I still say that Marvel’s The Eternals is nothing more than a fancy version of The History Channel’s Ancient Aliens. That’s all! The Eternals are fancy aliens who travel to earth at the dawn of civilization and decide to “help” humans become more civilized and sh-t. Like, they teach them about irrigation and architecture and probably weaponry as well. Still, I will see this mess, if only for Angelina Jolie, Kumail Nanjiani, Gemma Chan and Richard Madden. And the others!
This week’s Entertainment Weekly devotes their issue to individual covers for all of the Eternals’ characters. Gemma as Sersi, Salma as Ajak, Richard as Ikaris, Angelina as Thena, Kumail as Kingo, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos and more. You can see all of the individual character posters here, and you can read EW’s exclusive cover story here. Here are some of the Angelina-specific parts:
Jolie on watching the film come together: Jolie is certainly no stranger to blockbuster projects, but even she was surprised by the scale of Eternals. “It’s certainly the biggest thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “As somebody who’s directed, to watch the production try to manage it, it was a huge thing to take on.”
On Thena: The acrobatic Thena is one of the group’s elite warriors, and she can manifest weapons out of thin air. To prepare, Jolie undertook ballet training to capture her effortless grace, as well as teaching herself how to use various weapons — most of which were added in digitally in post-production. “It is one of the weirdest things to train for because you’re throwing things, grabbing things, breaking things in half,” she explains. “You feel a little nuts. You’re just throwing your hand out as if you’re thinking, ‘Is that a sword? Is that a spear? Is it a lasso? What am I doing?’ Then you get into it and it gets really fun, but it’s a puzzle.”
Why she took the role: “I just wanted to be a part of this family. I have a slightly unconventional family myself, so it felt familiar.”
The first time the cast was together in costume: “Standing there next to each other, the first time we all stood in our suits together and took off our secrecy cloaks and had to stand there for the shot, what you felt was just a lot of support. We were smiling at each other, and there was just a lot of kindness.”
The Giraffe: In all, the cast says they were surprised by how quickly they meshed, bonding both on screen and off. (At one point, Jolie threw a Halloween party for the cast and crew, dressing up herself as a giraffe.)
Angelina is such a mom, my God. Organizing a Halloween party and dressing like a giraffe? Mom move. I bet she passed out candy and complimented every costume. That EW piece was more comprehensive than I was expecting and I feel like I have a better grasp on the story, and how the Eternals function and what they’re supposed to be doing. It also sounds like Gemma Chan has the meatiest storyline, and she gets to be part of a love triangle between Richard Madden and Kit Harington. Hot??
Oh, and Marvel dropped the “final trailer” for The Eternals this morning. Marvel heard the fans’ complaints about “why didn’t the Eternals get involved with the Snap,” etc. So they cut a trailer half-way explaining it. Angelina looks amazing! So does Richard Madden.
Covers courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, Marvel.
Wow! She never ceases to be the most stunning.
Exactly, put her in any time in history and in any costume, her beauty always comes through.
Shut up and take my money!!
Mine too! I love her, and I want to see her in the Giraffe custome lol.
I’m with you
I can’t wait to see this!
I like superhero movies quite a bit, but this movie looks boring to me. And the colors are very washed out and blah. Maybe it will be great? I like a lot of the actors.
This trailer was better than the last one, which made no sense. The eternals claiming “we never interfere with humans” while showing clips from the movie…where they’re interfering with human evolution by teaching people how to farm with irrigation, etc.
Intelligent thoughtful stories are often “boring”. They are detailed and nuanced and take time. I think it’s great to have movies that aren’t so cookie-cutter-American-carchase-explosions.
talking down to people doesn’t make you sound any smarter.
Well I Dont like superhero movies usually but this one looks interesting to me.
They literally say in the trailer that they were instructed not to interfere unless it involved the Deviants. So they explain not getting involved for Thanos, and how half the population disappearing and then re-appearing caused an event that alerted them back because something is about to happen in 7 days.
I’m guessing the instructions to not interfere came after they first introduced humans to all that stuff.
yes, in THIS trailer. The first trailer which was meant to drum up interest was nearly incoherent. This one tries to clear up all the issues with the first.
Ugh. Any storyline with aliens coming to the planet to show human beings how to do things–and using a starting point of 7,000 years ago (per creationists, the age of the earth)–I have no interest in. I’m an archaeologist and this kind of movie, no matter how much I may like the actors, would have me spluttering & snorting in contempt throughout.
Can’t suspend disbelief even for a comic book movie?
I’m with you: all that space aliens influencing people garbage IS annoying, but I will go to this film and just have fun.
Enjoy! I just can’t.
Damn the trailer looks really good, i’ll have to put aside my Jolie bias in order to watch this , since i love the marvel movies so far. i don’t watch any jolie movies
It just looks so boring. It still looks boring and the storyline is..well..boring. The only interesting point is having POC in prominent roles. I might maybe watch this months from now.
