Ildi Toth

Sad to say, it was the first Marvel movie I regret to have watched. It was no fun at all. SPOILERS AHEAD. I can see the way identity politics and such get mixed into the MCU in larger portions with every new release, but up until now it have never stopped me from enjoying the ride. This time, however, the story offered little else to focus on, but diversity for the sake of diversity. There were characters changing gender or ethnicity, having impairments, turning gay (compared to their comics counterpart), but all these changes had a grand total of zero impact on the plot or the interpersonal dynamics, which is meaningless diversity without real representation. At least I can't see what would have been different if Ajak remains male, if Makkari can hear and speak or if Phastos has a wife - with the exception of Kingo becoming Indian instead of having a Japanese background. But then Kingo and his trusty valet were turned into a stereotype joke that made me wonder if this is the representation that Indian Marvel fans really wanted to see. Other than that, the movie offered little more. The collection of Eternals never felt like a group of friends to me, so I was not emotionally affected when they parted ways and felt no catharsis upon their reassembly. The visuals and action scenes carried no excitement whatsoever. The dilemmas that should have been thought-provoking were presented without reasoning, characters simply picking a side just because. Other characters kept developing and abandoning existential crisis at the drop of a hat: supposedly dramatic moments like Sprite's outburst about her appearance, or Phastos' change of heart regarding the use of his power again coming right out of the blue. Also, I cannot tell what would set these 7000 years old beings apart from contemporary humans with superpowers. What made them so adaptable to be able to fit right in with the 21st century crowd, like Sersi and Sprite, and what made them seek out a fleeting intimate connection with humans even after several millennia? And don't even get me started on the Deviants, those recycled CGI "dino-xenomorph-wire mesh" things, and their pack leader who got diced up in the minute it started to get interesting a bit. For fairness' sake, I do not think that much of this train wreck of a movie can be blamed on the actors. It looked more like a lack of unifying effort in directing, editing, dramaturgy and so on. In fact, I awarded an extra star for the portrayal of the affection between Thena and Gilgamesh, the only part that showed a spark of genuine emotions for me. The rest was wasted time in my eyes.