Some brief footage in this Marvel sizzle reel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpxoFcdORI

Praying this shit is good. I have faith in Chloe. Especially with this stacked cast.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

..He might not be the first, but certainly one of the most notable indie film makers to be handed the reigns to a blockbuster film and succeed.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

He'd already transitioned into big studio films before Iron Man.

Marvel started with established studio directors (Favreau, Branagh, Johnston), then started using folks better known for TV (Whedon, Alan Taylor, the Russos). Guys like Shane Black and James Gunn started the transition to "indie", because while they'd written screenplays for the studio system and directed minor works, they'd never done anything of that scale before.

I think Jon Watts for Spiderman: Homecoming was the first *real* indie pick from Marvel. He'd never done anything for the studio system at all, and then got handed the Spider-Man franchise. Pretty amazing.

After that's when they transitioned to Taika, Boden/Fleck, now Zhao, Shortland, etc.

There are a few examples of Marvel-to-indie directors before the MCU, but that's not much of a surprise, because it was spread around a variety of studios and no one really knew what they were doing. Sometimes it worked out (Blade II to Guillermo Del Toro), sometimes it didn't (Fantastic Four to Josh Trank).

But I think MCU's transition to indie voices is especially noteworthy because the machine is so large, and it's so easy for voices to be lost. Some of them have shone through (Taika, Black/Gunn if we want to argue for them), others have just gone along for the ride. It'll be interesting to see how this new batch does for Marvel.

...Elf greatly exceeded expectations. Zathura, not so much.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

No message

https://youtu.be/0WVDKZJkGlY


Oh man I can't wait!!!! I have faith in Chloe!!!

it doesn't show enough for me to have an idea what the movie is like really, but I'll be checking for it

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

That trailer was nothing. As someone who isn't hella deep in the Marvel Universe the trailer itself did nada. Maybe it's a slow burn of a movie? The other trailers will reveal more. I will probably be checking it out.

and as a person that knows The Eternals comic history, I think they could be a hard sale for the casual MCU fan if not done right.

They're going to have to do more than a trailer showing they've been around forever and a quick line about Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

https://youtu.be/x_me3xsvDgk

and that's ok to me

This is a major gamble Marvel is taking here

All I remember from the other trailer was a bunch of people standing around on cliffs.

iron man being central character in phase 1 and 2
guardians of the galaxy

probably a few more i'm not thinking about

"The Emergence" (Whatever the fuck that is) Apparently The Eternals stand against that.

That gives us the broad strokes.

Reviews coming in are not good so probably not helping.

-This is a fuckin top-tier collection of beautiful people in one movie.
-Stakes is high. We can’t go back to “The Battle of NY”.
-Probably top 10 most unnecessary sex scene.
-Also, probably top 10 least aerodynamic space-faring vessel.
-I’m so proud of Kumail.
-Kinda happy they only referenced what we already know, and didn’t have to bring in anyone familiar for fans’ sake.

Someone I overheard from the restroom said it was boring, but memory can’t be so short that we forget that it took 20+ movies to get to the crescendo of “Endgame”.

Way too much as in too many characters, too much exposition, too many character decisions and moments that didn’t seem to make sense.

Way too little as in too little character development, too little non-CGI action, too few reasons to care.

Zhao doesn’t really get to do much save for a few pseudo-Malick montages and some expansive nature settings (way too much of this movie is just on a beach or in a desert, lol). The cast is largely fine, though they just aren’t given much to do. The 2h45 run time is brutal. Think this could’ve been more successful if they’d just had 2 or 3 fewer Eternals on the team.

And nitpicky, admittedly, but there’s a CGI moment in the mid-credits scene that’s reeeeeally rough. No clue if they rushed that or what, but sheesh. Hard to get excited about Eternals 2.

Everything about this screams a dire need for longform storytelling.

I can see a solid 8 ep series of this working very well.

I think the Icarus would be better served to have him know what's going on the entire time, as perhaps the one eternal who has always known. I think it would work better storywise if he was an intentional failsafe, Ajak revealing the truth to him.

