The Ringer-Verse - 'Eternals' Instant Reactions With Kumail Nanjiani | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

The Midnight Boys are back to give their instant thoughts and reactions to the latest Marvel film, 'Eternals' (03:08). They discuss what critics have been saying and give their own takes on where the film fits in the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe. Later Charles and Van are joined by actor Kumail Nanjiani to ask all of the burning questions they had right after seeing the film (66:03). Hosts: Van Lathan and Charles Holmes Guest: Kumail Nanjiani Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: TD St. Matthew-Daniel and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Justin Charity and Micah Peters in Sound Only as they discuss their deepest, darkest thoughts about the millennial lifestyle, rap music, video games, anime, YouTube, social media, and their underlying themes. Check out Sound Only on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease

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This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and make it a mess. You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a rower. Road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer.

Visit weathertech.com today. Into the ringerverse, this is of course. The ringer's nexus podcast fee for all things fandom. We are Jomi, the explainer, Adirondon. We are Cutley Steve Allman, the holiday bear. We are Coke Baby Chuck, the 24-carat closer, and we are old man hairline retreating like the goddamn Delta variant, Lathen.

Together, the four of us are known as of the Midnight Boys. Listen, you guys, we're back. The Midnight Boys are back. We've got some programming reminders right here for the Ring of Verse. The House of R will return this Monday to give their deep dive analysis of Eternals, the movie that we're going to be recapping today on The Midnight Boys. The Midnight Boys will be back later on for the first ever edition of Midnight Misses. We teased it.

We heard you. We're on it. Midnight Misses is coming. Charles, are you excited about this? You get to be negative for a whole hour. Wow, guys, I was about to come back and say, like, I took a vacation. I've come back refresh, positive.

I, like, missed all of y'all so fucking much. And now you're just giving me this treat. Like, you're hooking my arm up. You're giving me that snort of coke next week. I can be my true self. I'm so excited. You can't wait. This is going to be fun.

They can all be hits, guys. Most of them are misses. Okay? They can't all be hits. We're going to talk about some midnight misses next week. On today's show, though, we're diving head first. and to our reaction to Eternal's.

And later, we have a special guest to talk about the film. One of the stars of the movie was very gracious to play 12 questions to midnight with us.

His name is Kumal Nanjiani and he plays Kingo. We're at the top of fandom. This is a mode that nobody's been in before. You know what I mean? Like, we're at the top of fandom. Now,

there's the thing. It's time to discuss the movie. I've seen the movie twice. It's time to talk about Eternals. I know that some of you may have come to this podcast to listen to the reaction of a movie that you haven't seen yet because I know that that's a thing that happens.

It's not, but we have to pretend like it is. So Christmas Bear, Steve, please roll the spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about you're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. Now Steve and other people, you might be asking yourself why Steve's new nickname

is the Christmas bear. I'm very curious, actually. You're very curious about this as you being this. It's because Steve came over to the house. Like a week or a week ago or something. like that, we hung out all day long. And we, it was me, Steve, shout out Jackson. We hung out all day long.

It was a great time. Shout out Nick Day, my partner. And my girl came in, okay? And she was like, we should do this same thing during the holidays. Like, that's a good holiday group you got. You guys, you were able to hang out all day. And I was like, yeah, we should have Steve over for Christmas. And then she was like, yes, he could be like a,

polar bear. She made the joke because you're white. So wait, you want me in a costume at your house? No. You just have you already got your costume? Oh, clearly. Okay. And then we decide. And then I was like, yeah, he's like a Christmas bear. Because Steve is the perfect company to have at your house. Steve likes to eat. Thank you. Yes, I do. He's inquisitive. He's very fun to hang around with Steve. Conversationalist. Conversationalist.

He can go. He can, so Steve, the Christmas bear. Like, if you're in town, we're going to have a, we're going to have a Christmas celebration. Jomi can come so he can get his food and then leave. And then immediately leave. As soon as they serve the ham, I'm leaving. Really quick, Van, I want to say that you have grown immensely because I immediately thought there is a nine out of ten chance that he gets on this podcast a day and calls Steve. Steve, Robert Sarver, the Phoenix.

Oh, my God. And I was just like, I wanted to make a bet on it. And you have it yet. So you've grown up that. I'm only on to cuddly nicknames for Steve. Every nickname I give for Steve now, because Facebook was so mad about six Steve, it's going to be cute.

So the first one in the line of cute is going to be the Christmas bear, Steve Alman. Okay, let's get to your turtles. This movie was directed by Oscar winner, Chloe Zhao, currently sits at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes with no audience score. So as we record this on a Thursday,

there's no audience reaction score for Eternals just yet. This has been, it's fair to say, one of the most divisive movies of the MCU today. And as it sits right now, we're being honest, one of the poorest reviewed. That is a thing. Okay. Let's get into this a little bit.

