Sahiri Loing

Everyone loves a "failure". Coz now all I read are critics dissecting the so-called failure of Eternals to live up to the standard of Marvel other superheroic saga. And boy do they seem to be justified with the box office opening. Previously people were so excited about Eternals, but now they are like "Why adapts comic book characters no one knows about?" Sigh. I don't know about them but I choose to go see the movie with an open mind, like I did with Ant-Man, Thor, Black Panther, and Doctor Strange. And, you know what, I was actually quite entertained by Eternals. And moved, especially in regards to the relationship between Gilgamesh and Thena as well as Sersi and Ikaris. There are food for thoughts here as well with the underlying theme about what it means in being human and discovering the self It's 2,5+ hours long but I don't feel it. They balance the narrative with humor, exciting action scenes, and marvelous visuals. It was also intense because I care about the characters and was sad to see some of them died. Indeed, it's a different kind of Marvel film with a diverse cast, more thoughtful, I would say. And yet people expect to see the same old formula like Black Widow and Shang Chi that precedes it. Which means: more things blow up and people-falling-off-without-getting-hurt-even-though-they-don't-have-superpowers, please! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed those two films but in retrospect Black Widow has too much things exploding and Shang-Chi often feels like a live action Disney animation complete with dragons and cute animals. Is Eternals perfect? Maybe not. It does have too many characters and as a result some characters got sidelined, but that's what happens with ensemble pics. You can only hope the supporting team get a larger role in the sequel, like the X-Men films did. It takes a village to make a movie, and I appreciate what Chloe Zhao and team are trying to make here. An epic superhero-sci-fi saga with heart to boot. I don't get the harsh criticism at all. So give Eternals a chance. Not every Marvel movie has to have cars explode and slide down into a train station and miraculously not hurting anybody.