Contributor Enrico Versace: The ETERNALS VS The AVENGERS

I recently advertised for an intern/contributor to help me with some of the interview offers I’ve been receiving to talk with indie filmmakers and up and coming actors/actresses.  Still looking for a female intern too! Click HERE for details.  Enrico Versace was one of the early applicants on LinkedIn. I liked his writing credentials and the fact that he’s a sci-fi, comicbook movie fan, like me. He’ll soon conduct his first interview, however, he’s being introduced to Tinsel & Tine readers via an analysis on who has the better team The Avengers or The Eternals ?…

But first, my (LeAnne Lindsay, Editor) ETERNALS #MiniMovieReview – What works for me was the themes behind the movie – the idea that the Eternals were the inspiration for the Gods of Greek Mythology. And upon finding out who or what they are, the need to question their identities. Then like Satan, questioning and disobeying their own Creator. Thena’s character (Angelina Jolie) basically is like an old woman with dementia, if your granny could still whip your butt. Ikaris (Richard Madden) represents that soldier who’s so used to following orders and doctrine that they no longer see right from wrong. The weakest character was probably Druig (Barry Keoghan), because to fight the deviants you need physical ability, not mental. In that regard, Sprite was a bit useless too.  Ajak (Salma Hayek) should have been able to do a better job healing herself. For comic relief, Kingo’s manservant Karun (Harish Patel) was great. He was even better used than Ben Kingsley (phony Mandarin) in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

There was a lot to unpack and I’d really need to see ETERNALS again to get all the details of the origins and the Celestials. But I do agree with those that think the Celestials should exist outside the timeline and Universe of the MCU. The fact that they were only made to fight Deviants and therefore didn’t join the END GAME party is not good writing. And they introduced too many characters at once.  But as a GOT fan it was fun seeing Richard Madden and Kit Harrington together again. Looking forward to seeing what the Black Knight brings to the MCU. I think Chloé Zhao having gone from small indies to this, did an amazing job. At first it seemed an odd choice, but in actuality ETERNALS deals with interpersonal relationships more than anything else, and this is something Chloé does well.  T&T LAMB rating: 3.75

THE AVENGERS VS ETERNALS

By Enrico Versace

VS

The most recent installment in the MCU, Marvel’s Eternals, may have quite a divided rating between critics and regular audiences, however one thing is for sure, we have a whole new team of fascinating characters. This movie had so much riding on it, being the next big team up film since Endgame. If Marvel could pull this off they would probably do great with introducing the X-Men to the big screen again later down the road, which is a statement that really makes one think of how much was weighing on this film. One way to see how well they did with Eternals is by comparing them to one of the best cinema superhero teams of them all, the Avengers. A couple of the elements I want to examine are their powers and skills, how well they work together, and their experience in facing Earth menacing threats. I need to be clear though, when I speak of the Avengers in this article, I am only referring to the original six characters from the first Avengers film. It won’t be fair to compare and contrast the Eternals against the entire roster of heroes in the MCU prior to Endgame.

Looking at the multiple powers of the Eternals, of course the Avengers would be no match for them. Sersi can manipulate matter, Thena uses cosmic energy to make any warrior weapons in battle, Phastos who’s an extraordinary engineer and inventor who can basically make anything, Druig who can control minds, but then you have a few characters with simple powers like healing, a speedster, can create illusions, and shoot cosmic blasts or rays out of their bodies. Even so, all of these powers together if used right might totally be a more formidable combination than the Avengers, two of the Avengers don’t even have super powers. If we study the Avengers more closely though we know that Iron Man can basically create anything too, shoot repulse or blast, lasers or energy beams, bullets and machine guns, target seeking missiles, and by Avengers Infinity War he has nanobot armor that can form around his body in seconds and creates weapons like swords and shields. So he’s basically three Eternals in one. I’m not sure if Druig could manipulate the mind of someone so smart, but even if he could it would only be a matter of time before Tony created something that could counter Druig’s mind powers. Plus, I’m pretty sure cosmic blasts are stronger than repulse or blasts, still it gets the job done in most cases. Then you have Hulk whose alter ego is pretty smart, one of the strongest beings there is, and is sort of fast and unstoppable.