Charles, how excited were you for this movie when you found out that it was coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Oh, so excited. I think this was the moment besides Spider-Man that a lot of us had been waiting for. We knew Shang-Chi was going to be very self-contained. Black Widow was going to be a prequel. But Eternals, I think, had this level of expectation because we had been waiting so long after the end-of-end game, be like, what's the future?

What's next? you have this Oscar award-winning director. You have this diverse cast. And I just think this, at least for me, this felt like, all right, this is the future of Marvel. Let's see what their first shot is. I'm hyped. What about you?

Did you have that same level of expectation? Yeah. Remember, I had said I had predicted that this would be one of the top 10 Marvel movies, top 10 Marvel debuts. Oh, shit. All right, whoa, whoa, whoa, before you finish, let's get your bet. Is it top 10?

Is it top 15? Let's get into some stuff here. So no, it's not. I think that me, like a lot of other people, looked at this film and looked at the visionary director that it had on it, the cast that it had with it. And some of the things that it was going to tackle and thought this was a chance for the Marvel

cinematic universe to approach story in ways that they hadn't approached it before. And so because of that, I think a lot of people were curious about what the Eternals meant for the MCU and what it made for superhero movies. So for me, you know, hearing about the director, hearing about the cast, hearing about the way they were going, hearing about the characters that they were choosing to take on, it got me very, very, very excited. I guess the question now that I've seen the movie actually twice is, What do I think about it?

How does it sit with me? Let's go ahead and talk about it right now. Let's get that out of the way. Before we talk about what we think, I just want to, right now, Coke Baby Chuck, I'm putting the drugs in the drawer. Companies come in order, okay? For once in my life, I'm going to be a positive Peter, okay? A positive Paul.

Everybody's kind of like, oh, man, this Marvel movie is the first rotten MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes. It's the worst review, blah, blah, blah. A lot of the reviews, well, correct. are going in, ether. It is time. I have to be real. I think we are all kind of

the licking of the chops like, oh, this is the worst MCU movie ever. It's a little overstated, a little hyperbolic, if you will. Where does this movie work? No. Is this movie flawed? Yes. But I don't think

like this is by far the worst Marvel movie ever. There are still good things about this movie. I just think that it's Achilles' heel is it's trying to do so many things at once and it's trying to include so many new aesthetics and story ideas to the MCU that it just doesn't have the time for

and it stumbled. But I want to get it out of the way. Like, Van, do you, like, be honest, do you really think this is the worst MCU movie ever? No. Like, no way. Like, it's not even close. It just wasn't, I think,

that it didn't meet expectations which is fine that happens all of the time. But I'm going to go down some of the... I have the Rotten Tomato Scores for some of these movies. All right. So before Eternals, the worst reviewed one still got a fresh at 66 was Thor the Dark World.

What do you think is a better movie? Eternals or Thor the Dark World? Don't be a troll. I'm not trolling. I think it's Thor to Dark World. Wait, really? If I, comparing it between those two movies? Eternals is better than Thor the Dark World.

I think, no. I think Thor the Dark World is better than the Eternal's. Going up, we have the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Avengers Age of Ultron. I still think Eternals is better than all those movies. Wait a minute. Hold on. Wait a second. Wait a second.

Wait a second. You think, hold on. Wait. So you think Eternals is better than Avengers Age of Ultron? Actually, no. Okay, I was about to say, because you think that Avengers Age of Ultron is better than OG Avengers. You saved me. I would slot it.

I would slot it after Avengers Age of Ultron. but I think it's better than both Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Do you think that Eternals is better than the OG Avengers movie? No. Okay. All right, whoa, whoa, whoa, you see, you're trying to get me back in my own ways. I'm just asking the question. I think it's clearly better than Incredible Hulk,

and I think it's slightly better than Iron Man 2. Slightly. I would say they're on similar levels of like they're stuff to enjoy in both movies, but they were just doing too much. You feel me? Right. Slightly better than Iron Man, too. it's not as if you're going to go to Eternals

and come away from the movie mad. It's not. It's just that the movie is incredibly ambitious. It's eternally ambitious. And any time you have a film that's that ambitious that's locked into the type of storytelling that we're used to getting from the MCU, you open yourself up for some pitfalls

and perhaps a couple of misses. You know, the movie tried hard. And sometimes when, you know, you try hard, you fail hard. So, and these are two things that I've been thinking about, why people are kind of so, at least the critics have been very, very upset, and the reception has been divisive so far. The first thing is, I think, coming into this year, after end game, it's set our, our expectations so high. And now we're looking for the, to the future. Everybody wants the Fantastic Four. Everybody wants Mutants. Everybody wants multiverse. And I think with Eternals, people are like, all right, yeah, this is going to be the one that shows us the future of Marvel and it's not. And after having, what, we've had four, four TV shows and three movies and all of them have kind of not really pushed the MCU that far. I think there is a little level of like, what's next. You gave us end game. This isn't enough. And I think the second thing is, is that for the longest time, the MCU is what I

would like to call. It was like, it was like dating someone, you know. When the MCU was released in three or four movies a year, it was fine. You go out. You have a good time. you hook up, boom, boom, boom. With Disney Plus, the MCU has been in our house. Like, we've had four shows. We've had three movies. Damn near every week of the year,

it has felt like we've had something to debate. And I think that gives you a level of kind of like, all right, like, not as good. The level of quality recently has not been the same because there's just so much more of it. Is that me being too negative? Or it's just like, that's what happened? Not at all.

