The lore of Eternals is dense, more so than the usual MCU film. It’s a showcase of Zhao’s specific cinematic fixations brought to a blockbuster scale. In our seemingly endless cycle of bland and unremarkable MCU projects, especially from Phase 4, Eternals not just remains one of Marvel’s most ambitious outings so far, but it most importantly fits comfortably in Chloé Zhao’s filmography a spiritual tale of lost beings making sense of humanity and their relationship to the natural world. Which leads to one of my biggest frustrations with this film’s discourse – it would be easy to attribute all the things that work to Zhao’s direction, and everything that doesn’t to the MCU machine (and many critics have done exactly this), but that reductive assessment would be greatly misrepresenting what Eternals actually is: a film that Zhao herself is quite proud of, and one that she confidently calls her own – a collaboration between the mythology of the Marvel universe and Zhao’s own cinematic fixations. Chloé Zhao approached Marvel Studios to create a project together as a fan, not the other way around. Except, and I think many people overlook this fact, that when it comes to Eternals, that’s not really the case. This echoes a classic IP-driven Hollywood story, a big studio recruits a fresh independent director to work on their latest franchise films just to stifle their creative vision. Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ Series Sets ‘The Spectacular Now’ Director James Ponsoldt (EXCLUSIVE) Awards pundits quickly bought into the film’s marketing hype: finally, an auteur’s Marvel movie something that now feels like an oxymoron. With full confidence in Chloé Zhao’s name and talent, the studio was fully prepared to launch Eternals as an awards season contender. Fresh off a successful awards campaign for Nomadland (Zhao’s third feature film that won her the coveted best director academy award), there was a high expectation for Eternals to drastically shift the direction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and raise the possibility for Marvel Studios to work with elevated talent. One year ago, Eternals was released in theaters to moderate box office numbers and a divisive critical reception, solidifying the film as the only MCU outing to receive a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes in the franchise’s entire run. “So, you know, the vision of the film was to set up and capture that scale – something as large as the creation of the sun and as intimate as whispers of lovers.” “Blake was trying to convey that you can see the endless beauty and the meanings of the cosmos within the smallest things you can find on earth,” Zhao explained. As the story goes, Zhao showed Feige a macro photo of sand while reciting the words of William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence.” Kevin Feige once said that Chloé Zhao’s pitch for Eternals, an adaptation of Jack Kirby’s comic series of the same name, was one of the best he’s ever heardin his career.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |