn't exhausted. I think there was enough. I can tell they were very attentive to that and going, well, let's just make sure we put enough, you know, action sequences in here, uh, so that, you know, this doesn't become such a story character-driven film. And I think overall that's my point too, that what happens in many of these Marvel films, um, these comic book films, is, um, they, uh, uh, lose the balance between the storyline and it being a character-driven film, you know, so that, you know, you get invested in the characters, you care what happened to them. That's, you know, that's really what makes these movies. And I really care what happened to the Eternals. I really, you know, care what it meant for them to go against the Celestials, right? I was invested in it. And it's kind of weird because going in I was already kind of Marvel exhausted. You know, I had, you know, for many years already, uh, had been more interested in the DC storylines. I thought DC storylines were, uh, you know, more well character-driven film. And of course, I think a lot of it had to do with when you put 50, 60 characters, you know, in a film there's going to be no way you're going to be able to be, you know, invested in all these characters. And each one of them going to get probably 5 minutes in the whole entire film. So that's not going to happen. Um, and so Marvel had been doing that for so many years. And whereas you look at like the DC films, it's focused on one character, right? Like focus on Aquaman, you know, it's focused on Superman or whatever. And you get a chance to, uh, become invested in the characters, right? Care about what happens to them. And the Marvel formula was, you know, slap, you know, 100 different characters on the screen and have these big wars. And, you know, you're going to win out that demographic, 13 to 17 years old. You're going to make a lot of money, and, you know, a lot of people are going to be happy. But what happened was Every one of the movies just became the same, right? So people starting to get burned out and they're like, oh well, you know, there's another popcorn Marvel film. But I think Eternals did something different, and I, I think they did an excellent job at it. It was a very interesting, uh, you know, a way that they put it together and how it aligned itself with, you know, many of the— according to the Marvel Universe anyway. Many of our origin creation stories, um, you know, came out of the, you know, the Eternals. And consequently, I thought that, uh, you know, several countries that have been banning, uh, Eternals, I thought that it was due to, uh, you know, basically, uh, uh, you know, it being, you know, especially these, uh, theocracies, right? Like looking at Saudi Arabia and some of these Middle Eastern countries that, you know, have been banning the film. Um, I think China may have done it. Has China done it? I'm not 100% sure if China done it. I think China may have, but I thought that, you know, it would be probably so related to, uh, you know, the origin story and maybe, you know, conflicting somewhat with some people's religious beliefs and so on. But apparently it had nothing to do with that. They were banning it, which I thought was odd because of the, you know, I, I guess it's kind of spoiler alert, um, you know, one of the characters had a, a gay partner, right? Um, and the character was— and I'll give you a spoiler alert when I really start to you know, get into the deep spoilers. But Fastos, which is the African-American character— and I forget his name, but he plays in the Atlanta TV series, I think he does an excellent job— but he plays Fastos, and he has a gay partner in the film, right? And I guess they show him kissing, and that's just not allowed in certain, you know, countries like Saudi Arabia, Middle Eastern countries, and theocracies and so on. So they just had been banning it after it already was getting a really terrible, you know, you know, critics who were really slamming it. But I don't understand why the critics were slamming it because I just thought it just, it had so many of the elements, uh, that I think are necessary to film, make good filmmaking in there. Just well done, um, well done. And I, and, uh, you know, this one of those films you just got to watch it for yourself, right? Because it's all the stories we've read about, it's the Epic of Gilgamesh. Right, is the, um, is the creation stories, right, is, you know, a lot of Judeo-Christian beliefs, right, um, and it's all of these, and, you know, these characters are based on, uh, you know, many of these deities and, and the likes that, you know, many of us known throughout the ages, right, like Angelina Jolie was, uh, pretty much, um, Minerva or Athena. And then you look at, um, you know, um, people like, uh, you know, um, uh, uh, Icarus, who had inspired, you know, some of those, uh, stories and myths of slaying these, um, mythological creatures that really turned out to be deviants, right? Which was a kind of a experiment gone wrong by the Celestials. And right now the Eternals created to get rid of the Deviants, right? Which were, you know, as you got to see in the film, they look like some of the mythological creatures and dragons and things like that, that, you know, mythology speaks about a lot in the heroes and the gods and that, uh, destroy these