There was one movie that came out last weekend that I did not get the chance to see, and that is what I chose to go see for my Friday showing. Antlers, was the story of a boy Lucas, who is left to take care of his father and younger brother after his father gets attacked by a beast in a mine shaft while cooking meth with Lucas waiting in the car. A sure-fire way to win father of the year. Lucas's dad slowly transforms into a Wendigo, a creature that Native Americans mythologized, which to get the process really going involves the consumption of a human. A local teacher, Julia, with a past filled with abuse by her father tries to help Lucas out, and her brother, Paul, gets dragged in as well due to him being an incompetent sheriff that needs to investigate strange disappearances that lead to Lucas’s family. The story gets darker and gorier from there.
The initial exposition of the story makes it seem like the theme is going to be dealing with environmental degradation and how poorly we have treated the Earth, but for the most part this is put on the back burner. The only time it gets mentioned again is when explaining that the Wendigo is nature's way of getting back at people for ruining the bleeding resources from the Earth. The other theme was abuse, specifically in the form of children. For Julia it gets mentioned and shown more, but for Lucas and his brother, it is just mentioned repeatedly as potential until the doctor finally says it as official. Both themes are largely skirted around and there was no full committal to one or the other, and if they would have fleshed one out slightly more, it would have made for a better movie.
Also, this movie had an all-time stupid decision moment. The principal goes to inspect Lucas's house to see if she can have a conversation with his dad after Julia had an odd encounter at the house and reported suspected abuse. The principal finds the door unlocked and enters. She starts to hear weird noises that sound almost animalistic, and then she hears the brother whimper. So instead of leaving and calling the police, she goes to the locked door and undoes the latch and gets ambushed by the father in what turns into a cannibalistic feast. Another terrible choice was when Paul went to investigate his partners attack, and his partner was clearly attacked from behind, and Paul just stood there until he was attacked from behind. Where is the common sense? Look behind you!
The last thing of note from this film was how let down I was from the preview. I had started to see previews for this shortly before the theaters shut down, and it was supposed to come out within the month before they closed. The preview seemed like this would be extremely disturbing and dark, and it really had the potential, but it was a letdown. The Wendigo was done quite well, but they only really showed it once at the end. The drawings Lucas made were disturbing in coming from a kid, but other than that it was just gross and gory with little substance to it.
Then on Saturday I had an interesting experience seeing Eternals. I wanted to go as early as possible, because it was so long, so I got a ticket to the 11 o'clock showing that was in the 4DX theater, which I had never experienced before, and oh was I in for a surprise. I thought the chair would just vibrate a little, but it was tilting up and down, and teetering from side to side. It was poking my back and blowing mist and odd smells at me, it was a total experience, and it was awful! I did not enjoy it at all. It was like being on the Star Wars ride at Disney except instead of being brief and fun, it was a long three hours. The fighting scenes were so violent in the chair that it made me wish the action was over. The air would blow so hard from the side that even in my hoodie I was chilled. Also, normally if I have to go to the bathroom, I go quick and hurry back, but I needed a reprieve from the seat, so I took my time.
Not to mention that the movie was just uncompelling in general. There was so much going on that they did not have a clear through line. There is a celestial being that Earth is going to give birth to, and the Eternals, who were initially in charge of helping it emerge, team up to prevent the destruction of Earth, because they fell in love with the people. That was blended with a massive back story for the characters just arriving to Earth, and then it had to go through the reunification of all the characters and their strife with one another. None of the characters really interested me besides Kingo, Kumail Nanjiani. Kingo was perfectly comedic and did not get enough screen time.
The Eternals were placed on Earth to defeat the Deviants, which were initially these monster wolf type beasts with tentacles. Overall, the CGI does not look that impressive when it comes to the beasts, especially compared to other Marvel movies and shows. Then the beasts slowly gain more powers and turn into a more sentient being, but at that point it really did not play a major role in the film because the giant alien was about to emerge from Earth.
It seemed like the theme they were trying to play into was found family. This is a popular one with many fantasy stories and even in other Marvel films, but it does not hit that well here. It might be because it is a very fractured family with betrayal, and that within the story they end up being so fractured and spread out that it makes it harder for that point to really land. It does try to look at the redeemable qualities of humanity by saying that the world is worth saving, but again the movie is so all over that it does not really hit the nail on the head.
Lastly the film does a controversial move where it blames some serious atrocities on the Eternals, thus showing an indifference to the real pain that was created in these conflicts. The biggest comes from the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan. Phastos takes responsibility for the destruction of the atomic bomb in a scene where I cringed at the lack of empathy shown to a truly tragic event. They also make a mockery of the Spanish conquistadors wiping out the Native populations. Both of which are terrible looks. I was not sure if I was the only one who felt this way, but from the articles and podcasts I have read and listened to, I was not the only one. Just an incredibly odd choice that should have been checked and edited.
Overall, both movies disappointed me. They both did not hit their themes well enough, which really lessens the power of a story. Antlers was dark, but it did not reach the emotional heights it should have. Eternals was long and was incredibly underwhelming, especially for a Marvel movie. It will still probably dominate the box office because they have created a behemoth where one must stay up to date on all the Marvel content to truly follow the storyline. I miss the day of a superhero stopping a bank robbing heist. Now each movie is like an intergalactic journey that will bend time and space because it has become too big to go back to the basics.
Other Movies This Week:
Kill Bill: A trained assassin seeks revenge on the crew who tried to take her out. The spewing blood reminds me of a bad SNL skit, but everything else is awesome in its absurdity. It was somewhere between a western and a samurai film. Very watchable.
The Harder They Fall: An intense black western, that was beautifully shot with an excellent soundtrack and cast, that you sadly must watch on your couch instead of the theater.
The Thing: A crew in Antarctica face an alien that morphing abilities to blend into the environment. I feel like the 80s special effects do a better job of grossing me out than the ones now do. A witch hunt of a story that I can only imagine was inspired by the Red Scare.
The Blair Witch Project: A documentary crew go in search of the Blair Witch, and they bit off more than they can handle. Chilling and spooky, it is so bad that it makes it believable, I still think about when I go hiking. The creators of the found footage film.
New Rankings:
Antlers: 2 Stars
Eternals: 2 Stars
The Thing: 3 Stars
Kill Bill Vol. 1: 4 Stars
The Harder They Fall: 4 Stars
Blair Witch Project: 3.5 Stars
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