What Went Wrong With ‘Eternals’?

So the 2021 movie ‘Eternals’ is now available to stream on Disney Hotstar Premium. And even though I do have a subscription, I am not going to watch it. Why?

A few weeks ago, someone on the Q&A site ‘Quora’ asked ‘What Went Wrong With Eternals?’. And my answer went –

What went wrong with Eternals? – What If…?

Let me explain.

DC/Marvel comic-books came at a price-tag that was considered ‘exorbitant’ for most of us middle-class 90s kids. Although I did watch a little bit of X-Men on Cartoon Network in the early 2000s. The comic books were never an affordable option. So like a lot of average movie fans I wasn’t even aware that Jack Kirby created ‘Eternals’ way back in the 20th century (makes it sound more dramatic and old doesn’t it?). The characters made their first appearance in 1976. Below is the cover from back then, taken off Wikipedia[1] –

Needless to say, it wasn’t a rage as such, and the series was cancelled. But every few years, the guys at Marvel would revive ‘Eternals’ as a mini-series. And finally in 2021, we got an ensemble cast film. By then, I was so saturated with Marvel content – I couldn’t care less. Especially because it came right after “What If…?”, the animated series, which was actually fun (I loved the Zombie themed episode – unpopular opinion). It had ALL POSSIBLE alternate universes, and all of them were at threat, and yet, the legendary Eternals NEVER MAKE AN APPEARANCE. They are never mentioned, never considered as an option to save the universe(s). And then we have an entire movie with them, which just seemed so bloody pointless.

So for me, what went wrong with Eternals was ‘What If…?’. It makes them look unnecessary. If you’ve seen the mini-series, you’d know what I mean. Kind of makes me not want to watch the movie at all. And the trailer was not very impressive either.