Characters like Gilgamesh, Icarus, Sprite, Kingo, Ajak, Makkari if he could get ahold of her, more or less the whole team can be taken down by him. Yes, Gilgamesh is also strong, but he has to manipulate cosmic energy around his limbs in order to produce that kind of strength, which takes energy and time, whereas Hulk is strong all over and doesn’t need to power up before every punch. Now Thor, besides his strength he can shoot lightning both with or without Mjolnir or Stormbreaker at one point in the films, so against Makkari who runs maybe faster than the speed of sound or so, isn’t she conducting static electricity whenever she runs depending on what surface she’s running on or whatever? So I don’t think it would end too well for her. And lastly we have Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America who have pretty simple abilities and formidable weapons, but their skill and experience can get them ahead, which leads into our next topic.

Already, we can see pretty even mach here, the Avengers are sort of the underdogs in this, yet the Eternals still have a chance. Remember, they’re 7000 years old! They have so much experience fighting and using their powers, knowing their strengths and weaknesses, etc. Captain America may have fought in a war but each of these guys have seen many wars. Even if they weren’t interfering with human conflict, they would’ve probably studied how they fought and thought under pressure. Nevertheless, how many Earth menacing or life changing crises have they fought in film wise? Sure, the Deviants are formidable foes, but were humans really facing genocide or extinction without the Eternals? And even if we were, our whole planet was at stake with a massive Celestial being born out of it. Either way, the Avengers have for several wide scale threats, from Loki who is basically Sprite, Ultron who wanted to doom mankind like the dinosaurs, and Thanos who held the Infinity Gauntlet with all six powers of the Infinity stones and actually succeeded in getting rid of the entire half of existence in the universe before finally being defeated. Yes, most of the original six didn’t make it out of that battle, rather didn’t come out of it the same way. Perhaps, everything they’ve been through in the past decade or so was way more catastrophic than our race’s history before.

Each team has had their internal arguments and differences. Eternals broke up and went their separate ways for years while the Avengers couldn’t agree on anything in the beginning and had a whole “civil war” before coming back together to face Thanos 2-3 years later. So, it really comes down to their leadership. Ajak and Icarus aren’t really the best of leaders. Ajak lead Eternals without ever telling them exactly why they were advancing the human race and genociding the Deviants.  Icarus betrayed everybody. He was told the Eternals’ mission way before anyone else and could barely stand to disagree and destroy his own kind. Captain America however, has always taken charge. Even when he’s down and outmatched, he was quick on his feet and got back up, never giving up on the morals and people he believed in. Sure, the man has his faults and weaknesses, but when crises struck the Avengers always were able to set aside all their differences to fight a common enemy and listen to what this “kid from Brooklyn” was instructing. His presence was breathtaking and his willpower unmatched. Even if the Eternals have more powers and have seen everything in history, maybe nothing can surprise them, the Avengers would come out on top because they could figure it out and get ahead regardless of the challenge.

The Eternals fight a good fight, but at the end of the day, the Avengers would win against almost any opponent. Two of the Avengers, fought without powers, yet their individual power sets are more than what just one Eternal could probably handle. The Eternals have lived through many years, but the Avengers have fought more arduous life changing villains in the movies.

The more interesting question now is how can these two teams work together after the events of Endgame to become one and fight whoever or whatever threatens them next?

My name is Enrico Versace. I graduated from Rowan University with a bachelor’s degree in Writing Arts. I have a personal blog where I’ve written more analyses like this about movies, art, horror, and Star Wars. I wasn’t always a writer though fun fact. I used to be into architecture and built with Legos from when I was a kid to after high school. You can find my blog posts at wrtversacee4.wordpress.com. And my social torusbrusk1138 on Instagram.