beings, right? But, um, anyway, um, I just thought it got everything right in that sense. Um, now I get into spoiler territory a little bit. If you haven't seen the film yet, I would, you know, tell you that maybe you should, um, you know, go watch the film first. I don't want to spoil this because it's very important to the to the, to the, uh, to the, you know, movie. So don't, don't watch this, uh, beyond this point. This is your spoiler warning because I don't want to spoil it for you, right? But, you know, when we look at somebody like Ikaris, you know, he plays this complicated character that I thought was going to be a very simple, one-dimensional character, and he turns out to be the most complicated of them because on one end he's, um, in love with Sersi, right, who loves humankind. And on the other hand, he's, uh, you know what I mean, um, uh, uh, uh, basically loyal to the Celestials. And, you know, doesn't have any other purpose but to serve the purpose he was created for, right? So, uh, you know, he's in combat with that. But the way it's played out through the film, you know, he basically doesn't, you know, let us on it, that we think it's going the other way. And then, you know, of course the scene and how Ajak is killed, which is a Prime Eternal, right, played by Salma Hayek, in the betrayal, in the double crossing, right? I just thought all of that was excellent. Excuse me, I wasn't expecting it. And just the other characters, Sprite, um, and I can't remember the Speedster's name. I, I never really got into the Eternals. I believe Jack Kirby did the Eternals, and then he went on to do the New Gods over at DC. And the New Gods were kind of, uh, his expansion or, or his legacy continuing on over from Marvel to DC, right? But I never really got, you know, that's once, uh, you know, um, group of comic books I never got into, but they look darn interesting. And I'm, I am trying to read some of them now, but, um, some of the characters I'm not that familiar with, um, and I forget their names a lot. Like, I can't remember the speedster's name, but I think Kangol is played, um, you know, by the gentleman from India. Um, I think he's a comedian on some other popular shows that I'm not familiar with, but I just remember him being, uh, talked about a lot because he did such a great job with his body transformation, right? He muscling up for the role, you know, getting in real good shape. And then of course, throughout the ages, as the Eternals blend in with humanity He plays like a big Bollywood star, and I thought that was funny and interesting. Um, but, um, the explanation of why they weren't, you know, involved with all the events that's happened throughout the Marvel Universe— because the Celestials, uh, you know, basically using Earth as an incubator to create more, you know. So Earth is basically just an incubation pod, right? And the Eternal— the, the Celestials suck all the life force out of humanity. I, I just thought all that was excellent. Um, you know, this is a great, you know, great movie, a great movie. And, um, uh, I just thought they did everything right. Um, Angelina Jolie character, how she would, um, you know, basically she's like under this possession. Uh, it was, um, uh, how they explained, I believe it was some type of abnormality or defect and the creation of the Eternals, right? And, uh, you know, uh, you know, the— how she had to control that and her connection, uh, you know, with the Eternal that was helping her. And I can't remember his name, but I really got to read those comic books. But, um, you know, it, it, it was just, uh, such investment I had in the characters, uh, And that's what I look for, right? That I care what happened to these characters. I watched a lot of Marvel films where I didn't even care what happened to them, you know, to the characters, because I just wasn't invested in them. Um, so well done movie. I do think though Eternals, I could see a problem with the— at the box office with it simply because I felt like this movie, for some reason to me it felt a little bit out of the demographic, you know, of the 13 to 17-year-old, you know, area. And I could see them maybe not enjoying this as much as maybe an older person like me, right? But, uh, um, as a film, I mean, I just thought it was excellent. Marvel film. Definitely one of the best. It, it would fit in my top 3, absolutely. So watch it for yourself. I wouldn't agree with what these critics are saying about The Eternals, and, um, you know what I mean? Um, just a great film. Looking forward to seeing what happens with it, you know, um, going into the future, right? You know, like more Eternals movies, like what's going to happen with the Black Knight, you know, as we got to see in the after-credits scenes, uh, Dane Whitman, you know, as, you know, as, uh, Sersi zipped away, you know, and judged by these Celestials for saving the Earth and the Celestial dying in the process. So that's all going to be very, very interesting to see. But guys, a great, a great movie. Don't believe what you're hearing out there. Watch this film. And I'm sure you'll really enjoy it and like it as much as, you know, I did. Uh, but that's all I got to say in this video. If you like content like this, don't forget to like, subscribe. Till next time, as always, take care of yourselves and each other.