Did the Eternals Ab*rt God? - Blue Curtain Project

[@blainecrowley1134]

This “themes of bad/unpopular movies” thing you’ve been doing is the most interesting media analysis I’ve seen in a long time!

[@nikhilclayton]

@@blainecrowley1134 thank you!!

[@ADSNavarro]

I have struggled to say why I fuck with Eternals so hard, because it did present me with a Dilemma that I hadn't been able to put into words, and I think you just did and I have been saying that this is one of the Marvel movies that poses the most existential questions out of all of them, but I figured it had to do with the fact that they were robots and that was it, but the fact that I struggled with religiosity throughout my life given that I do not believe, and that I am very progressive in my politics, made your explanation just make everything fit into place

[@scruggs108]

Same. This would explain why me and my bi , pro choice but wouldn't get one herself,best friend are the only people I've met IRL that like Eternals

[@mca7905]

Did not see this metaphor baked in until now, but what’s always fascinated me about Eternals is its examination of our trust in a central cis white male superhero. Ikaris is sooo cyclops/superman/captain america esc in presence and archetype. He fits so congruently with the idea of “superhero” of a blank piece of paper. The movie relies on the knowledge that both the characters in the movie and the people in the audience are used to putting a lot of stock in the authority of this one figure and then erodes that trust throughout the story. I really like this examination of why we would assume power, authority, and good moral judgement roll in this package and seeing the eternals all let go of and reject their reliance on his approval and authority.

[@neemagatumbu7850]

Okay woah. This has changed my entire view on the movie and I might just have to give it a rewatch now. Genuinely, thank you for giving me a different lens with which to view this

[@zhwright_]

Having both a MBA and BBA, I don't think I've felt a sentiment more strongly than "I could have made something of my life if I didnt major in business."

[@RobbaFett34]

You know that argument brings me around a bit on Eternals. I do still have issues with what's done with Icarus in the back-half of the movie and that Ajax had what feels like the absolute best argument for not letting earth be destroyed, but that doesn't come up again cause she dies before the plot starts. Which really undercuts any other debate in the story cause no one try to argue it. But hearing you layout the metaphor a bit more cleanly, yeah the movie is more interesting than I gave it credit for. And definitely has a point compared to most other MCU movies.

[@SirsasthNigam.]

8:43 CinemaSins : F*cking in Sand Th3Birdman : Sir.. That is a Rock

[@SirsasthNigam.]

CinemaSins : also also Wouldn't that also mean that the celestials would have wanted the eternals to prevent thanos from flipping away half the population Th3Birdman : Thanos waited until after Ego died ( in Oct 2014) to make his move for Infinity stones which means he had knowledge of Celestials and actively to avoid them Even if Celestials knew about Thanos’ plan , What do they care- Thanos only wanted to halve all of life , Deviants want to wipe out all life The only one with flawed plan here is Thanos who didn't anticipated that using Infinity Stones 2nd time would nearly kill him

[@SirsasthNigam.]

CinemaSins : a good portion of the next 20 minutes will be super beings fighting super beings with no discernable way of telling who is hurting who or if any hurting is actually possible, it certainly is pretty to look at, am i the only one who is tired of having a little to nothing invested in these marvel climaxes? "U could always stop watching them . Nobody is forcing you to watch these movies or make videos about them, but they are making you money, that’s why you won't"- Th3Birdman

[@MalcontentFlower]

You know... the past decade has taken a tire iron to my faith in humanity; but being able to watch, in real time, people slowly realize that the entire CinemaSins enterprise is asinine has been nice.

[@_cybik]

"It's not sand NOW but it will be"

[@SirStrangefolk]

I never thought about how this movie has almost the same plot as Doctor Who episode Kill the Moon, but with the opposite conclusion.

[@RileyWhovian]

Great video Nikhil I hope you get shown to more people in the algorithms

[@Alukard-Abysswalker]

Man I need to rewatch this movie. I have always agreed on all of this you're saying here but I'm not used to people making said valid observations on it so you reminded me. It truly is so different from the MCU in many good ways.

[@alexisloveschocolate]

Oh yay! I loved the videos you did on TikTok talking about metaphors like this in comics and scifi, glad to watch one that made me think about a movie I did like but definitely did not think much about

[@brysonturner6019]

I still remember watching Eternals and picking up the abortion metaphor right away. I was surprised a lot of people weren’t picking up on it. I genuinely thought one reason it bombed was because of conservatives wanting to boycott it. Glad someone discussed the metaphor!

