I spent most of the day yesterday at our friend John-John's, on another Marvel movies binge-watch - firstly Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings [which was heaps of fun, with loads of stylish fight scenes and a spell-binding smattering of pseudo-Eastern mythology, as well as some very funny moments and a scene-stealing appearance from Sir Ben Kingsley to boot] and then the one the critics sneered at, Eternals.
It is actually a very good fantasy/sci-fi film indeed - much better than some of the reviewers had said. I think the main reason the film was the subject of so much ire is that it breaks the pattern of the previous twenty-odd movies, and has very little discernible connection to any of them. [It's a well-documented fact that everything up to and including Avengers: Endgame had been part of a "thread" that all revolved around the Infinity Stones and Thanos. Apart from the tiniest throwaway references to Thanos and "The Snap" - which was an important plot point in Avengers: Infinity War - Eternals largely sidesteps the whole shebang and takes its own path.]
Much of the reason it is so enjoyable is not just the stunning visuals, scary monsters and the weird galactic mythos, or the battle-royal with a monster in the middle of Camden, but the cast (that includes Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Gemma Chan and Kit Harington). Speaking of Mr Madden, it was interesting that his costume included a "skirt" [yes, it is true to the comics character, but...] - and there may be a very good reason for that, given his previous comments about wearing tight-fitting costumes in movies for the Disney empire:
Richard Madden will soon be seen as Ikaris in Eternals, but few people remember him as Prince Charming in Cinderella (2015).
While on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, Madden revealed that his genitals created a big problem for the crew during filming. The actor apparently had a very large “bulk” in his pants that was not appropriate to be seen in a Disney movie.
"The prince can't have any genitalia, apparently," Madden said. "We had about two days of screen tests where we had to try lots of different jock straps, just to make sure we can't see anything through the trousers."
“I had a really bad day, as I tried different athletic supports and had several cameras and lights aimed at my groin. And everyone watched and discussed what was happening down there,” said the well-endowed actor.
He did not reveal how Disney solved the issue, but in Eternals, the character’s costume was created to solve this problem.
Unfortunately.