And I think parts of the MCU are like Yeezus now. Yes. Everybody says that they love Yeezus now. Oh, I love Jesus. It's its best album, but continue. That's fine, Charles. This isn't, I know, this isn't the music show. I like, Charles, that's such a predictable take from you.

I don't, I'm not even going to get into it, dog. That's like, that's fine. But what I'm saying is that everybody revisits Jesus now. and because of the collective wonder, I'll give you a bear example than he uses. Jay Z's Kingdom Come album. I was around when Kingdom Come dropped. Y'all are lying.

Okay? Everybody derided the Kingdom Come when it came out. Oh, he hated it. Hove has lost it. What is he doing with that Hollywood song? I kind of like that song, by the way. But like Hove has lost it, all of that. And now,

and Jay-Z does what everyone who continues to make great art does. There's a part where making great art is just about continuing to challenge and push yourself. And then there's a time where making great art or having a career in the arts, I say, it's just about not dying. So every artist has a career where they just don't die. There's a part of your career where you come out and you make all of these great things and the things that you make are better than the thing that you made before. We all go crazy.

Then there's a part to where you come out as a part of your career. career whether either you die or you don't die. And if you die, then you get hit down and like kicked down into a lower runger artist and we never come back and never come back to you. But see if you don't die, if you can just stick out that part, then you can get on the back half of your career and still be artistically viable to the point to where we still care. That happened to Jay-Z. Jay-Z came out. He had Kingdom Come and then he had American Gangster. Then he had Blueprint 3. None of those were crazy, amazing. American gangster was good music. are crazy,

amazing, but they just kept him float, afloat, right? They kept him relevant, which is hard, considering what he was, he was like mid-40s

at that point? Yeah, right. No, mid or early 40s, right? They kept irrelevant. Then, you know, he starts coming out,

his, like, his life changes, and whatever, he comes to the point and he's doing this thing. I'm going down a rabbit hole, but I want to tell you guys

that this is what's happening to the MCU. What's happening to the MCU is there is now a vision his history about certain MCU movies from the past that we think these movies were great when they came out.

Nobody was writing home about Captain America the First Avenger. Nobody. Absolutely. Nobody was right home about it. No one was. No one was writing home about Iron Man 2 at the point that it came out. Nobody was right home about Throw the Dark World. Nobody was writing home about the Incredible Hulk. Nobody was writing

home about those movies. What happened is after we went to see Winter Soldier, we went to see Guards of the Galaxy, he went to see all of those, and in context, all of those movies look better now. Oh,

I would even say after the first Avengers, everybody started thinking of the previous movies a little bit more positively. And I agree with you, if we're taking this year, Black Widow, Shang-Chi,

Eternals, it definitely feels like Kingdom Come, American Gangster, blueprint three. That's what I'm saying. None of, like, hits,

like those albums still did well, but they're not reasonable doubt. Right. They're not the blueprint. And it's fine. It's just about, and I think they might get it with Spidey, they might get it with Dr. Strange.

All the MCU really has to do is write out this really tough year and show us they can do it once again. They just have to pull off the magic trick one more time and then they're fine. They just haven't yet this year. But I think they'll get there. So that whole long drawn-out Jay-Z thing was for me to say that our expectation is a part of this.

What the MCU wanted to do was show, and I think this is where the filmmakers and the studio has to kind of come into this. What the MCU wanted to do was show that they could turn us on to a whole new batches of characters that challenged the status quo of the superhero community

and that we will be swept off our feet again. It's possible that we can't be swept off our feet again like we were before because in-game changed so many things. So it's possible. Even like a movie like Dr. Strange, we went to see it.

Most people don't even have that much of an opinion on Dr. Strange. I happen to love the movie, but most people are just like, Dr. Strange, what to see it? We know it's part of the bigger thing. That film would have been harder to make at this point. So I'm saying all this to say, sure,

Eternals didn't really work for me. But there are lots of reasons why besides the movie. The movie is completely entertaining enough to warn a trip out to the theaters. But we're asking for so much more from these films now than we used to. And we have to look at that too. You know what I mean?

We have to consider that because a lot of people are going to hear some stuff in the podcast. And we always want to be honest with our audience and make sure that you guys know that we're giving you guys our actual takes. But there's a lot of context that goes around this stuff too. And that's not without carrying Disney's water or carrying water for any of the people in the film or because we have such an amazing interview coming for you later. It's just to let you know that like it doesn't have to be feast or famine. you know, there's shades. It's an eternal spectrum. Oh, look at that wrap up.

