Eternals & Last Night in Soho: Thrills & Chills

This weekend, I bring you reviews of the next Marvel movie and the next original movie from Edgar Wright. Pick your poison, or if you're like me, watch them both!

Eternals: I'll tell you right now, this was not my favorite Marvel movie. I go to Marvel for a lot of comic relief and great action sequences, and this movie was only intermittently funny (mainly when Kumail Nanjiani was on screen, which really was fantastic). There was a romantic subplot with some swoony lighting and intimacy to remind you that director Chloe Zhao excels at this kind of storytelling. But then some Deviants, who are these alien monsters that are absolutely gorgeous to look at but not fun to fight, would show up and battles had to commence. 

This movie opens with several paragraphs of text to provide the back story of who the Eternals are, so I already knew this was going to be a bit beyond me. My preference for plot exposition is always show, not tell, but man, there was a lot of gobbledy gook to get through about all the different characters and their mission. Also, this movie offers up a condensed history of the human race, so you will get to see battle sequences ranging from the early Mesopotamian civilization all the way up to modern day London. The production design and special effects are as wonderful as you could expect, but it's definitely a lot of information to take in for two and a half hours.

I never got bored while watching this movie, but it's been a week since I saw it and I'm already struggling to remember much about it at all. The cast is great, and it's wonderful to see such a range of diversity in a group of superheroes. Obviously, I had a soft spot for Nanjiani as a brown superhero, Kingo, who has a whole Bollywood subplot that made me giggle. But there's also Brian Tyree Henry playing Phastos, who is the first gay Marvel superhero, and Lauren Riddloff as Makkari, the first deaf Marvel superhero. All of this makes for interesting pairings among the Eternals, and I loved that they were all being wrangled by Salma Hayek as their leader, rather than Richard Madden, who I had been conditioned to assume would be the leader as he was the only white man. But you've also got Gemma Chan, Angelina Jolie, Don Lee, Lia McHugh, and Barry Keoghan rounding out this cast, and that's just the Eternals! So you can see why there's so much heavy lifting to be done plot-wise. This does allow for interesting combinations of all these characters in different scenes where they get to play off each other and throw down against aliens, but it's also a lot to keep track of.

Watch this movie for some quick and dirty traditional Marvel entertainment. But if you already know that superhero movies are not your thing, this is not the film that will change your mind. It's a great cast, but the story is a bit blah, so make your decision accordingly!

Last Night in Soho: I love Edgar Wright and will watch anything he does. So I was very excited by the trailers for this movie and had been jonesing to finally see it in theaters. And it certainly lived up to all my expectations. 

The trailer will set you up for everything you need to know but here's the plot in a nutshell. A young woman named Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) moves to London to study at the London College of Fashion. She grew up with her grandmother and loves the music and fashion of the sixties. Shortly after moving, she starts to have incredibly vivid dreams where she is transported back to 1960s London and follows a woman named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she tries to become a singer at a nightclub. At first, everything is fun and games and Ellie looks forward to falling asleep each night so she can see what dazzling adventures Sandie will get up to during her favorite time period. But Sandie's life starts to take a turn, and Ellie realizes she is now trapped in a horrific nightmare. 

You really have to experience the rest of this movie for yourself. It is such a sumptuous piece of cinema, with an incredible score, the most remarkable costumes, and bright, colorful, vivid cinematography and all manner of camera tricks and sleight of hand as you start to see Ellie and Sandie meld into one person. It's hard to explain, but take my word for it, this movie is just a delightful feast for the senses and a clever tale about the dangers of getting too caught up in nostalgia.

Of course, it's also an Edgar Wright movie, and when things take a turn in this film, they REALLY take a turn. This man did earn his stripes making horror films (though only funny horror, my preferred kind), so you can expect some jump scares and horror elements. I did not think these were extreme enough to classify this as a horror film, but depending on how much of a scaredy cat you are, your mileage may vary. But honestly, even if you can't stand horror, you should probably watch this movie anyway (you can close your eyes during the scary bits) because it's so gorgeous to look at and so inventive. So give it a shot and spend a night in Soho. You'll have a swingin' time.