Eternals (a movie review post)

 

Eternals is a bold choice for Marvel. Of course, so was Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel. And Black Panther and Shang-chi. Even Iron Man. But I feel like Eternals is an even more bold choice, and I'm really wondering/excited to see where they're going with this new phase of the MCU.

Why do I say it's bold? Because it takes Marvel cosmic. But Guardians, you may say... and Captain Marvel... and Thanos! And the Infinity Stones! My god, man, Marvel has already been cosmic! Yeah, sure, but not in more than a Star Wars or a Star Trek way. We've been used to aliens for a long time, and the Infinity Stones, while alluding to Marvel's cosmic origin story, are still just "artifacts" (they're not, really, but I can't think of a better word). Eternals takes us beyond that to the very origins of the Marvel Universe.

Honestly, I think it offends some people (right-wing conservative fanatics). The whole concept of the Eternals and the Celestials is pretty much blasphemy to "christians." I don't know if that's where all the heat is coming from over this movie, but I do know that Eternals is taking some, and it can't be because of the movie itself, because the movie is very good. It's a very solid Marvel movie.

Just for the sake of comparison, when Warner Bros. made Justice League, the best that they could come up with to introduce new characters was to have Batman walk around with their data sheets and be like, "This is Aquaman. He's the king of Atlantis. He can talk to fish. This is Cyborg. He's a robot. This is Flash. He's fast." Stupid and clumsy as hell. Eternals introduces all 10 new characters organically as part of the story. There is no looking at file cards to tell who people are. Marvel knows how to tell a story and how to introduce characters and concepts naturally.

Eternals is a big movie. It's close to three hours long and introduces a lot of new things to the MCU. There are connections here that are never explicitly addressed, so it will be interesting to see how all of that plays out. And, since this is a movie review, I am not going to start speculating about how all of this relates to other upcoming projects, though I do have... thoughts. Anyway, it's nearly three hours and never boring (unlike some other movie (Warner Bros) of similar length which just came out and is nap worthy).

A few highlights, since my review is getting a bit long:
Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo. He stole almost every scene he was in. The Bollywood dance scene was amazing. I want a Kingo solo movie, now.

Also: "Thor used to follow me around when he was a little kid; now, he's a famous Avenger and won't return my calls." Or something like that.

Dane Whitman. He's been one of my favorite Marvel characters since I was in high school. I can't wait to see what they're going to do with him in the MCU.

The Uni-Mind. Just because Marvel actually did it. It's part of the Eternals mythology, but it didn't occur to me that Marvel would bring that into the MCU. I'm sure we'll see that again.

I think the weakest part of the film is the Deviants. I hate the whole monster made of tentacles look to them. Yeah, I know that's just me. But there's also the sudden unexplained ability of at least one of them to absorb powers. I can't say it wasn't addressed because the Eternals are totally like, "Shit, how can it do this?" but there is never an answer to that question. And, you know, sure, sometimes in life there are no answers to the questions we have, but I like my fiction to not leave things like that dangling. Of course, it's always possible that it's something that will come back in another movie. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of the Deviants.

While it's true that Eternals is not the best of the MCU -- but c'mon! There are some incredible movies in the MCU, and it's unlikely that a few of them well ever be topped -- it is a far cry from the worst. (Sorry not sorry Edward Norton, you're not getting out of that hole.) I want to see it again, actually. It's a solid entry into the franchise and one that, I'm sure, is taking the MCU in a new and different direction

Men in Black: International (a movie review post)

My first question is, "Why isn't this movie making more money?" Seriously, what the heck? It's like people can't deal with any deviation from the original but, yet, are going to complain about the thing if it's just like the original. Which, I suppose, explains the success of those inane Angry Speed movies, but you can get away with that kind of stuff when you toss your story out the window in favor of fast cars and explosions. Hmph, also explains the success of that last Max movie: fast driving, chases, and misogyny; can't beat that combo, I guess.

Anyway... None of that has to do with MiB: International, which was a delightfully fun movie. I'm not sure if there's any actor out there, right now, who is more fun to watch than Chris Hemsworth, and he was a lot of fun in this movie.