[@Flippo___]

as someone who studied film (this applies because you mentioned your less-than-helpful academic background), this take actually improved my opinion of the film. wow that's a great reading. also ps. we can hear it when you hit your desk as a loud dud on the audio track

[@ladyabelev4166]

Good Video Nikhil, I agree with you that the Eternals is kinda overhated. I enjoyed it quite a bit coming out of the theater I figured it would be a hit.

[@soopface5467]

this movie was very refreshing within the mcu and i love the lens you view it through. that subtext is kind of blatant and now that i see it makes so much sense.

[@ComicCollectorTom]

wouldn't this be closer to angels questioning God rather than humanity questioning divinity?

[@nikhilclayton]

Angels questioning God are also a metaphor for humans questioning divinity

[@badatsomerhing]

​​​@@nikhilclayton adding to this: we have multiple stories written in multiple books surrounding multiple religions about Semi-Divine Entities questioning their creator. Things like "We dont have free will (Satan and his army of fallen angels)" and others, which would probably be best summed up with "Kronos cut his Father's testicles off, proceeds to get chopped into a million pieces by the kids he swallowed whole." Just so you know, the story of Abraham and Isaac is *about* questioning God's will.

[@ComicCollectorTom]

@ fair enough

[@baconlordthereal]

whats bothering me about this plot is the celestial says olympus doesnt exist ... exept it totaly does tho right? like thor love and thunder definetly confirmed the pantheons right?

[@SirsasthNigam.]

In the comics, the Olympians were extradimensional beings from Olympus, a pocket dimension of Earth. We saw two Celestials including The Celestial Gardner there as cameos in Thor 4 Omnipotence City is a floating city that is home to the major deities of a parliament of pantheons overseen by Zeus.

[@baconlordthereal]

@@SirsasthNigam. wait so there were also ACTUAL celestials there and that guy still wasnt aware of it? sounds more like disney made some bold claims even tho nordic myth is already true

[@mca7905]

Olympia not Olympus, one is a reference to the other, but separate placed for the purposes of Marvel

[@jamesmoyner7499]

One of the most unintentionally hilarious films I've seen in a long time.

[@s.l.thecoffeeaddict1657]

🎶 religious trauma, religious trauma 🎶 I felt that 😭

[@skarloey1214]

Great video dude 👍

[@zevfeitelson]

You made wonderful points as always. And just like all of your videos, this is remarkably well produced. Amazing work. Keep it up. You make the world a little bit brighter

[@christopherpowell3166]

Hey, you should continue the "you're an alien general and its not going well" series.

[@thesidewaysprojectHD]

DUDE THANK YOU! I love this movie soooo much!

[@Khearts530]

I’m really sad we never got more from these characters :( I really enjoyed them

[@thecrb1579]

I love the idea of this movie so much with how you explained it

[@mr.miscellaneous9144]

For me, the worst parts of this movie are 3 things. 1. The pacing... oh god the pacing is awful 2. The villan(s) along with the pacing we have, the corrupted eternal which amounts to nothing, the alpha goober, which did nothing, the celestial itself, which was killed before it could do anything, and then icarus, who was so OBVIOUSLY a villain from the very start... it hurt my soul and left me groaning when it was "revealed"... 4 KINDA villains, and none of them were fun or interesting or had enough screentime to care. 3. The unholy amount of time skips... if memory serves there was like... 6 or 7 time skips back and forth throughout the film, and it became so freaking annoying. It felt like a TV show forced into a movie time length, and that made it feel horrible and full of too much information at once

[@milkiassamuel780]

Honestly this movie really got so much unnecessary hate, its not that bad of a Marvel movie and though there are things I wish they couldve done better and characters they couldve explored in more detail, but honestly this movie had a lot of unique ideas with some great cinematography and even some of the best action scenes especially speedster scenes in live action and while its not as good as other MCU movies its still not as bad as movies like Love and Thunder or Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania? I do kinda wish they made this movie into a show instead of a film to truly flesh out the characters and concepts a lot more. BTW Karun is hands down the best character, I love how wholesome he is as he truly embodies the purity of a humanity's spirit. Honestly I never thought of this movie being a metaphor for abortion but wow... yeah I can see it.

[@SirsasthNigam.]

