Blog Complainer here. I saw two movies in the last week and instead of wasting everyone’s time by reviewing them separately, I figured why not do this one back to back. I’ve also have No Time to Die to review this same week, and scheduling wise it just works out better this way. We’re going alphabetically this time, so starting with…

Eternals is the new Marvel movie that the kids on the internet are talking about this week, whilst at the same time being hyped for that cool new Spider-Man: the fan service multiverse extravaganza movie. Since Marvel keeps insisting on advertising their new movies, whilst you’re waiting to watch one of their new movies, I can’t argue after seeing that same old Spider-Man trailer again, it did do Eternals a huge disservice in regards to anticipation. Also I was never too wrapped in seeing it in the first place, mainly because of its concept of immortal super hero gods, has next to no appeal for me. Its been done before not just in other movies, but also in this very universe. After finishing Eternals I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t the boring fantasy movie with the Marvel name slapped onto it, that I thought it would be. I was actually more shocked that I liked a Marvel movie more than the majority for once, as its always been the other way around.

Eternals is just like the other two Marvel movies that came out this year in regards to quality, however what makes Eternals unique is it looks really pretty and you haver a higher chance of forgetting who everyone is. I enjoyed the individual characters of the Eternals as the film spends a fair amount of time fleshing each of them out, but as a team they suck. There’s too many of them to keep track of, and there is absolutely no team chemistry, mainly due to the fact that most of them are absent for a majority of the movie and you only see the whole team working effectively in the flashbacks. It’s too stuffed for my liking as while the story is your typical Marvel affair, the film suffers from dropping potentially interesting ideas and character dynamics, because they either want to play it safe or the movie is too short to compensate for this rich story. Plus there are things that just doesn’t make much sense, but, we’ve got a another review to go so I’ll spare you from the details.

Other than that its serviceable Marvel junk food. Its a gorgeous looking movie with its great cinematography and visuals, but I kind of expected this, since its Chloe Zhao directing, who also directed this year’s Best Picture winner, Nomadland, which was also a nice looking movie. There’s likeable characters, who are either really stern, or are inching towards been totally annoying with their barrage of jokes. Finally, I believe this movie would have been better if it was a more character building story, and it just ditched the tired end of the world plot, that the last two movies also exploited. I don’t care what happens to Earth anymore, do something different!

Overall Eternals is an entertaining placeholder movie while you continue to wait on the cool shit coming out next month. Still don’t really understand the distaste for this one, as there have been definitely worse MCU movies.

3 – Should have made this a Disney+ show instead.

The Many Saints of Newark, is a movie I decided to see over the weekend, instead of watching Eternals, because its a gangster movie, I have never seen one of those in the cinema before and also I love the genre. It’s also a prequel to The Sopranos, a TV show that I was really into, when I first watched it a couple of years back. I will admit since it is a prequel  I was skeptical about this movie as it is unnecessary and I felt the backstory of a young Tony Soprano, is well documented in the show. That being said I remember sharing this same sort of skepticism with Better Call Saul, and that turned out to be the best prequel I’ve ever seen. Plus the Sopranos creator’s David Chase is backing this movie up, so I expect nothing, but quality.

It’s a first for 2021, but this movie is the most disappointing thing I’ve seen all year. Mainly due to the trailers and poster falsely advertising this is as a Tony Soprano origin story, when it really isn’t. We do get some scenes hinting at a young impressionable Tony considering entering a life of crime, but these scenes are so rare, that I legitimately forgot that Tony was even in the movie at certain points. The movie is actually about a guy named Dickie, a character I vaguely remember being mentioned in the show, and he apparently was a huge influence on Tony’s early life, and not his inspiring father and horrible mother. This aspect of the movie fails as Tony isn’t in the movie enough, for you to buy this mentor/student relationship. Dickie himself is likeable enough to carry the main plots of this movie that being the forbidden romance with his father’s new wife and the conflict that brews throughout the movie with his ex-coworker. Too bad all of this builds up to one of the biggest anticlimaxes of the year, maybe even in movie history. I did see it coming as I’ve seen the show, and the story is fairly predictable, but the ending was still a real bummer and to top it all off this movie also has one of the most insulting final shots I’ve ever seen too. (Shoot Me!)

As for what I liked it mainly came down to the acting. Vera Farminga as Tony’s Mum was the best actor in the movie as she perfectly captures the character from the show. She also contributes to one of the best scenes in the movie, where its just her and a young Tony in the kitchen together, and it annoys me that this wasn’t the focus of the movie. She is also the only actor who seems to have an Italian accent, which was very distracting for me especially since the entire main cast of The Sopranos had this distinct accent. Other than that everyone gave a good performance, maybe except Michael Gandolfini who I understand the desire to cast, in honour of his late father, but again he’s barely in the movie, and the scenes he is in weren’t that great. The other noteworthy thing about this movie is seeing the pointless cameos of beloved Sopranos characters. The actor who was tasked do his best impression of Silvio stood out to me, as he nailed the mannerisms and voice of the character so perfectly, that I found it comical. It gave me flashbacks to Mamma Mia 2 of that guy who gave his best Colin Firth impression.

Overall not impressed with Many Saints of Newark, but it did encourage me to want to rewatch the show again, so call that what you will.

2 – Go and watch the show instead. 

So in the end Marvel beats out the mobster flick and Scorsese’s wise words about superhero movies, turned out to be wrong in this instance. As I stated earlier a review of No Time to Die, will be coming up in the next few days. This has been The Blog Complainer, signing out.