Marvel’s Eternals was eagerly anticipated, with hopes that it would propel the Marvel Universe to another multiverse of success. There was debate over how rich Marvel could be by affording both Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek in one frame. The diversity of the cast made headlines and showed the true depiction of what diversity really means. The world premieres themselves were a surprise for the cast members, including Salma Hayek, who quoted in multiple interviews about the incidence of seeing a whole family of Latinos dressed as her character Ajak.
All the interviewers, reviewers, and panels could talk about were how Eternals changed Marvel’s history with its extremely talented and diverse cast, which included multiple A-list actors. Even Jon Snow was there! But then why did all of this change once Eternals was released? The mixed views, a surge of disappointment, different you tubers with huge followings either commenting how it just somehow sank the ship or the ones in support trying to bring in any argument they could that people needed to understand it from a different perspective, this was good, that was awesome, just wait for the sequel, etc. For heaven’s sake, Chloe Zao directed it. How didn’t it do what it was supposed to? We could see the ripple effect of all this clearly when it was declared that it was not necessary that the film gets a sequel and that it might remain as a standalone movie.
Well, now comes the time for my wild theory. Well, I think it did not do as well as it was supposed to, for somehow it was too close to reality. We see superheroes as gods, but this movie showed them as something similar to humans. They had strength, power, and immortality, but they also had vulnerability, fragility, sadness, anger, and betrayal, Ikaria’s Betrayal of his mates. Superheroes can’t possibly do that, can they? Can they betray us? From one perspective, it made sense that he was following an entity to which he was bound; that is where his loyalty should have been, but it also sounded too real when we follow cult leaders, dictators who want to destroy humanity, and the soldiers and followers comply. Ikaris’s suicide also opened another realm of reality, which I shall not get into at the moment.
Had Thena the Goddess of War, had a mental illness? Can a superhero have that? Isn’t crumbling down the weight of our own memories a very human trait? It is easier to believe a spider bit a man and gave him his power than to believe someone so strong can be fragile too.
Coming to an even crazier theory, doesn’t the end of the world seems a little too far-fetched idea but is it not the ultimate reality? Not a celestial, that is of course not real but isn’t climate change real? Which is destroying the Earth . Glaciers, forest fires, and global warming don’t the rise of a celestial destroying the Earth match with all this? Arshiem robots, mimicking how one day more than us humans, AI will have more control on this Earth? How does Cersei’s idea of finding a new home for humans mimic Elon Musk’s idea of colonizing Mars?
Well, in my opinion, the most difficult thing for us humans is to live and accept reality. We try to run as far away from it as possible until it finally strikes us in the face. I wish one day I could understand why reality scares us the most. Thus, I think it was the fear of seeing something that looked too much like reality, accepting humans’ flaws, and understanding the vulnerability and fragility of humankind. The bursting of the bubble that superheroes could be like humans too. They too could betray, they too could fall victim to their own strengths. Even the strongest could crumble under the weight of their own past or present demons. The reality is that sometimes we get so blinded by following someone else that we could destroy our own. Thus, according to my wild theory, it was the fear of reality that high jacked Eternals, nothing less, nothing more.