Watching him struggle to fulfill his mission, against his love for Sersi, would make him a much more interesting character, and a better plot point IMO.

but that's me.

Also, I hated how the deviants were basically generic monsters. They looked like Michael Bay's overly busy Transformers designs. Not good at all. They had no character. Even the evolved "alpha" deviant.

The Alpha Deviant was one of the least impactful Marvel "monsters" I can recall. Absolute nothingburger of design and consequence. Which is *insane* considering its powers-- but the movie just didn't develop it enough or deploy it successfully.

The whole shit needed 8-10 hours, so that it wasn't just a non-stop sea of exposition. It's really hard to get to know any of these characters enough to care in 2.5 hours.

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

It's been a minute since I watched, but from what I recall, there was a generic monologue and little else to it.

Even that rings hollow, since the character itself was basically a pokemon, leveling up to new forms. It's just an empty beast but OH WAIT FUCK YALL FOR KILLING US.

I'll rewatch and see but that's my takeaway from what I recall.

im guessing they wouldnt have such a big cast which isnt really a bad thing.

i enjoyed the movie, not sure if i would feel different if i watched at the movies instead of at home.

definitely has flaws but i was entertained.

>Everything about this screams a dire need for longform
>storytelling.
>
>I can see a solid 8 ep series of this working very well.
>
>I think the Icarus would be better served to have him know
>what's going on the entire time, as perhaps the one eternal
>who has always known. I think it would work better storywise
>if he was an intentional failsafe, Ajak revealing the truth to
>him.
>
>Watching him struggle to fulfill his mission, against his love
>for Sersi, would make him a much more interesting character,
>and a better plot point IMO.
>
>but that's me.
>
>Also, I hated how the deviants were basically generic
>monsters. They looked like Michael Bay's overly busy
>Transformers designs. Not good at all. They had no character.
>Even the evolved "alpha" deviant.>

while i didn't hate the movie (i did enjoy a variety of elements within it), ultimately it would have definitely been better served as a long form series for a multitude of reasons. Also agree on the deviant criticisms.




�
have you listened to
her stuff?
v

http://www.meshell.com/site/
https://www.facebook.com/officialmeshell?fref=ts
http://www.freemyheart.com


RIP David Williams:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Williams_(guitarist)

Even with a long run time they didn’t have merely enough time to get me to care about these characters.

I really just rarely care about God-like beings though, unless they’re extremely interesting characters. Respect to Kirby, but I’ve tried to read the original Eternals and it did nothing for me.

I think this movie was fucking amazing. I loved it. Finally just watched it last night.

I think the issues is that most people don't care for any of these characters to be invested into the story even if there's a lot that happens. I think what easily solves this is if Marvel introduced something from the storyline by having an after credit scene after End Game. I understand it wasn't casted at that time but it would've helped a lot for most people.

THE FIGHTING AND THE CINEMATOGRAPHY is some of the best the MCU has seen. Gat damn that was good.

>I think the issues is that most people don't care for any of
>these characters to be invested into the story even if there's
>a lot that happens.

This is a big problem. Bigger than being solved by introducing the characters in a post credit scene. If this was a 6 episode Disney+ series it would have given this time to see them working together against the Deviants in their initial mission, while building out their relationships and letting the audience get to know each character, so that when twists appear or when deaths happen there is more impact.

>THE FIGHTING AND THE CINEMATOGRAPHY is some of the best the
>MCU has seen. Gat damn that was good.

Agreed - this movie was beautifully shot...

It's not like they shit the bed.

The pieces are there. I just think the story they told was bigger than the time they had to tell it.

>I think the issues is that most people don't care for any of
>these characters to be invested into the story even if there's
>a lot that happens.

If most people don't care about the characters, it's because they crammed too much into a smaller window, without giving them room to develop and breathe- hence, the suggestion for long form story telling.

Which absolutely makes it easier to solve that issue.

it's not just about "a lot happening".
It's about time, room, and development- however that comes about.

Ideally, we'd get that through a healthy blend of action and exposition.