That's how I know you've been doing it a while. I've been going for a while. Oh, yeah. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with Internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services,

plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Okay. Now, let's get to some nuts and bolts about the movie right now. They introduce the Eternals.

The Eternals who are, Circe, Jim Echam, Chan. She is an elemental manipulator. Thena, Angelina Jolie. Weapons, mastery, and conjuring. A little hard to pick out what exactly her power was in the movie. Icarus. Richard Madden. He is basically your Superman analog.

Flight, laser eyes, super strength. Druick, Barry Keone. He's got mind control powers. He's super cool. Gilgamesh, Don Lee, super strength. Ajax. Samma Hayek. Super healing. Fastos. Brian Tyree Henry. Machinomancy.

He is an expert creator. Think Forge of the Eternals. But he has all of those special powers to build stuff and help with technology. Kingo, Camille Nanjiani, who we have joining us later on the show, finger guns, Makari, Lauren Ridloff, who I had a little crush on, SuperSpeed, Sprite, Liam McHugh, invisibility and shape shifting. Those are all of your eternals.

Who had some of the best story moments to you, Charles? Ooh, best story moments? All right, so everybody could be like, you just had. it's just because you got an interview with him. But I honestly think of the person who I was just like, oh, like they made a really, really good call casting you was Kingo. Come on, because he was the one like humor-wise that was carrying a lot of the movie when it got really, really heavy.

I think his character was by far the funniest. I think the Bollywood moments really, really work in making the movies really, really works. I think this is the one we're going to disagree on. I think runner up would have to be fast-dose, Brian Tyree Henry. I just thought he was charming. I loved him in this movie.

I thought, I will say this. I think his story was rushed. But when he was with the Eternals, when he was the guy, would be like, come on, guys, what are we doing? I really like those two together. What about you? Who were the storylines

were like, yeah? I love Druick. I thought that Druick was going to be easily the evil, bad Eternal. Same, same. But he turned out to be the one that had the most of a, in a way he almost loved humanity the most. love Drewig, love the fact that he came around

and kind of be like a real anti-hero badass and not like an actual, you know, like a, when I say anti-hero, I mean like someone who does bad things but then comes back around at the end, not somebody that's like in the X-Men. Did you co-sign his cult thing? Because I didn't co-sign the cult thing, but he had a very, very good point

in a flashback of being like, yo, what the fuck are we doing? You guys need to like intervene. He had a point. Here's my problem, though. Almost everybody who starts a cult has a point. You know, like nobody ever starts a cult for a bad reason. You know, it's like when people start a cult, they don't go, hey, you know what I want to do?

I want to start a cult. But what we're going to do is oppress people and make sure that they can't watch night court. That's not what they do. They say, hey, what I want to do is provide an area where everyone can have free thought, access to crayons. everyone eats, everyone chills, everyone. I want you to get to the highest level of yourself is what these guys say. You know, just weird stuff like that.

So no one ever starts to help for bad reasons. You got very, very specific about like five different cults. How much do you know about cults? Van definitely just watched the vow. I'm pretty sure that happened. Wait a minute. But here's the thing now. I watch everything about cults.

I watch everything about cults. That's what I'm saying. So who would, I have to ask this, then. Out of the four Midnight Boys, who do you think is the most likely to join a cult off top? What? Steve, it's not even fucking close.

I knew your answer before you said me. I didn't even have to listen. I didn't even have to listen, Van. Yeah, like, well, of course, it's, what? It's obviously Steve. Steve would start the cult. Jomey's not joining the cult unless Jomey's already in one. Jomey, are you going to go?

No, I'm good. No, I don't need that extra friendship and community. I like where I'm at. Right, right. So, yeah, I thought Drewick will, like, I thought his storyline came around and it was pretty awesome. And, you know, I thought Jimmy Chan held things together as Searcy pretty well as well. Those were the internals that I felt like most next to, Kingo among them.

I think the problem was there were some internals that I felt like nothing for, which is always a tough thing in the movie. I felt nothing for Gilgamesh. Didn't care about Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was kind of cool, didn't really care about Gilgamesh at all. Sprite was annoying. All right, can we just be real? Sprite.

In terms of MCU characters, I'm just like, y'all gave her nothing. Y'all gave Sprite nothing. I'm sure I'm asking this question and a lot of people would have the same question. Was it necessary to have Angelina Jolie in that role? Like, Angelina Jolie is one of the biggest stars on the planet. That was like a nothing role for her.

Like, I thought she would bring way more to the MCU. Maybe they have more planned for Thina, or maybe things aren't going as well over at the Jolie Pit Households. think they are, but for her to be such a huge name and to kind of be in that movie as as she was, I didn't understand that. I didn't get that. They didn't let her eat. And it's just like knowing how great of an actress Angelina Jolie is.

After I left the movie, I was like, this is how you use her? I mean, it speaks to the MCU that they could get an actress like Angelina Jolie to do what she was doing in the movie, which is like showing up for 20 minutes. But wow. I totally agree with you. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, look, this is what I have to do. We have to get into the recap.

