Daddy/Daughter Movie Review: Marvel’s Eternals

Once again, my special guest, daughter Tessa, joins me for a review of the new Marvel movie, Eternals which we saw over the weekend. The review scale is 1-5 (1 being the worst, 5 the best) Daves, or 1-5 Y’s, Y standing for “Yasssss!” Alright, let’s get into this thing. Spoilers? Nah. Here we go. Tessa, you are up first.

Eternals: 3.5 Y’s, 3.5 Daves

Tessa: Every phase of the MCU has a movie that’s just Not It, (cough cough Thor: Dark World) and I was expecting Eternals to be phase four’s bad movie. And was I wrong? Kinda. For the first two thirds of the movie I wasn’t really into it, but by the end it got really good. But the ending isn’t enough to save the rest of the movie. It moved way too fast, and I feel like there were many places they could’ve cleared things up, and they didn’t. Either they cut those scenes for time (the movie is already so long dude), or they never had them in the first place, which wouldn’t surprise me. There were way too many characters with weird names that were hard to keep track of and hard to spell. It would’ve been better if there were only five or so, especially since a lot of the side characters did nothing for the plot. The only character I really got attached to wasn’t even an Eternal (shout out to the guy with the camera, he was one of the best parts).

But onto the good parts, there were a lot of twists that I didn’t see coming which I really enjoyed, and the representation was immaculate. The amount of diversity across multiple fields was incredible, and I thoroughly appreciated it. At least half a point of my rating was just from the representation. But those two things don’t really make up for the many things I didn’t like. And the terrible reviews along with the fact that the movie is getting banned from theaters in multiple countries leads to bad box office ratings, and leads to a loss for Marvel. It didn’t really feel like a Marvel movie to me, it feels like a movie I’d find on Netflix, watch, and say “Well that was bad” and never watch it again. Spiderman: No Way Home has really gotta bring phase four back to what it was (although I know it will be amazing), because Eternals was just eh, and I’ve come to expect more than eh from the MCU.

Dave: Mostly same. Tess, do you feel like it would have been a better movie with a different structure? More of a linear approach, perhaps?

Tessa: Kind of. I see what they were trying to do with all the time jumps. They were trying to tell the main story and provide exposition through flashbacks throughout the story, which is a technique that pays off when it’s executed well, but here it wasn’t executed well. I think if they had put all the exposition at the beginning it would make the viewing experience easier, although it would ruin a couple twists, which were the main reason I started liking it at the end. Also if there had just been less flashbacks, there wouldn’t be as many complaints of it being too hard to follow. I know what they were trying to do, and if you think about it from that perspective it makes more sense, but it ultimately backfired and ended up just being confusing.

Dave: Agreed, but I do think there could have been a way to tell the story in a more linear fashion without ruining the twists. A flashback or two wouldn’t hurt, but you are right in saying that there are way too many of them.

I think I got into it a little bit earlier than you did, but I did spend the first hour not knowing what to think. My biggest problem is that the filmmakers didn’t take time to establish the characters before getting us into the story. I found it difficult to care for first part of the movie. It almost felt as if I was watching the second or third movie featuring the Eternals, not the first, and that I should have been up to speed already. It’s always difficult to turn out a movie with lesser known characters, and Marvel has done that extremely well in the past but they just missed the mark here.

Also, there were a handful of main characters that wound up doing essentially nothing, and were disappointing in their story arcs. But that’s probably more a matter of opinion and may be true to the original comics, but me being almost completely clueless about the source material I wouldn’t really know.

Tessa: Yeah, I feel that.

Dave: It’s not all bad news though, because the movie isn’t actually bad, it’s just not up to the standards we are used to. I did enjoy many of the literary and historical references in the movie, from the characters’ names to some of their appearances throughout the world over the years. I was intrigued by the scope of the story that was being told, just not the way they told it.

Also, there is a surprising amount of humor in this movie, I laughed out loud several times even before I was into the film. I agree that some interesting storylines were left unexplored, and I think that this could have been two really good movies, or a quality series on Disney+. But like a full series, not just 6 or 10 episodes.

Tessa: Yeah, I feel that too. I think you made a good point when you said that it’s not bad, it’s just not what we were expecting. On it’s own, it has potential. But compared to the masterpieces Marvel has churned out in the past, this isn’t as good of a movie. Maybe when they make a later appearance in the MCU, Marvel will turn the Eternals into all our favorite characters.