But we didn't get much of that here, which I think is a rather objective assessment, regardless of whether or not you liked the film.

It's not like they shit the bed or anything.

I think what easily solves this is if
>Marvel introduced something from the storyline by having an
>after credit scene after End Game. I understand it wasn't
>casted at that time but it would've helped a lot for most
>people.

A post credit scene after end game doesn't give us character depth and development. At best, it would have given us some hint as to what's coming, but it would have been very hard pressed to address the lack of character depth and development.

Minor spoilers below


I found myself quickly forgetting certain names (the lady with the super speed got one key fight scene in, but no real character development, Gilgamesh didn’t get to do a lot before , etc)

MCU had been doing a great job with villain motivations up until this year. The villain in Black Widow was just an irredeemable horrible person for no apparent reason and it’s really unclear to me how The Celestial could be this powerful and couldn’t figure out a way to “reproduce” without causing such cataclysmic destruction. Can’t comment on Shang Chi without giving unbelievable spoilers there, but after you see it, inbox me.

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

just get the information out there that you want the audience to know in relation to whatever they are doing in the new phase of the mcu. these characters dont really need to be carried forward (especially not no damn harry styles lol).

a lot of this *could* be more thoroughly explained in long form...but theres no way to make this more *interesting* no matter how much time you spend on it.

marvel has been successful finding an audience for 3rd string characters. but a lot of that is based on the audience believing those characters (and their storylines) are completely integral to the current arc of the mcu (a big reason for the success/prevalence of easter eggs and post/after credit scenes).

this felt like new (and boring) characters building a new world that hasnt already been explicitly/blatantly established in the more mainstream mcu. like theres been little to no indication that *any* of this existed pre this movie.

and then it just looked low budget and had a bland villain.

its starting to look like diminishing returns territory for marvel when it comes to stuff not based on the old mcu characters. this is prolly the biggest example of what happens when they try to milk from a different cow.

that was worth it.

I am wondering if the folks who enjoyed it followed the eternals in the comics?

I feel like I had a few of the comics back in the day, but epic scale marvel sci-fi stuff was never my bag. My favorites were the batman's, daredevils and spiderman comics.

At some point the scale of some of these stories is just too big. I mean how torn are we supposed to be about a Celestial not being born? Oh no, billions of new galaxies won't be born??!? It's all too much to care.

They introduced and kill characters before there was a moment to even care about them.

IDk. the push for Marvel to be global is making the stories less personable.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

They really broke some of the rules which have made the MCU successful with this movie. Sometimes breaking the rules works out, but sometimes it doesn't and it seems obvious in hindsight...

We talked about it a bit up above, but they introduced a bunch of characters we'd never seen before, and didn't care about, and then gave them a huge galaxy scaled sci-fi story that somehow included the creation of their team, the break up of their team, and their reunion.

GOTG introduced characters with galactic scale sci-fi, but what made it work was that it somehow still felt grounded in terms of a team-driven story. Also, the impact of Eternals happening on Earth somehow made it seem overwhelming within the MCU - like we've already seen so much happen on Earth, and now the entire planet is about to be destroyed by the birth of a Celestial? But gets saved by characters we just met? With no connections there to the superheroes we already know on Earth? That's a lot to take in.

I really wish it had been done as a 6-8 episode Disney+ series, to give time to get to know the characters but individually and as a team.

out the ocean?


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

The part of his head still sticking out is around 25 miles tall, which is taller than the ozone layer. Mt Everest is only 5.5 miles tall. His partial birth alone should have been an extension level event.

Any MCU story taking place on Earth afterwards should be impacted by this...

Surely that big ass fetus will come into play further down the line?

But at this point Eternals supposedly took place around the same time as No Way Home and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with Hawkeye and Moon Night happening afterwards, and no one’s mentioned that this huge Celestial corpse is sitting there in the middle of the ocean.

Plus they had an easy out for this within the movie, seeing that Sersi’s whole power is the ability to turn matter into something else…she could have waved her hands and dealt with this issue.

This is a bottom two Marvel movie for me. They were lucky that Captain Marvel was so much worse.