But I get that this is not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. You know why? Because THIS IS NOT WILL SMITH AND TOMMY LEE JONES! This is not a story about Agents J and K. Why would you explore other stories in the Men-in-Black world and just stick new actors into previous character types? This one is about looking around the agency and seeing what else is there, not reproducing the same story that has already been told. This isn't a remake; if it were, you could make a case for trying to reproduce that same chemistry and with the same archetypes.

In fact, I would barely call this re-boot other than that they've taken a franchise that hasn't been touched in a while and made a new movie in that world in the hopes that it would lead to more movies, which it probably won't, based on its performance, and that's too bad, because this is a good movie. It deserves a lot of credit for not falling back into the tropes of the previous movies.

So, anyway...
Emma Thompson was perfect as Agent O; I wouldn't have dis-enjoyed it if they'd had more of her in the movie. Kumail was pretty great as Pawny. And Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson had great chemistry and worked well together. There really needs to be a sequel to this movie to keep these characters onscreen together.
Yeah, I didn't mention Liam Neeson. He was fine. I'm just not that impressed with him these days. He's entered the realm of always just playing Liam Neeson, so he was what I would say is the weak link of the movie. Fortunately, he's not in the movie that much.

All of which is to say, you should give the movie a chance if this is at all your kind of thing at all. Liam Neeson aside.

The Big Sick (a movie review post)

Have you seen Silicon Valley? You should see Silicon Valley; I love it.
Which has nothing to do with The big sick other than that Kumail Nanjiani is in it, and that's where I first came across him. He's pretty great, actually. The relationship between his character, Dinesh, and Gilfoyle is possibly the best part of the show for me, and I love Silicon Valley. Did I say that already?

So, anyway, when I heard that Kumail was doing a movie... Not just in a movie, but doing a movie. He wrote the movie, too, along with his wife, Emily Gordon, so he wrote and starred in The big sick, and... and it's a fictionalized true story about how he met his wife.

So why should we care about that, you might be asking yourself. Well, a few reasons.
1. It's a touching story.
2. It deals with the complexities of interracial relationships.
3. And intercultural relationships.
4. And, especially, what it's like to be from a Muslim family growing up in the United States. [I use the term "growing up" loosely since Kumail was already 18 when he moved to the US to go to college.]
5. Not to mention that Kumail is a stand-up comic, so it's funny. And romantic. You know, a romantic comedy, and there aren't too many of these around anymore.

Kumail is from Pakistan and plays himself in the movie. His not-yet-wife Emily, who is from North Carolina, is played by Zoe Kazan. That should be enough to tell you that there will be... issues.

Surprisingly, the larger issues for the relationship are from Kumail's side of the family because his mother is determined that he should marry a good Pakistani girl and is working on arranging a marriage for him. Not that the problems are actually because of his family; they're not. The problems are because Kumail neglects to tell his family that he's dating a white girl. And he continues to meet these women his mother is trying to set him up with.

Those dates are more like job interviews. Seriously, they bring what can only be called resumes accompanied by a head shot.

And that should be enough to get you started.

Nanjiani is great in the movie. Of course, he is playing himself (remember: true story), so I suppose you could say that the role was written just for him. Especially since he co-wrote it. Kazan is also good. But I think the true gem of the movie is Holly Hunter. She plays Emily's mother, and she's wonderful.

Oh, also, Ray Romano is in the movie as Emily's father, and he's good, too. Which actually says a lot, because I don't particularly like Romano. Not that I dislike him, per se, but I always thought Everybody Loves Raymond was pretty dumb, so I never developed any kind of liking for him. But he's good in this.

The bottom line is that you should see this movie. No, seriously, see the movie.

The other bottom line is that this movie represents all that is good about America and what America stands for. Kumail Nanjiani is a more valuable member of our society than Trump has ever been or could hope to be. Nanjiani adds value to society and to the world while Trump is just a leech, a parasite, taking value from everything he can to engorge himself only.