We're contractually obligated to give a recap. I just want to let you guys know something. This movie was two hours and 40 minutes long. So the recap is about to be five hours. So it's not necessarily that I think it's necessary to give you guys a recap. But recap is what we got to do. So this is what we have to do today is give you a recap.

All right. But let's set the vibe a little bit. All right. Steve, give us a little recap-cappy cap-capa-a-cap-a-cap-captooms, baby. Oh, Steve, I actually know, could you give Van some nice Bollywood music in honor of this movie, of this? And give us a nice performance, Van, if you wouldn't mind. Make it flashy. We open with it.

This is kind of a robust document, guys. So let's get here. Steve wrote a fucking MLA God damn this shit bro I tried to keep scenes in sentences I really did

We open with the text scroll that explains a short history of Celestials and Eternal Set by the prime Celestial Erechin Eternal's land on earth to protect them from deviance A race of chaotic beings

that feed on natural life They fight off a deviant Evasion in ancient Mesopotamia Charles just left his seat to take a break and they begin with their help in the development of the human race. We jump into present day London, where Circe is living as a teacher with her boyfriend, Dane Whitney. Also living in London accompanying Circe is Farallel Eternal Sprite.

A mysterious earthquake happens, bringing forth another deviant, long thought to be defeated. A battle with Sprite, Circe, and the deviant ensues until another Eternal Icarus intervenes defeating it. They then choose to band together to unite the rest. rest of the Eternals to defeat the devians. We then cut back to ancient Babylon, where our Eternals are once again fighting off deviance. Prime Eternal Ajax speaks to Earshim and it reminds Ajax to focus on the true purpose of

their mission and not to get too attached to Earth and its people. Icarus admits to Searcy that he loves her and they share a romantic scene, Oh yeah! And get married a few decades later. Cut to present-day South Dakota, where the team of Eternals finds their leader Ajax murdered presumably by deviance. Circe is then mysteriously given the ability to speak to Eresham but does not know how to yet.

They travel to the Eternal Kingo, who is now a world-famous Bollywood film star. In President of Australia, the team finds Gilgamesh and Thina hermits in the outback living off the land. Circe then communicates with Earshim and discovers that their true mission is to allow the destruction of Earth to birth a new celestial. Heavy! And a bummer!

upon learning this, the team decides to break from their loyalty and find a way to save the world. In the Amazon, they find Druid. Now the leader of a remote commune slash cult, he's kept in hiding for generations, in convincing him to join more deviance attack and kill Gilgamesh. Sad. The deviance then become stronger with the death of an eternal. They then find Fasdos in Chicago, where he has settled down on Obloch, and is living next to Chief Keefe, little Reese,

I'm just joking, we have settled down with his husband and son and is convinced to help the team find the birthplace of the celestial. Just before doing so, Icarus turns heel and reveals that he killed Ajax and chose to protect the birth of the celestial like Erichamant. A final battle ensues on the shores of a volcanic Pacific island where they prevent the birth of the celestial. Still in love with Circe, Icarus flies away from Earth and into the sun.

Circe turns, spright into a human and the internals go their separate ways, but not before Eresham vows to return. Cast judgment. You want to know how I know that was long? Because I went to go to the bathroom, wash my hands, came back, and you were only on the third paragraph. Yeah, I mean, I really had to consolidate. I really, I tried my best. No, Steve, you did a great job.

Listen, Chris says, this movie's busy. It's a busy movie. Christmas bear. Let's give it a midnight meter ranking now, Chuck. Has to be done. Now, if you guys don't remember what the midnight meter is, it's the same thing as a normal scale between 1 to 10.

If you guys don't remember what the midnight meter is, it's the same thing as a normal scale. It goes 1 to 10, but we reserve the right to give movies of 12 based upon their iconic status. One to 10, but we can go over 10 if we really think that it's very important. That's what the Midnight meter is all about.

God damn it. Charles. Don't make me go first. On the midnight meter, what do you give Eternals? This is where they turn against me. Guys, I have positive things to say, I'm trying my best.

My heart says a six. My heart says a six, and I think I'm going to have to stick there. Yeah, it's a five. It's a five? Yeah, it's five. I thought I was like... You guys, it's okay.

Look, you guys, you guys, the Eternals will return. They will be better than ever. The movie was, I saw the movie twice. The second time I saw the movie, I had a much better enjoyment than the first time. It's fine. It's okay. No, I think a five, stick to it. I actually.

