Harry Styles as Starfox

Whoa. I am shocked to see arguably one of Marvel's most...icky..."heroes" getting to make the jump to the MCU. Like, Purple Man is also gross but is a supervillain and was in a "Rated MA" Netflix show. I had sorta assumed that Starfox was totally off-limits.

Yeah, Starfox is an odd choice, considering his comic history and powers. That said, I can see where it makes sense in the lore. Connecting the earthbound Eternals to their cosmic brethren broadens the story possibilities and creates a "why did you kill our Thanos" conflict. Maybe the sequel will be Earth Eternals vs. Titan Eternals?

Kevin Feige also seems to love the 80s & 90s Avengers, and this could be a way to facilitate that.

haha also, depending on how quickly Starfox is active in the MCU, maybe he appears in the She-Hulk series in a story echoing that arc in the comics

This movie is still one I'm digesting. I think my overall impression is that it's on the weaker side of the MCU - it wasn't actively bad like The Dark World, and its worst bits aren't as offensively bad as, say, Age of Ultron or Iron Man 2. To have it as the worst-reviewed movie in the MCU feels a lot like expectations from Critics (who wanted Nomadland and got a Marvel movie with prettier lighting) was the thief of their joy and created some unfair criteria. But there's definitely some flaws in the flick.

MAJOR SPOILER for the plot, if you haven't seen it:

The Good:
- All the cast did great. Sersi ended up a bit wooden but that's no fault of Gemma, and everyone else was full of fun.

- Special shout-out to Richard Madden for bringing a lot of nuance and depth to Ikaris and making him one of the most fascinating "villains" in the MCU. We've had scant few villains who truly believe they're on the right side of history, and Ikaris doesn't just believe that but sells it.

- This is legitimately one of the most visually striking MCU movies. Chloe did her usual impeccable work with lighting and scale.

- Huge inroads for representation made me smile. As a disabled person (although one very different than Deafness), I loved Makkari. I don't identify with other stuff, but imagine that seeing the MCU's second interracial relationship (that doesn't involve one person being painted green at least) and first same-sex relationship among main characters was also valuable and meaningful.

- There's lots of really great character choices in the film that make it "feel" different. In particular, really appreciated Gilgamesh being this nurturing chef and devoted lover as well as a fearsome warrior and Kingo being surprisingly thoughtful in his ultimate neutrality after spending most of the film as comic relief.

- Our two end credit scenes both made me extremely excited for what comes next, cheesy PS2-era CGI for Pip the Troll be darned. I went from "nervous" to "intrigued" by Starfox immediately especially since they really are going to loop Thanos in as an Eternal/Deviant, and was also excited to see the potential of Blade and Black Knight teaming up even though we only hear and don't see Mahershala Ali. It's tough when we've "seen it all", but this was the most wowed I've been by an end credits sequence since "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative". (caveat; have some spoilers from this thread and Reddit, but haven't seen Shang-chi yet )

THE BAD:
- Holy exposition, Batman! The opening of the film and the extended monologue from Arashim to Sersi about his motivations felt especially clunky and momentum-killing.

- Already alluded to it, but Sersi felt pretty wooden to me. If she's supposed to be "the leader" now, it doesn't read that way and that ultimately undercuts any message the film is trying to make about feminism, compassion, and growth being the better path than masculinity and the aggression and "status quo" that come with it.

- Speaking of - like a lot of Marvel Movies with a pretension to be more than a popcorn flick or tie-in, this movie feels like it has some things it wants to say...but it doesn't stick the landing, and I'm not sure I can even articulate big-picture themes. And while I acknowledge I could have missed it, it doesn't feel like the film is just being really subtle, like Captain Marvel, or introducing themes to say "this is bad" without landing anywhere else (like Black Widow and Black Panther) - I'm just lost at what it's trying to say at all.

- At the same time, this movie is pretty overstuffed. I'm not sure what the fix is, but it made all the characters feel pretty thin. Some of that is okay in that I'm just eager for more (Kingo, Gilgamesh, Thena, Phastos, and now Black Knight, Starfox, and Pip thanks to the end credits); for others we get so little time that it leaves me wondering what they were up to for hundreds of years in a way that distracts from the film (Ikaris, Druig, and especially Makkari who apparently just hung out on their ship for centuries, all by herself???) or that leaves their motivations too thinly sketched (Sprite's sudden betrayal of the squad).

- That ending fight sequence was too long, and this from someone who generally enjoys action.

- The deviants feel like footnotes in the film. Krohl (???) gets very little explanation on how/why he can absorb powers and if that comes with absorbing memories? Ultimately, they end up feeling like The Sovereign in GotG - pointless villains, only in the film due to executive orders, there to make action scenes work and sell merch. At a certain point if you squint you see that formula everywhere - the MCU is formulaic - but here the thin nature of the Deviants, their motivations, and their abilities called attention to that formula more.