Before Endgame: Razzies (0%-50%)- Inhumans (11%), Iron Fist S1 (20%) Razzie dodgers (51%-70%)- Incredible Hulk (67%), Thor 2 (67%), Both Punisher seasons (62% & 68%), Iron Fist S2 (55%) Oscar dodgers (71%-90%)- Iron Man 2 (72%), Iron Man 3 (79%), Cap: First Avenger (80%), Cap 2: Winter Soldier (90%), Daredevil S2 (81%), Jessica Jones S2(82%), Jessica Jones S3 (73%), Luke Cage S2 (85%), The Defenders (78%), Thor 1 (77%) No MCU project after Endgame has been a Razzie (0%-40%) Thor 4 & The Marvels were Spider-Man 3 level Quantumania was ,as Th3Birdman puts it "Borderline boring ", and i think is Venom 3 level & nothing compared to Inhumans, Madame Web , Kraven , Morbius , Fant4stic & Catwoman

[@fynndiesel3161]

That's honestly a great way to look at this movie

[@clash42]

It's subtext in a technical sense, they don't literally say "this movie is about *thing*."

[@ADdude]

It’s fine, it’s not bad just a little bloated and slow.I think it would have been a hit if was a series a given a chance to breath and roll out.

[@SpiderKid-2021]

I’ve seen Eternals once ONCE at HOME and i loved it

[@MeAHufflepuff]

He makes a really good point that I didn't see before

[@CasualEnjoyerofMostManyThings]

The action and portrayal of the powers is some of the best I've seen in a superhero movie, but when it isn't doing that it's QUITE the slog.

[@dresdenwarlock7978]

Ive loved this movie since it came out and I'll never apologize for it

[@alekslic3385]

I think people hate "Eternals" for being *a dip in quality.* By it's own merit it is between good-enough and mediocre, but in the eyes of MCU fans it was a *bad follow up to the "Awangers Endgame".*

[@dylanrobinson4658]

I actually do rock with eternals

[@Lopes4911]

Ok, congratulations, you convinced me to watch Eternals, a movie I had 0 interest in until now

[@jonathanjones9495]

Finally!! I’ve been saying this for years. Eternals is one of top mcu movies

[@EmiCheese]

Wait, did I forget the things I liked about the movie because the general consensus was that it was bad? Like, I don't dissagree that there were problems, but I enjoyed the dynamic and the overall experience

[@cheesepiegreen]

I didn’t love eternals, but that’s mostly because when i come to a marvel movie i only am looking for jingling keys haha. I adore them but don’t usually read into them too far because…. It’s usually disappointing. This is really great film criticism though and it makes me want to rewatch the film through the new light.

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

I find it incredibly disturbing that modern media literacy is so bad that there were people who were unaware of the abortion metaphor in this film.

[@legomania2427]

WHERE DID YOU GET GET THAT GAMBIT JACKET?!?!?!?!?!

[@taylorharkness8080]

Please please where did you get that sweater?!? My boyfriend loves it I wanna get it for his birthday !!

[@nikhilclayton]

Boxlunch!

[@KinToInferno]

I genuinely LOVED the movie when I watched it, I loved the action, the visuals, the characters, the Deviants, I loved it all Was it groundbreaking? No! But that doesn’t matter, I very much enjoyed it for what it was It was a breath of fresh air to me and I loved it

[@amineowl8099]

OK YEAH SURE I WASNT REALLY LISTENING, BUT WHERE DID YOU GET THAT JACKET

[@agentumbra2374]

I think the stigma around this movie is more about how it hasn't been brought up in universe how a giant came out of the ocean or how another red giant appeared in space until now with 'Captain America: Brave New World', you would think a movie like 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' a movie thag includes Atlantis would bring the Celestial that's just sitting in the ocean.

[@nikhilclayton]

That’s just not how marvel movies have ever worked. They are independent stories/series building to big crossover events. Itd be so dumb to derail any other movie so far with a tangent about what is canonically thought to be a new rock formation discovered in the Indian Ocean

[@soundsofstabbing3627]

I don't think it's ever made clear that Tiamat is sentient during the events of the movie, so it could be argued that it isn't murder since Tiamat isn't alive and thinking, but I agree that it's much more muddled than its real life counterpart

[@sceptre1067]

my one major critique was the 2 villains issue... we have the deviants and the celestials. wish they could have developed one more and maybe drop the other. felt, deviants plot line got less developed.

[@nikhilclayton]

I felt the same until watchin to prep for this tbh. But now, I think the real thing is the deviants just weren’t the villains. They were a red herring for Arishem/Ikaris. So the reason they feel dropped is they serve no more real purpose once the twist is revealed.