Dave: Right. Although the main story did wrap up, we were left with a somewhat open ending regarding what happens next and it looks like there could be some really cool stuff coming up! This might wind up being one of those movies that is appreciated more over time, and I wonder if it wouldn’t benefit from a second or third viewing. Just not in the theater. I’m also wondering if they shifted the tone a bit, like with Thor’s movies, if that wouldn’t help the characters become fan favorites too. I guess time will tell.

So, in closing, neither of us hated this movie but we didn’t love it either. We would suggest seeing it if you are a big fan of the MCU, but casual fans may not need to make this one a priority. We are hopeful though that the Eternals themselves will wind up being an essential and awesome part of the MCU in the future.

Thanks for reading everyone! Back to my usual solo nonsense next week on MonDAVEs!

Settling The Great Debate

All right America, it’s time to pick a side. This debate has raged on long enough. I’m drawing a line in the sand. I’ve got my two cents and I’m ready to throw down! I’m about to bring the fire, and set y’all straight once and for all. Here we go. You ready? Dig this:

Conifers are better than deciduous trees.

Yeah, I said it. Now I’m gonna prove it.

First of all, I had to look up how to spell “deciduous” just then, so that’s a point to conifers right off the bat. Easier to spell, easier to love.

Second, conifers have more varieties than most folks believe. In fact, there are over five hundred varieties! Many people think of conifers as just the evergreen Pine or Fir trees we are so familiar with, but the conifer family includes such diverse trees as Spruce, Hemlocks, the Larch, Redwoods, and the Giant Sequoya. Ever driven or walked through the Sequoias in California? You’ve been through a conifer, my friend, and probably snapped a pic to remember the experience.*

Also, the tallest tree in the world is the Hyperion, which is a Coastal Redwood otherwise known as, you guessed it, a conifer! and bigger is better, so there!

Another thing to love about conifer trees is that they are so good for the home. Conifers planted close to the home can help with insulation of the house, and help to protect from nasty weather.

Now, in fairness, it should be pointed out that conifers do not change color in the fall. So we do have to begrudgingly give that one to the deciduous trees as it is quite pretty. However, conifers’ leaves don’t change because they DON’T HAVE LEAVES in the first place. Which I think is quite considerate.

Let’s talk leaves for a moment. Most deciduous trees lose all of their leaves in Autumn/early winter. All of them. Most conifers (or Evergreens in this case) lose only a fraction of their needles each year-and some don’t lose them yearly at all. There are exceptions to this rule on both sides, but for the most part we can give the edge here to the conifer. Okay, so you may have to duck a pine cone or two, but that’s just good old Mother Nature seeding out her favorite tree. Plus, you can make crafts with them to decorate for the Holidays.

And since we’re on the topic of holidays…which type of tree is it that is used to celebrate Christmas again? Oh yeah…Evergreens. CONIFERS!!! If it’s good enough to celebrate the birth of Christ, it’s good enough for me. Just maybe don’t look too hard into the theology of that one. Aaannnywayyyy….

I believe we now have more than enough evidence to illustrate the superiority of the conifer trees. So I will leave you with the words of a little band called They Might Be Giants and a quote from their anthem “C Is For Conifers” (aka the greatest song ever):

“Most with cones for seeds,
Most with needles for leaves,
C is for Conifers
My kind of trees“

Whew, glad that’s settled! Come back soon for more truth bombs and intelligent discourse on hot button topics right here in MonDAVEs!!!

*This is an admittedly silly post, but the Giant Redwood Sequoias of California really are endangered by wildfire as we speak. Consider donating to the National Parks Service to not only help save the Sequoias but also to help maintain all of our wonderful National Parks. https://www.nps.gov/index.htm

Halloween Verse Part 2

Last week I shares a poem from my as yet unpublished and still very much work-in-progress collection of Halloween type poems for kids/Tweens. Here’s another one. This one’s slightly spooky, but not really scary.

I’m saving the scary stuff for another time.

Anyway, I hope you like it. I’ll be back to my old self again next week. Until then, happy Halloween.

AT NIGHT I HEAR THE VOICES

At night I hear the voices
In the trees, or in my dreams?
It doesn’t really matter
I hear them just the same.

They start off soft and lowly
And get louder through the night
“Ethan…Ethan…EEE-THA-AN!!!”
They’re calling out my name.

What could it be that they want
And why are they calling me?
These questions they keep haunting
Their answers I must know.

There’s only one solution
One ending to this story
I don’t know what awaits me
But know that I must go.

-David Brink 2021

Halloween Verse

Spooky season is upon us. While I have never been much for the Halloween holiday itself, I do enjoy horror films and literature quite a bit. Which brings me to the following.

