Eternals Film Review: This is NOT your diversity darling
So I saw Marvelās Eternals yesterday. Itās a week late, but I honestly didnāt think I would see it at all considering I just havenāt been as on top of Marvel products lately, nor have they impressed me much. But a friend wanted to see it for her birthday, and I figured that, worst case scenario, Iād at least get to enjoy some nachos in the movie theaterās comfy new recliners while a mediocre movie played in the background.
I was wrong, in the worst possible way.
I want to start this off by saying that I went in knowing that the Eternals, as a comic book group, has anti indigenous sentiment in it, and by this point Iāve seen all theĀ āMarvel made a gay black man responsible for Hiroshimaā memes. I went in thinking I knew the levels of racist it would be, and tried to brace myself accordingly. I grew up a half Mexican half Salvadoran mestiza, by this point Iām used to racism against my ancestors and my people getting swept under the rug. I figured I could sit through those scenes and make it to the end of the film still pretending I had a good time. I was not, in fact, prepared for what I ended up seeing.
Marvelās Eternals is a racist, sexist, and ableist film hiding behindĀ ādiverse castingā. Let me count the ways.
the anti indigenous stuff is so much worse than I originally thought. Before watching the film, my friends and I discussed its origins in the comics, how it might be changed in the film, and whether or not itās even possible to extract it from their story. Well, turns out we debated for nothing, because they didnāt even try. We seeĀ the ancient Aztecs being massacred while the Eternals stand by and debate the ethics of getting involved. The slaughter of my ancestors is used as background noise for the Eternalsā personal drama. Druig, the Eternal capable of mind control, argues to use his powers to make the Spaniards stop. I remember thinkingĀ āok, a bit white savior-y, but I like him for that.ā And then he proceeds to mind control the Spaniards AND the Aztecs to end the scene. Itās haunting, seeing him do that. But heās not done there! When the others catch up to him in modern times, heās in an indigenous village in the Amazon, essentially playing god, using his mind control to act through them and speak through them. Itās heavily implied he, a white man, is treated as a god. When the Deviants show up, he essentially uses them as red shirts to fight them. He has to be told by others not to risk these peopleās lives without their consent.
As someone who briefly dabbled with the idea of becoming an anthropologist in college, I learned that the Middle East is THE place to go for archeology and anthropology. The real world reason for this is because this is where different ancient human groups met up, traded, and procreated with each other. Itās regarded as the place where human civilization was able to spread and grow. In the film, however, this is rewritten as the spot where the Eternals first landed on Earth. Not only do we SEE them create all human inventions, we see them DEBATE whether the people there, the ancient Arabic people, are ready for certain inventions (according to the Eternals, they werenāt ready for the steam engine, but they might be able to manage a gardening plow). We get a scene where one of the Eternals, Makkari, is trading with and stealing from these people, and the ancient Arabic men in particular are, in that scene, portrayed as violent and as swindlers specifically to push the romance between Makkari and Druig. This scene is part a few that imply that the empire of Babylon was successful specifically due to the Eternalsā involvement.Ā When the Eternals return to Iraq in the modern day, we see that Makkari has been hoarding archeological findings in their spaceship.
In case you havenāt seen the Hiroshima memes (just typing that makes me sick), Phastos, the gay black Eternal primarily responsible for human technological advancement, feels personally responsible for Hiroshima. How itās shown in the movie is Phastos and Ajak, sharply dressed, are walking among the ruins after the atomic bomb is dropped. Phastos cries and, while kneeling among the ashes of innocent Japanese civilians, saysĀ āhumanity isnāt worth savingā. Maybe it wasnāt meant this way, but you canāt help but feel like the innocent people that were wiped out are being put in the same category as the white imperialists who just wiped them out.
Gemma Chanās character, Sersi, is a tradfem fantasy. Now, before you assume I meanĀ āall feminine characters exist for male consumptionā, no, thatās not what I mean. I love when the female lead is allowed to be deep AND strong AND sensitive AND feminine. I have fought tooth and nail for feminine woman characters to be given the respect they deserve. But thatās not what Sersi is. While Iām not saying you canāt like, or love, or even feel represented by her character, you cannot deny she lacks serious depth. The entire establishment of her character is done through the eyes of the white men that are in love with her. They fall for her while watching her serve, and give, and do stereotypically feminine things, NOT through talking to her and getting to know her. We never see why SHE loves THEM, we just assume that, well, heās an impressive masculine specimen, so why shouldnāt she fall in love with him, right? When Ajak dies, she chooses Sersi to succeed her as leader of the Eternals, but we never get a reason WHY. I donāt even think we see them have so much as a proper conversation, but weāre meant to assume Ajak just felt that Sersi wasĀ āgoodā andĀ ākindā enough to be the leader, NOT that she felt Sersi would be a competent leader. Sersiās entire motivations throughout the movie areĀ āI love these two menā andĀ āhumanity dying is badā. We donāt see her have any desires or needs outside of that.