The movies, it's a five. It's a five. And here, Jomi, Jomi is in the background acting like we are just, we've lost the plot. So Jomey, Steve, give us your midnight meter rankings. I'm going to go, I'm going to go with Charles. I think this is a six. It's a big, big swing and a miss. We, I like that. I think, like that they took it. I respect that swing a lot. Yeah, I totally agree. Jomey, now please have the floor. Why are, why did we lose the plot on? I'm going to go out and say it's a seven. Bad journalism. Right. No, no. And

here's bad journalism no no you got to understand people are going to like this movie people are really going to like this no no no we didn't say are people going to like this movie we said what is your midnight meter joe me okay and but and then you also said why am i making the faces why am i out here i'm just letting y'all know right when they come out people are going to be like man i really liked eternals that was really fun i liked all the stuff that happened it was a long movie da-da-da-da and a five it's wild I'd be honest with you I'd be honest with you

I think this one was a five I think Black Widow was a five all right like I think oh you can throw Black Widow there too I forgot Black Widow there too yeah you can throw Black Widow there too I think this was a five I think Black Widow was a five okay by the way a five doesn't mean you're kicking yourself you're mad because I'm I'm being

I'm being honest man like I'm being honest like I went to Eternals. Eternals to me, we saw it for the screening earlier, and then I had a chance to go see it again. I want to see it again. You're not going to be mad at Eternals, but five is where I stand.

Okay. Now, here's a deal. Let's talk about what actually went wrong. If we were agreeing that this movie was enjoyable, but somewhat flawed, what went wrong? Okay, were there too many plot lines for you, Charles? You had the Icarus and Cersie Love story.

You had Sprite wanting to get with Icarus, which was a little odd. Tina and Gilgamesse, the, Gilgamesh, the memory loss, violence plot line, all of that stuff. Did this movie just have too many things going on to connect it to a center line

to where you could deal with it? Hell yes. We're not even mentioning that damn near 40% of this movie is flashback. So not only do we have all of these things going on in like the modern time, we're going back in time.

Like they were trying to do like some 2001 space. type shit being like, we're starting at the dawn of human existence and we're going to the present. And yet it's just so much to juggle. And then on top of that, we got to throw in the storyline of like who the Eternals are, the Celestials, there's a twist and we'll talk about it later of really the whole history of the Eternals. Me as a comic book fan sitting in the theater, my head was spinning on. I'm like, all right, I got to keep track of all this. stuff, and I'm sorry, there was just no way in a two and a half hour movie, all of those

plot points were going to land. Was there any point in this movie van where you were just like, not confused, but a little bit like, yo, there's too much to keep track of right now. So there's something that happens in movies or stuff where I just glass over. Like, it's not that I can't follow, it's I stop trying. And like, the movies, what's happened on the screen doesn't, it's not, it's no longer parts of a hole that, like, like make up into a movie. I call it the stuff quadrant where it's just like stuff on the screen.

There's no longer story. It's just like stuff has happened. The stuff quadrant. And there's never been an MCU movie before that's brought me to the stuff quadrant. Like other films have like, you know, Transformers Dark of the Moon, where like you're watching a movie

and all of a sudden, there's not really a movie happening. It's just stuff on screen. Stuff, stuff, stuff. That would be my tenant. When I was in tenant, I was just like, all right, cool. It's a stuff quadrant movie. It's just like stuff, stuff, stuff.

Oh, they're doing cool stuff. I'm out of it now, but I'm here, so I'm just watching the stuff. There were some stuffy moments here. There's some moments that were stuffy. Like the first time she turned the Deviant into a tree, I didn't even get it. I'm serious.

I only got that the second time. I didn't even, so much was going on in a movie that I didn't get that she couldn't turn. an inanimate object into something. I was like, well, what's the big fucking deal? Like, you've never done it before. I was like, well, like, so who cares? Like, just like stuff was happening.

And I got lost in the stuff of Eternals. Oh, the main, like, driving plot point of this movie, which is that Danos and, like, the snap brings this energy, the deviants are back. I'm like, all right, cool. The villains are the deviants. And they're like, but there's a celestial in the middle of the core of the earth. And it's about to explode.

and everybody's about to die. I'm like, all right, cool, cool, cool. And then they start explaining how they're going to try to stop the celestial and then they go to the big red one, Arsham. I was like, guys, there's way too much happening on the screen. There's way too much exposition. That was the point where, like you said, the stuff of it.

And I'm like, none of this is character. None of this is like emotion. All of this is exposition dumps. And I'm just like, God. And then once you throw in the, What you throw in the flashbacks? They were like going back to like Babylon and this thing and that thing. And can we be very, very clear?

The one thing that I think, honestly, the big criminal part of this is that the thing that Eternal grapples with throughout the whole movie is, if you guys have been here since the dawn of time, or at least the dawn of humans, why did you never step in? That's the big thing that we heard, like why they didn't stop Thanos and everything. the thing that I was confused about is they do step in to help humanity. I was about to say. That's the point of the movies

that at various points they did. And in my opinion, the worst part, where they blame Hiroshima on a gay black man. I was just like, nobody read over this script to be like, no, no, no,

we can't do that. But I was just like, wait, if they, for the whole existence, they're helping humanity out, why couldn't they step in for Thanos? That's what I don't get. Well, and then they said that they can't step in wherever devians are involved.