At some point I got it into my head that it might be fun to do a collection of poems for kids based on Halloween themes. You know, monsters and ghouls and ghosts and whatnot. Some would be silly, some legit scary, with many of the poems landing somewhere in the middle. I was thinking that the audience would be tweens, but I wrote a few that would be more appropriate for younger kids too. This is still very much a work in progress as I have quite a few unfinished poems and vague ideas still in my noggin waiting to be fleshed out.

I am still a long ways away from “officially” doing anything with this work, but since it’s that time of year I thought it might be fun to share one of these poems here. As the author, I retain all rights to the work, blah blah blah.

Anyway, turn down the lights and enjoy.

THE ZOMBIE DAY PARADE

Hoorah! Hooray!
It’s the Zombie Day Parade!
Let’s go down to Main Street
And watch the promenade

Don’t worry if you’re running late
You’ll miss none of the show
This parade may take all day
For zombies are quite slow

We’ll marvel at their pageantry
And all their zombie charms.
With flags and banners all held high
By the ones who still have arms

Hoorah! Hooray!
It’s the Zombie Day parade!
Let’s go down to Main Street
And watch the promenade

Just stay behind the barricade
Where viewing is much safer
I think it’s best that we avoid
The Zombie luncheon later

Last year our mayor gave the zombs
The keys to the city
He won’t be doing that again
‘Cause yeesh! It wasn’t pretty

So grab your sneakers (just in case)
And a glass of lemonade
And we’ll head down to Main Street
For the Zombie Day Parade!

-David Brink 2021

Rockin’ That Playlist

“I like rock and roll songs about rock and roll, with the words rock and roll right there in the title.”-Eddie Spaghetti

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a music geek. While this is not a music based blog, it’s going to come up now and again. This is one of those times.

Anyway, the above quote is one that I thought was kind of funny, but as soon as I heard it I thought that it would be possible to make a pretty cool playlist based around that idea. I could probably do several, come to think of it, or one extremely loooong one. In fact, there are at least a few bands that could fill up a playlist just on their own (AC/DC and KISS come screaming into mind). Anyway, it sounded fun, so I sat down and got to work. If you are of a similar mind, why not try it too? Drop me a reply if you’d like-it would be fun to see all the different versions people come up with.

I did make a few ground rules for my list.

1.) The song titles must all include the words “rock and roll”, though “rock n’ roll” or “rock & roll” are acceptable variants. Just plain “rock”, “rockin'” or “rocking” are not allowed.

2.) All decades and rock subgenres are acceptable. I’ve always leaned toward hard rock, but I have an appreciation for pretty much any style of rock you can imagine from oldies to prog rock, pop rock, power pop, country rock, folk rock, rockabilly, and everything in between. And that’s before we get into punk, new wave, and heavy metal! No stylistic limits-as with the music itself.

3.) I limited the list to 15 songs-one song per artist. This is mostly to make it into more of a challenge than doing one mega-list.

That’s it.

Full disclosure, I have gone through a few different versions of this playlist, this one is full of (mostly) classic rock songs, many of which are overplayed, but that’s okay. Many of your favorites won’t be here-many of mine aren’t either. My personal version would be a bit more obscure than the one I am showing here, (it would have Motorhead on it for a start) but I wanted this to be a list that gives people a jumping off point to start thinking about your own list. This playlist is far from definitive, but it’s a good place to start.

So until next week, have fun, and turn it up to eleven.

ROCK AND ROLL SONGS ABOUT ROCK AND ROLL WITH THE WORDS ROCK AND ROLL RIGHT THERE IN THE TITLE

Rock N’ Roll Star-Oasis
Rock And Roll-Led Zeppelin
Rock And Roll Music-Chuck Berry
Rock And Roll Never Forgets-Bob Seger And The Silver Bullet Band
It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me-Billy Joel
I Love Rock N’ Roll-Joan Jett And The Blackhearts
Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution-Ac/DC
Rock N’ Roll Fantasy-Bad Company
Rock And Roll All Nite-KISS
Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo-Rick Derringer
It’s Only Rock N’ Roll-The Rolling Stones
Rock N’ Roll High School-The Ramones
Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay-Danny & The Juniors
The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll-Mott The Hoople
Rock And Roll-The Velvet Underground

P.S.- I know there are no links. That’s like, a lot of work. These songs should pretty much all be easily found on YouTube or the music provider of your choice, if you are unfamiliar with them.

P.P.S.-Halloween stuff starts next week, kids. Ooh-scary!!! Count Floyd reference. Google that too.