I so agree. BOOOOOORING!!! lOL
I find it nothing new, to be honest. But it’s a trailer. Let the stans stan.
@Northergirl I mean, whew it takes a lot of work to make Angie look boring. I’m serious when I say that most of the stuff in Phase 4 looks boring to me. I’m a DC girl at heart and now I’m just underwhelmed with Marvel. I’ll probably hook back up when they do something with Storm.
So that last statement means you’ll watch in November when it’s released, which is, you know, months from now.
@ Dutch. No, I will not watch this when it is released. I might maybe get around to it in Spring 2022 🤷🏽♀️ Or maybe never if I’m being more honest because I swear with each passing day the interest diminishes 😄. Now that new Flash movie and the next Aquaman? Yes, please!
So done with superheroes and Marvel. Not even enjoyable at this point
Same old. You know how it is going to end, always.
I did like Loki though. (until the end).
Plus, the music in that trailer was awful and so obvious in the emotion button-pushing department!
@ Catt I liked Loki ok. I love the new antagonist that the show introduced and I love it 4ever for introducing the storyline that gives me hope for T’Challa as Black Panther to return and then maybe hopefully one day I get to see Storm and Black Panther on the big screen as a couple. A girl can dream.
Holy freaking sh*t, this looking awesome 🤩
I’ll watch this for Gemma and Richard. It looks different from the usual superhero/Marvel movies which appeals to me.
Are they putting this one in the theater for 45 days before switching to streaming?
I think Shanghai movie profit will decide how the Eternals will be released.
Black Widow was both Cinema and Disney + at the same time.
Shanghai is 45 days in Cinema then released of Disney +.
Yes I know that, that’s the point of my question (which was mostly sarcastic.)
I don’t like Jolie as a blonde.
Otherwise, I’m in, though will most likely wait to see it till it’s out on DVD/BluRay
Q: When I say DVD do folks KNOW I mean blue ray? Maybe I should say disc? Each time I type DVD/BluRay, I wonder…….
Yes she has never managed to look good blonde,some brunettes just cant make that look right,maybe because her eyebrows still remain very dark and the wig is always stringy. (Girl Interupted,Salt,By the Sea)
I agree, I think the blonde washes her out a bit. Dark hair is much more flattering on her, and brings out her eyes more.
I’m not a big Marvel/superhero film person, this is something I’d maybe watch from home when I could see it for free. Some of the CGI looks kind of interesting.
I don’t think she can pull off the blonde either. Just not her best look.
Ironically she’s a natural blonde.
She is a natural blonde – I don’t like her hair too dark. I do like the look in Eternals she looks like a goddess – appropriate for the role.
She’s not a natural blonde. She was blond as a child like many people but her hair got darker after like 5 years old which is common so I wouldn’t call her a natural blonde, it would imply her hair today grows out blonde which it clearly doesn’t. She’s a brunette and has been since at least 10 years old.
I’ll give it a chance. I want to see Chloe Zhao’s take on the superhero genre. The trailer seems to cater to what people (now) expect of a superhero film: ensemble cast, world in peril, funny quips in dialog, alien enemy out for revenge and/or a hate-boner for earth, necessity to make it all fit into an increasingly cramped Marvel universe. I’d like to see how she subverts or uses these tropes differently. She seems to use a lot of wide shots where the focus isn’t necessarily on the eternals but on the environment around them. That in and of itself is noteworthy for me, and worth the large screen immersive experience.
Sidenote soapbox: I don’t really understand why people keep asking the whole “why didn’t you stop humans from doing terrible things that were totally of our own making and led to consequences we didn’t anticipate because the world is complicated with a lot of problems that are deeply rooted in history, ecology, technology, socioeconomic conditions, politics, and culture?”
Sorry but the movie looks bland.
Angelina Jolie’s already been trending . She looks absolutely fabulous and fierce warrior.
They photoshopped her so much she looks like Rose Byrne.
This looks amazing and I’m looking forward to more backstory of the Celestials and Deviants and tying in to previous storylines and characters. Plus there is a nerdy part of me that wants to see “Rob Stark’s” last words to “Jon Snow” come to fruition lol
It looks like a very pretty film. I watch basically everything Marvel so I was watching this before I even saw a trailer but I’m very excited. I think it’s going to be a very visually stunning film.
Angelina looks so much better now. I was watching interviews with her and she looks like she is glowing. Good for her it’s been a while since she has looked that way.
She does seem much happier now.
Marvel I’m in, you had me at jolie
As the massive comic book nerd that I am, I’ve got to say the Eternals are nothing like Ancient Aliens.
I hope the movie is as good as the comics.
Don’t hate me, but I see Nancy Pelosi in Angelina’s face with that color hair. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, though. She looks stunning.
