Marvel News & Notes

It's unprecedented to see critics respond negatively to an MCU film, but that is the fate of Eternals and I don't think the quality of the product is the only reason for this response (even The Incredible Hulk has a better score). Let's just quickly go over recent scores (keeping in mind that they generally drop a few points as time passes; RT audience scores don't mean much of anything, but I included them just for fun):

Black Panther 96%/79%

Infinity War 85%/91%

Ant-Man 2 87%/75%

Captain Marvel 79%/45%*

Endgame 94%/90%

Spider-Man 2 90%/95%

WandaVision 91%/86%

Falcon and the Winter Soldier 89%/82%

Loki 92%/90%

Black Widow 79%/91%

Shang-Chi 92%/98%

Eternals 60%/NA

*Until Captain Marvel no proof that a voter had seen the film was required

What's apparent is how high MCU films score irrespective of quality, so why are we getting a critical drubbing for Eternals when that's been deserved for the entirety of Phase Four's output (and coming from places expected to applaud the film, eg, although the fanboys are still drooling all over it)? I don't think the film will be qualitatively worse than anything we've seen this year, but it seems like Disney has given the green light for critics to voice the obvious: things are not going well at Marvel. I would have argued, a few months ago, that the underwhelming cast is part of the problem, and while I still believe that's a factor, Shang-Chi has the same problem and did adequately domestically, so it's not the only issue. I'm not yet onboard Midnight's Edge idea that this criticism is part of the internal battles at Disney between Bob Chapek and Feige (you can see my old buddies at Small Screen going the anti-Chapek track here, where they see the internal machinations working for Feige), but I am open to the idea that there could be validity to ME's idea.

Largely unnoticed, but the marketing push for Hawkeye has begun and apparently made no impression. This echoes Marvel's inability to generate discussion for either Shang-Chi or Eternals, whereas the pre-existing interest in heroes like Loki and Black Widow brought the kind of notice they were hoping for. Hawkeye isn't a popular character, so a vehicle launching his less popular successor is a tough sell--does it have enough draw for the YA audience ? That will be interesting to follow, since I think that's its only path to success (barring the miracle of it being well-written).

Speaking of results, Venom 2 has passed Black Widow at the box office (not including its Disney+ earnings), although it's unlikely it can make another 30 million to catch Shang-Chi (beating the latter's international earnings, but the domestic performance seems like it's too much). For those wondering, the only other films in the top-20 that did better domestically than elsewhere are A Quiet Place II and Jungle Cruise (both are outside the top-ten). As I've said before, clearly you cannot target your film just for an American audience and get your money back if it's a blockbuster.

A story floating around in Culture Crave claims that Kevin Feige wanted all the original Avengers to die in Endgame. If true that's a bizarre idea, although in many ways the outcome of that film puts the iconic heroes on the shelf (only Black Widow and Iron Man die, but Cap retires, Hulk is disabled, Thor gives up his kingship/people/prior storylines, and Hawkeye was already retired). Apparently the Russo brothers pushed back against killing them all off. Phase Four certainly echoes this intention as the storylines have worked hard to diminish their accomplishments (Loki and seemingly Eternals) and replace them all (Black Widow with Yelena, Cap with Falcon, Hawkeye with Kate Bishop, and Hulk with She-Hulk).

It's been amusing to watch people like Andre (ME) bend over backwards to turn Dune's underwhelming box office results into a 'win'. Ever since the IP was announced he and others have been pushing it and  no result on screen was going to dissuade him from heavily praising it. The film squelched out an anemic 40 million opening weekend domestically and while the red flag of simultaneous release on streaming was raised, no one made the obvious comparison with Black Widow which did the same thing--and worldwide, unlike Dune--that film pulled in twice the box office. This hasn't prevented the WB from giving it a sequel, but we need to be honest about how it performed.

This just reminds me to offer a reminder of how uneven ME can be in their coverage, as they will happily parrot stories that have been firmly debunked (eg) in their live shows (most recently the 2017 Macaulay Culkin/Heather O'Rourke story they and Kamran Pasha regurgitated as truth). While ME can source-check very carefully at times, that's not a holistic approach.

This article was written by Peter Levi