All of the women of color are either fridged by an awful white man (Ajak) or in love with an awful white man (Sersi and Makkari). As a Mexican woman, seeing one Mexican woman get killed mercilessly and another Mexican woman fall in love with a man who treats the indigenous people of Latin America as little more than police dogs was disturbing on a whole other level.
Now to the ableism. I donāt want to speak too much on how they used the actress for Makkari, Lauren Ridloffās, deafness in the movie, as Iām not deaf myself, but Iāll lay it out and let you come to your own conclusion: the character is also deaf, and sign language is used in the movie. Itās stated in the movie that she can sense all vibrations in the world, including peopleās vocal cord movements, so she canĀ āfeelā what others are saying rather than hear. Sometimes the other Eternals use sign language with her, sometimes they donāt, either implying she reads their lips or canĀ āfeelā what theyāre saying.
What I DO feel comfortable talking about, as someone with various mental illnesses and disorders, is how they handled Thena, Angelina Jolieās character. Early on in the film (during the genocide scene, actually), she gets a psychological condition that only Celestials get that causes her to lose touch with reality. Despite the fact that the in-world explanation for it is simply that sheās remembering past lives, it causes her to be violent with her fellow Eternals, resulting in her being given the option to either be killed or have her memories wiped, thus erasing who she has come to be as a person. This reeks of real world eugenics as well as the stereotype that the mentally ill are inherently violent. Gilgamesh, the most physically strong of the Eternals, offers to be her caretaker, and they live in complete isolation for thousands of years. When the others meet up with them in modern day, we get a scene straight out of an ableist horror movie, with Thena sitting under a tree, surrounded by bones and scribbling creepy drawings. Once the existence of their past lives is revealed, her psychological disorder is used solely as a plot device and then just.....vanishes.
I honestly had to stop myself from leaving the the theater several times throughout the film. It was infuriating, it was disgusting, and it was PAINFUL. None of what I just wrote can be swept under the rug or circumvented by the color blind casting. Making Ajak a Mexican woman doesnāt make her advocating for letting my ancestors get slaughtered any less awful, it just makes Ikarus killing her that much more uncomfortable.
Usually when I leave a movie, even if I didnāt like it, I love to come onto Tumblr and Twitter to see what people think and what they took from it. But for the first time, I canāt bring myself to see people praise this film for false diversity, or stan a ship that makes my stomach turn, or make photosets of how beautiful a character thatās seeped in harmful tropes is.
The Eternals is not a good movie. Not only do I not recommend it, but I sincerely hope it flops so bad that Marvel gives up on a sequel. Another film with this group should not be made.
Darth Maul is just the funniest Star Wars character to me. Like. There was this one-off villain with no personality, one incredible fight scene, one of the objectively stupidest names in all of Star Wars (which, yāknow, is an achievment) and one of the coolest villain designs ever put to film.
And after theyād killed him off, everyone realised what a bottomless pit of wasted potential he was, and they started putting him into everything ever, no matter how little sense it made.
the idea that being closeted is being a liar is a heterosexual propaganda that hates queer people protecting themselves. you don't have to come out if you're not safe.
There's a certain kind of like, reveling in the destructive alienation of late capitalism that I see here sometimes that just feels like barely reskinned apocalypticism. Like yeah you've learned the word "Bourgeoisie" but the actual Idealogical thrust of your post is "everything will get worse forever and there is nothing to be done." Which is, at best deeply intellectually childish.
I haven't been doing well in updating you all or keeping up with content, for that I'm sorry and plead for your patience while I figure out what I wanna do with this project. Kinda hard to keep things together due to personal struggles and I feel as if I owe you any everyone something special, and I will, THIS I SWEAR! so gimme some time
[The best New Years resolution I ever made was to start devouring all my nicest things, and save no small pleasure for an unspecified future. Now I burn the good candles, wear the expensive perfume at home, scribble imperfectly in pretty notebooks. You canāt pin joy like a moth.]
If you give this woman money, it will go to transphobic causes. If you give this woman a platform, she will use it to boost transphobic causes. This isn't a "well nobody's perfect" or "well x other creator also did something bad once" situation, this is an inordinate amount of influence for a creator to have, and supporting her by word or wallet actively hurts trans people.