I scrolled up to check and now I see it.
Ok wait. I remember when the first trailer came out and I think it was this site that was complaining about the British accent because you thought it was Angelina speaking lol. Turns out it’s an actual British woman. Oops
Twitter and marvel fans are excited.
I will see this…just not in a theater.
I’m trying to get into this one since people seemed hyped for it, but I admit I’m mystified by the appeal. It seems pretty generic plot wise and not really all that different from the previous twenty years of films. The Iron Man films and the occasionally unique ones like Winter Soldier and Black Panther continue to be the only ones that have really stood out to me over time. The rest are pretty standard good guy/bad guy formula. I’d like to think they’re trying something more nuanced here with the ‘morality of non-interference’ aspect, but we’ll see.
Ya, that’s where I am. I really liked Iron Man (the first one) Black Panther, and Thor:Ragnarok (although I’m not sure that one will stand up to a re-watch). I just couldn’t really get into the others. This trailer didn’t wow me, but I like Brian Tyree Henry’s lines, so I’ll probably watch it when it comes to Disney+
Angelina Jolie and Aliens, fine, I’ll watch this.
I haven’t watched any of the other Marvel films other than the first Iron Man, so hopefully I’ll understand the plot. Or not, whatever.
I wish I was excited about Phase 4. In theory, I love the idea of more experimentation in the MCU and I LOVE the spacey/mystical side of Marvel. But I’m really just not excited? I adored Wandavision but the other two shows fell flat for me. I find myself feeling very disinterested in the upcoming Marvel offerings and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s just Marvel fatigue. Infinity War and Endgame would’ve been a nice place to just stop but now it seems like the MCU is going to add 100 new characters and become infinitely more confusing.
Yes, I was very excited for Loki, but it fell flat for me.
I’m kinda over the whole “superhero movie” genre, but I’ll watch it for Chloe Zhao’s direction and Gemma Chan’s role.
And I’m just glad we’re getting superhero movies in which the female characters are fully clothed in battle-appropriate gear. I may be one of the few humans on the planet who genuinely enjoyed the first “Suicide Squad” movie, and I HATED seeing Margot Robbie fight in booty shorts and a too-small t-shirt.
Marvel feels like a metaphor of capitalism at this point. It’s all about infinite growth. Every next crisis has to be bigger than the previous or it’s not cool enough. At some point it becomes gimmicky and laughable – oh, here comes a bigger crisis and a set of more powerful beings that we suddenly pulled out of a hat. You’d think that with the multiverse they could explore a wider range of story types, but no… It’s all about a small group of heroes saving the world in 7 days.
well, you can be sure Angelina isn’t basic enough to be dressing up as a sexy nurse.
The director of this movie has been an outspoken critic of China, and now China is threatening to not allow the movie there. That would really impact the box office numbers.
Eh… It just looks like a Marvel movie? I know it’s not a popular opinion but I’ve never thought of Angelina Jolie as a particularly good actress… I think she’s leveraged her fame into doing a lot of great things, but I do think her fame, face and lineage make people assume she’s a great actress when actually… she’s kind of mediocre.
100% agree. I think she’s beautiful and I love how she’s used her star power to do important work around the globe, but she’s more of a “movie star” than an “actor” to me. She’s recognizable and can helm a blockbuster, but she isn’t necessarily an amazing actress or someone I consider to pick good projects. Her acting and her films are…fine.
I think she’s one of the best actresses out but she doesn’t like acting and only makes movies for $$ to fund what she actually cares about. Good for her. There are so many overrated actors/movies that never get called out for being terrible at their jobs – I only see this with Jolie for some reason and the funny thing is she doesn’t care because I believe she would love to retire from hollyweird but the money is too good
I watch just to see Richard Madden.
This looks amazing!! I am so excited to watch this.
Also – Chloe Zhao is such a thoughtful storyteller – as we watch Afghanistan crumble before our eyes, I can’t help but notice the delicate way Zhao introduces ideas of love, restraint, power, limits. Take my money please! 🤩🤩🤩
Angie is gorgeous here in white blonde. People who think it’s bland or gonna be dull. Don’t watch
OK. Angie is not the leading role and actually hers is a secondary with not big time on screen. Obviously they are using her star power for marketing purposes, I get it. But it’s not her movie.
Is it me or big part of the cast looks a little…old? I’m not a marvel fan so I’m out.
Thank you Hmn and #facts. 😊
I hate super hero /comic book movies the genre as a whole never appealed to me but I’m not their target audience but this I can kinda get behind, plus the cast is awesome.
Why is Disney releasing these trailers right before Shang-Chi comes out? Doesn’t that undermine Shang-Chi box office performance? Eternals doesn’t come out until November and Disney could have waited 2 weeks to release this. Seems weird marketing strategy to me.