All right, let’s talk about ‘Eternals’

I had the rare opportunity since the onset of the pandemic to see a movie in the theaters opening weekend. My wife and I elected to attend the earliest matinee on a Saturday and were the first to purchase tickets to anything that day, according to the box office attendant. We strapped on masks, got our popcorn and Coke and settled in for the two and a half plus hours of the latest Marvel film, “Eternals.”

Buckle in; this won’t be pretty.

Dear Hollywood:

Movies do not need to be this long. Yes, this is an epic film that spans centuries, but we don’t need to see all of those centuries on screen.

But I’m being unfair. “Eternals” is a lengthy film, second only to “Captain America: Civil War” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and its length is somewhat necessary to encapsulate all the story presented. However there are large sections in this film that are sloooooooow.

One can’t expect this to be a slick 90-minute action romp. There are nine — count them, NINE — principal characters who need introduced and fleshed out in order for the story to make sense or matter. It would have been nigh-impossible to do stand-alone films prior to this because of the characters’ very genesis.

One of the reasons “The Avengers” worked so well is every character was introduced either in their own film or as a supporting character in a prior film. We had an idea who they were and what they brought to the table before Loki opened a portal and attacked Manhattan.

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