I wouldn’t imagine that you would get many MCU fans coming after you for saying that you didn’t like ‘Eternals’ (unless they were to-die-for-level fans who were absolutely obsessed with the MCU to an unhealthy degree), because I’ve seen quite a bit of talk this year about Marvel showing signs of fatigue, be it with this one, or ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, or ‘Shang-Chi’, and ESPECIALLY ‘Hawkeye’. It does seem like they’ve reached that point. And I certainly agree with you that we wouldn’t fault Chloe Zhao for anything, because she’s very talented and very worthy of the acclaim she’s garnered as a director, and as you said, she probably didn’t have as much creative control as much as the execs and the press wanted the public to believe. Maybe part of it does have to do with audiences getting so invested in the MCU and how everything fits into it, that eventually for focus was put towards that, than how each individual entry, show or movie, works as a stand-alone product.
Most of the pushback I get from my opinions about Marvel this year (unsurprisingly) comes from more traditional social media like Twitter and Instagram. I tried to enjoy The Eternals for what it was. It was uninspired and felt really disjointed during the first third of the movie or so. I haven't been shy about praising Marvel in the past. They were remarkably consistent with making good to sometimes great movies for a very long time. That's why it's hard for me to ignore the obvious decline in quality. Although, fatigue is certainly an aspect of my opinion on this as well. They have essentially released WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Loki, Shang-Chi, What If, The Eternals, and Hawkeye back to back to back. That is A LOT of product. Even for a guy that loves comic books, this has been exhausting year in terms of keeping up with Marvel. I find it interesting that so much of the marketing behind this film was Marvel touting the fact that they had an Oscar winning filmmaker in the director's chair, but I truly don't think Chloe Zhao got a fair shake here. I'm not into conspiracy theories, nor do I pretend to understand the machinations of the billion dollar printing press that is Marvel Studios, but I don't believe Kevin Feige would give Zhao carte blanche. No director has ever had full autonomy at Marvel. Which is a shame because I do think Chloe wanted to explore some interesting ideas here, but she had too many boxes to tick.
I wouldn’t imagine that you would get many MCU fans coming after you for saying that you didn’t like ‘Eternals’ (unless they were to-die-for-level fans who were absolutely obsessed with the MCU to an unhealthy degree), because I’ve seen quite a bit of talk this year about Marvel showing signs of fatigue, be it with this one, or ‘Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, or ‘Shang-Chi’, and ESPECIALLY ‘Hawkeye’. It does seem like they’ve reached that point.
And I certainly agree with you that we wouldn’t fault Chloe Zhao for anything, because she’s very talented and very worthy of the acclaim she’s garnered as a director, and as you said, she probably didn’t have as much creative control as much as the execs and the press wanted the public to believe.
Maybe part of it does have to do with audiences getting so invested in the MCU and how everything fits into it, that eventually for focus was put towards that, than how each individual entry, show or movie, works as a stand-alone product.
Most of the pushback I get from my opinions about Marvel this year (unsurprisingly) comes from more traditional social media like Twitter and Instagram. I tried to enjoy The Eternals for what it was. It was uninspired and felt really disjointed during the first third of the movie or so. I haven't been shy about praising Marvel in the past. They were remarkably consistent with making good to sometimes great movies for a very long time. That's why it's hard for me to ignore the obvious decline in quality. Although, fatigue is certainly an aspect of my opinion on this as well. They have essentially released WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Loki, Shang-Chi, What If, The Eternals, and Hawkeye back to back to back. That is A LOT of product. Even for a guy that loves comic books, this has been exhausting year in terms of keeping up with Marvel.
I find it interesting that so much of the marketing behind this film was Marvel touting the fact that they had an Oscar winning filmmaker in the director's chair, but I truly don't think Chloe Zhao got a fair shake here. I'm not into conspiracy theories, nor do I pretend to understand the machinations of the billion dollar printing press that is Marvel Studios, but I don't believe Kevin Feige would give Zhao carte blanche. No director has ever had full autonomy at Marvel. Which is a shame because I do think Chloe wanted to explore some interesting ideas here, but she had too many boxes to tick.