The Eternally

Thanks to "early screenings" and because New Zealand has an early time zone, yep, I saw this last night!

Of course, with such an early screening, I do need to be more careful about spoilers than some. That said, you already probably know most of the premise from adverts and basic movie formulas. There were Deviants, and so there were Eternals to battle them. We see some past battles amidst the present day needing to deal with them, but still plenty of present day to deal with.

And at around 2 and a half hours there's a LOT of everything to deal with. To be honest, there are lot of long shots and and HUGE exposition dump that half hour could easily be edited down. And there are some odd editing choices. Aside from the huge Tell Don't Show that occurs, there is a lot of dialogue that is given while the shot is looking at the other person in the scene, who isn't really reacting much. That, to me, smacks of ADR, so I do wonder what happened there. (And yes, there is gay representation, but despite some assurances, I'm not going to say that it can't be edited around with too many issues.)

Gemma Chan, Richard Madden and Lia McHugh are the main leads. Despite Selma Hayek and Angelina Jolie being present in a lot of trailers, they feel more like supporting cast there for star power than actual presences in the movie. And best non-Eternal is easily Harish Patel's Karun. Let's get more of him!

Overall, this will be a movie people will see. I can't see this being a highly ranking Marvel feature, although it's certainly better than a lot.

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