[@sceptre1067]

@@nikhilclayton and that makes sense, overall liked your analysis and will have to go back and rewatch from that point of view. I did like the movie, especially that our group had the different view points, etc.

[@GavrielAbrahams]

It should have been a series

[@NOAHandmycreations]

I can't hate any marvel movie/show thats what makes me a good marvel fan

[@gew393]

Finally justice for Eternals!!!

[@tylerferguson3193]

Hope you're having a good day

[@nikhilclayton]

You too, friend

[@GuyParson]

I think part of the reason why the message and themes aren't talked about is cause we're watching stuff from an inherently human perspective. the argument given in the movie is that the Celestial would go on to create life, but ALIEN life. by virtue of not being human, we inherently see alien life, Celestial included, as less worthy of living than us, which messes up with the abortion allegory, as a baby will come out as a human, one of us.

[@sebastienvondoom8615]

I LOVE Eternals, Gilgamesh, Mikari, and Druig are great characters

[@nikhilclayton]

I was stunned on rewatch at how fascinating every character really is. Like, I always liked it, but prepping for the vid made me love it. They balance the characters and time settings so well, it’s beautiful. Everyone feels like they got a chance to shine

[@NotAllowedToBeARealFan]

heck yeah, now do the inhumans

[@nikhilclayton]

Oh god i havent even seen that

[@NotAllowedToBeARealFan]

@@nikhilclayton oh you gotta, video or not

[@judoboygamer518]

I still haven't seen this movie

[@thatrandomrobot]

8:43 I find it wild that this got so much attention back when the movie came out, because… it’s blatantly untrue. I know people haven’t watched it in like 10 years, but Iron Man didn’t wait long to have one

[@nikhilclayton]

@@thatrandomrobot iron man to my memory has an implied one with him and the reporter. This one has dual nudity and you see them literally thrusting into eachother lol. So i think it’s a fair bit different

[@thatrandomrobot]

@ that is fair. It’s definitely not as blunt about it, and the portrayal is wildly different

[@NOAHandmycreations]

1:16 of course, it has a point the ship has 3 points

[@vice166]

it's honestly rlly annoying when ppl just seem incapable of grasping the concept of an allegory, like obviously it's not one to one, it's a fucking metaphor

[@thomaslalonde1532]

I agree with you about Eternals' message. And I might even agree that it tells that message in an intelligent way. But I still don't think this is a good movie. There is just no chemistry between Sersi and Ikaris. There are good actors in this movie, but the actors who play the male and female lead just do nothing for me.

[@MalcontentFlower]

You have wonderful eyes!

[@Alukard-Abysswalker]

Five seconds in: AGREED

[@juneberrysaint]

It was much better rewatch so if you didn't like it the first time, maybe try it again! Also I think this is the first time I've seen anyone acknowledge that the ending was, in fact, murder and not an abortion 💀 But it's fine, the newborn was about to blow up the hospital (or something)

[@owenmooney8246]

my goat

[@WebbedManiac]

1:41 Wait, people disagree with that? WTF did they watch then, because it surely wasn't this.

[@nikhilclayton]

You would be amazed how many ppl don’t seem to think of it. Every time I bring it up I’m hit with a wave of confused responses

[@TheTrueThomayo]

ETERNALS IS A GREAT MOVIE!

[@jennefervandeluitgaarden2201]

For the love of nikhil stop punching the table.. My poor ears... Love the vid other wise..

[@nikhilclayton]

It is a terrible quirk that I have never once noticed doing before the edit haha. But I will certainly try

[@slurpingmario8006]

“It’s not a god, it’s a celestial” Well fun fact!: celestials ARE gods

[@strawhatsmanager]

IT IS A GOOD MOVIE

[@maninthetrenchcoat5603]

Movie looks cool as hell and the fights are epic. But you said it right at the start, it is slow and meandering. A superhero movie should never be that. That's why people hate this movie. You can have the most tightly written script of all time, but if it moves at a snail's pace, nobody's gonna stay to see the good shit.

[@nikhilclayton]

@@maninthetrenchcoat5603 i don’t think people’s lack of attention span qualifies something as good or bad

[@maninthetrenchcoat5603]

@nikhilclayton I never said it was good or bad. I said that's why people hate it. I think objectively that it's a competently made movie with solid themes, effects, and writing. That said, I still hate it because despite all of that good, it somehow still bored me. Which I feel is an even greater sin.

[@vikrambal6247]

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