Devians weren't involved with this celestial. It was a celestial. I'm serious. No, I'm. It was a celestial and they were like, okay, well, this is too much. Man, maybe it was too much when people lost their grandfathers and their cousins. Maybe that was too much. You know, so wait, but I'm like, y'all saw slavery.

You all saw Holocaust. Y'all saw all this shit. And you're just like, nope, we can't. Well, Drew would have been on that. Drew would have been on that. Hell yeah. But they didn't want, AJ didn't want them to do it. And am I being, like, too mean by saying, like, the whole Hiroshima part, even depicting

it on screen? I'm like, this has a dearth of, like, the taste level of this is so negative. Why would you even go? I just think it's, I think my thing with that is, what if I so think was going to happen? I mean, seriously. It's like what, so he's been around, they were around when I guess that was the conquistadors hit South America or Central America and they're committing genocide. Then what's going to happen when you give this same race of people atomic power?

You know, like what's going to like, what did you think was going to happen? It just, it seems like the internals, it seems like at some points the internals were the smartest dumb characters in the MCU history. They don't know nothing. They got a couple of rules. And to be honest with you, that might be part of the narrative. Part of the narrative might be that these are created for a perfect purpose.

And they don't really have a lot of information to operate on besides the rules that they know and they made a lot of mistakes. And that's fine. But you're telling me, Fastos, went to the deep south during Jim Crow. And he's like, yeah, these people can be trusted with technology. Like, come on. I would have rather them just been like,

the Eternals have been asleep. whole time, and the snap woke him up. And I'm like, all right, cool. You explained it all the way. Ajax says that she changed her mind because the snap and because of the Avengers. So that made her see something different because we were able to give ourselves back. And by the way, as a human, a little insulting. As a human, I'm a little insulted by that. So before all of the stuff that had gone on, I mean, the Black Plague, Smallpox was getting 50, 60 million people off the planet, right? But once you saw that we could bring everybody back. Now you want to help us?

At the 11th hour, by the way. Like seven days before the world's supposed to end. Like, now you want to help us? You know what I mean? Those things take time. You know, you got to really think about what you're trying to do. You know, your whole mission. You feel me? And then you got to call Icarus up. He's got to fly in from where he had. And like, hey, listen, here's what the thought process. Man, Icarus was so toxic, bro. Let's be honest. Like seriously, bro.

Icarus is one of the most, like, I'm serious. As far as heroes, Icarus and Bucky Barnes, like are going back and forth from most toxic. Like, Bucky didn't do anything right for like five movies. Like, like nothing. Like Bucky was doing nothing right. All Bucky did was be toxic to Steve and make Steve, Bucky made Steve, think about this. Bucky made Steve. Bucky killed Tony's mom and dad.

and then made Steve keep the secret. God damn. Bucky was toxic. Like eating crayons from public school. That type of toxic. But like in this particular situation, Icarus is so toxic. It was hard to get into it

because he's obviously toxic. When Icarus basically kills Ajax, his brother character, I'm like, all right, man. And I knew, like, there was an inkling. I'm just like, man, this man is off because he's that toxic white bro,

the minute he sees Searcy get in with Dane, he shows up like, yo, what's up? What's you doing? Bro. You left her 3,000 years ago. 3,000, but he was still like, 300 years ago, and now she get with John Snow

and you back already? Wait, do you think, like, let's be real, do you think that Icarus was stalking her, was Circe on Instagram, was leaving like hearts on her, on her Instagram place? Actually, I don't. I think Icarus was going from continent to continent slaying.

I don't think I don't think Icarus was thinking about her at all. I think Icarus only thought about her after he had to give the business to Ajax. Look, Icarus gave the business to Ajax and then he was thought, well, let me get close to her so she don't know that I did it. That's the only reason why he even came back because he toxic. That's the kind of stuff that happens. the kind of dude that only calls when he's had sex with your friend and he wants to know if you know.

You know what I mean? He like he wants to know, does she know anything? Hey, so you talk to Tanya lately? Because he wants to know if Tanya told you that they hooked up when they happened to meet up together

in Miami one weekend. So that's who Ikear... Like, that's who Icarus is. Wait, you want to know how I know. I know he's toxic. Because the minute Sprite like goes away with him. I'm like,

dog, that's the one where you be like, yo, relax. Like, go back with the family. Like, stop. Like, it's not going to work. He's like, he's making her seem like, yeah, yeah, you know, cool, cool, cool. Thanks for helping me out. I'm like, dog. Like, childling, get away from here. The worst.

Anyway, let's talk about some of the things we liked about the movie. This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen on screen before. I'll be honest with you. The movie looks beautiful. Am I wrong about that, Charles? I think, I think calling it one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen. I just now want to know how many things you've seen in your life. You're very old.

On screen. On screen. One of the most beautiful movies I've seen on screen. The movie is very beautifully shot. It's lyrical in its beauty almost. I will say in terms of MCU movies, there are sequences in this movie that are very beautiful. I would agree with that.

