Are you eager for Eternals, one of the next MCU films? Looks like a big villain in it! But guess what? He’s NOTHING compared to the villain that comes after him! How do I know this? Because this is one of the formulaic things about the MCU, and it greatly detracts from the movies individually and as a whole series.
(RELATED: Marvel’s ‘Eternals’ Teaser Trailer Looks Damn Good)
Back in August, Michael wrote a post about how the MCU always features a new threat. So my post now is kinda me adding my thoughts about the same issue. And as I mentioned up front, the MCU habit of going, “Oh, you thought this villain was bad, wait until you see who this [CHARACTER OR TEAM] has to face next!” has by now just made the series uninteresting.
The formula was okay when it was advancing from Obadiah Stane to the Red Skull or whatever. But after the Skrulls? And Ultron? And Hela? And whoever it was that Doctor Strange faced? And Thanos? C’mon. Does anyone really expect audiences to be invested in the stories when Marvel is saying that a universe-destroying villain was “nothin’ compared to who comes next”?
(Don’t answer that question, because it’s obviously going to be, “Yes. Yes, Marvel does expect audiences to be invested in their stories.” And audiences will indeed prove that to be a correct assumption. But you get my rhetorical point.)
I’m not an MCU fan, so I don’t care what happens or what the woke Marvel / Disney / 20th Century Fox / The Muppets / ESPN / ABC / Pixar / Lucasfilm does. But as soon as I saw the Eternals trailer featuring another end-of-all-that-we-know villain, I just rolled my eyes.
Why always go in the let’s-get-bigger direction? Why not go the opposite way? Do smaller stories—stories more about relationships and individual challenges and issues. You can still have action and adventure, but it would be the best way to go.
Although, I guess I shouldn’t have written that. I don’t want to help the MCU. On the bright side of things, the people running it ain’t going to listen to me.
But again, this is all ultimately a non-issue. None of the MCU interests me. So if Eternals wants to do the we-have-an-even-bigger-and-badder-villain-than-a-universe-destroying-villain thing? And if the MCU movie after it wants to go even further? Sounds good to me.
Top Image: Excerpt of ‘Eternals’ poster via IMDB.
