Fresh off winning Best Picture and Best Director for Nomadland at this year’s Academy Awards, Chloé Zhao returns to theaters with The Eternals. Her entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe boasts interesting visuals, the kind you don’t typically see in an MCU film. It looks as if her general aesthetic and strong sense of natural beauty pay off in the earlier scenes of the trailer. But we’ll see how she handles the requirements of the VFX-heavy Marvel films of which she is reportedly a huge fan.
This trailer, linked below, looks promising, and I’m 100% rooting for Zhao to elevate an MCU film with her personal style.
The Eternals will be released on November 5, 2021.
Synopsis
Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” welcomes an exciting new team of Super Heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The epic story, spanning thousands of years, features a group of immortal heroes forced out of the shadows to reunite against mankind’s oldest enemy, The Deviants. The outstanding ensemble cast includes Richard Madden as the all-powerful Ikaris, Gemma Chan as humankind-loving Sersi, Kumail Nanjiani as cosmic-powered Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as the super-fast Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as the intelligent inventor Phastos, Salma Hayek as the wise and spiritual leader Ajak, Lia McHugh as the eternally young, old-soul Sprite, Don Lee as the powerful Gilgamesh, Barry Keoghan as aloof loner Druig, and Angelina Jolie as the fierce warrior Thena. Kit Harington plays Dane Whitman.
77m online views on its first day per Deadline. Most for any Disney/Marvel movie in pandemic era.
A friend of mine has an interesting theory that the Eternalswill actually be the big villains for the few “phases” of Marvel films, , which I don’t believe but it would be a bold move on Marvel’s part.
given that when you think twice, most superhero groups in Marvel almost act like supervillains for the others… the history of the MCU is full of conflict between their biggest brands, and that conflict comes from character, it almost never feel truly forced. For example, there’s a love/hate relationship between X-Men and Fantastic Four and Franklin Richards has been key, lately, on it. But that also translates to X-Men vs Avengers, or The Thunderbolts… or even the clash between the several X-Men groups, specially X-Force which is lethal-force friendly versus the “no kill” spirit of the classic team.
So, it wouldn’t be a bold move by Marvel, but actually fitting with their story of making their teams (and characters) have plenty of points in common ground, but character details that would force them to clash between each other. And that joke about the Avengers in the trailer, kind of hints their point of view and how it is going to fit/clash in the bigger picture.
So afraid what incel fanboys will do once this movie comes out and how it will affect Chloe Zhao’s career…
hint: Zhao pitched the film for Marvel… so basically, it is meant to be her vision with Marvel only giving general direction on how it should fit on the overall MCU History and assistance on the action scenes thanks to their previs team that takes control of those scenes even before a director is hired (I guess they use their own comic-book artists to propery storyboard these scenes and that is how so many of them look exactly as comic-book pannels). So I have the same feeling than with James Gunn and Taika Waititi – two directors with unique visions – becoming Marvel directors, their films are among the very best of the MCU (and also among the very bests of their years). I think that the ony true misfire that Marvel has had in the last 5 years was Captain Marvel, and still it was just a bit weaker than their level which is consistenty good, as they take their projects with real care.
And Captain Marvel is easily one of my favorites from the franchise.
This looks absolutely groundbreaking and revolutionary, a huge gamechanger that…oh, who are we kidding, it’s friggin’ Marvel, where imagination goes to die.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4122ed460c200d375462ee98804a41c3f4d06a3c9290494faf808784ddee925e.gif
One could suggest Marvel’s ginormous profit margin enables studios to fund the arthouse movies you gravitate toward. More hits than misses and Endgame would’ve been a much better BP than what eventually wound up winning.
Endgame was better than excruciating dross like The Irishman and OUATIH, I’ll certainly agree with that, but Joker was easily the best comic book film that year because it wasn’t one.
Heath was, is, and always will be THE Joker. I care to think Joachim got that Oscar retroactively for how he slayed in ‘Her’.
While this is how logic would work for someone who appreciates and understands an ecosystem of cinema, it’s not how business logic works. Marvel movies lead to more Marvel movies
Looks awesome.
Promising. Don’t hold your breath for any Oscar love this go round. Because it’s a Marvel movie, of course.
Fleabag.
Richardhead, this is a movie discussion. So jerk off elsewhere.
Why so vile? Fleabag.
Cucksuckers gotta cucksuck.
There’s some really good cocksucker humor in Fleabag, which won 3 Emmys. (Fleabag won all 3 of the biggest comedy Emmys. It’s an excellent Emmy-winning comedy series that included excellent cocksucker scenes.)
In the interest of fairness, I Googled Kristen Bell to see if she ever won any Emmys or if she ever performed any oral sex, but Google has no record of either.
Troll better. And stay on topic.
You are very disrespectful.
You don’t decide what the topic is.
Were you born a s hithead richardhead or are you just finishing up your masters degree?
Looks very pretty and interesting but the joke was cringe af. Kinda ruined the mood.
That said, it should get one of 6-10 spots in the Picture line-up. I don’t think Zhao will pull an Inarritu. I don’t think there will be an afterglow nom either. So Picture + techs only.
I was not impressed . It looks O.K
Placing this for a November opening is Disney’s signal that they have a legit BP contender.
Not necessarily. Didn’t for example Doctor Strange and Thor: Ragnarök open around this time as well?
Not sure. Where I’m wondering is that Marvel is opening up Spiderman at Christmas. I’m inclined to think Disney is going to position Eternals at the You Need This, Oscar blockbuster and Spiderman as the money vacuum. Zhao having two Oscars gives them cover to try this
They did and The Marvels (aka Captain Marvel 2) is opening November 2022. Marvel is producing so many movies now that they need fall/winter months too.
Also, covid-19 delays likely influenced Spiderman’s December date.
That said, it’s interesting that Marvel is hyping this much more than upcoming Black Widow. Doesn’t mean BW is bad, just that they marked Eternals as their awards player on top of being a blockbuster.