Right. You want to know, one of the things I will like is, shout of Chloe Zhao, it is time for the MCU to get horny, to get freaky. Like, it's, we're at this point where now, Everybody's like, what, tell me, what's wrong? What's this wild take? How's this?

How's this? Wow. Why are we a nation of, why are we a nation of fucking sure it seems okay? Stop. Stop. What are you talking about? Wait a minute.

What do you mean? How is it wild? You just said it's time for the MCU to get horny. Yeah. What do you? How's that not a wild thing to say? It's time for the MCU to get freaky. That?

The fact, the fact that this is the first MCU movie where everybody's like, guys, two people have sex in the movie. And everybody's like, oh my gosh. I'm like, that shows that we're a nation of prudes. Like, yes, like, we need more superheroes blowing people's backs out. It's fine. Okay. There's nothing wrong. Wow.

Sex is how we know we're human. It's fine, guys. So I guess my thing is they got to put, they got to be able to put these movies on Disney Plus, bro. I guess I'm about to say, I guess my thing is, do we need to see them have sex? Like it's like They're superheroes I mean The answer is no

The answer is no The answer is no Really I'm the only one I'm the only one You don't really need Nah I don't really need it Like you know All right prudes

It's not a prude I don't mind it But I'm not I don't need it Yeah I don't mean I'm not saying any airy movie But they're always like Like the fact that we're still

freaking out They're just like Oh my God Icarus and Searcy Had sex on screen No but here's the thing They had sex and there's always a little sex in these movies,

a little flirtation and romanticism. But I think I saw a thrust. Am I be honest? I think I saw her. No, no, I'm serious. She was laying down. I think I saw their bodies going up and down. And even I was looking around like,

okay, I guess we're doing this. All right, never mind. I retract everything I said after having to hear, after hearing Van say that. I retracted all of my sense. You can't retract it. You said, I think it's. for the MCU to get horny.

Wow. Okay. We've got a lot of diversity in this movie. You got the first queer couple and queer family in the MCU. I thought that was beautifully done. We got the first deaf character and actor in an MCU film. I thought that character worked. Underused, but I thought she worked.

Oh, come on. I thought she needed so much more time on stream. So charming, so funny. Her and Drew's chemistry together was so cute. They had great chemistry. Man. That should have been the love story for being real.

That was the love story that I wanted more of. Because she had been let's get this actresses name because I do want to shout her out because she was really, really good. Lauren Ridloff. And she had been chilling in the ship

just like reading a bunch of shit, collecting a bunch of shit. And then what she sees Drewing it's just this moment of just like, yo my homie's back. Like, what's up? I thought that shit was so, so nice. Also, isn't it implied

that she's just like running around the world, like, stealing things and bringing it back to the ship. Because she just had, like, a bunch of stuff. Oh, if I had super speed, that's what I'd be doing. No, I mean, the reality is the two characters, the two black characters in the movie. One ran around the world as a thief

and the other one destroyed parts of Japan. Van. You're not wrong, though. You're not wrong, but dude. Wait, wait, wait. You want to tell me I'm not wrong. I know I'm not wrong. One of them ran around stealing shit.

And then the other one blew up to help blow up Japan. You guys can't see it right now, but Van has a coofy on his, on his head. Van is not wrong, though. I should know, you know, it's crazy? If you look behind me, this whole thing in my hotel,

it looks like a big ass coofy. It looks like a giant coofy. The coofy on my head is so big that I'm hiding inside the coofy. It's just true. It's just what happens, man. Let us stay around for eternity. We're going to steal some shit, okay?

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All right. I loved all of the diversity that we saw in the film. And I thought that that's one of the things in the film that worked. And I have just a diversity. I like the diversity of sets. I like the fact of set pieces just. I like the fact that they were all over the place. I liked the idea of showing that the internals influence human society all over the place.

But I think like narratively, sometimes it didn't work. Can I, wait, pause it? Can I posit something to you really, really quick? It's what I think could like work. Freaky. So I think I brought this up on The Midnight Boys before. We've had Spider-Man. The reason I think Spider-Man Tom Holland works a lot is because they set up so much of his character very quickly in Civil War.

Same thing with Black Panther. When you have these characters kind of like popping up in other movies, instead of having to set up everything in the first movie, it's like, all right, we already know them. We already know this actor. Do you think Eternals could have worked a little bit better instead of introducing all of the Eternals out? at once. Maybe they sprinkle in Searcy here and Icarus there. So it's not so bogged out.

I think to be honest with you, Sean, she suffered for that reason as well. Yeah. It's like, for me, I think that those, that, that formula that Marvel had was the right formula to go about it with.

And I just think they couldn't really stick to it as much because they had to wrap up the Infinity saga. So it's hard to introduce brand new characters that are going to exist. outside of the Infinity Saga when you want the audience to believe that the Infinity Saga could possibly be the end of the MCU.

Now, we're definitely not going to think that the Infinity Saga is going to represent the end of the MCU if you're introducing very many new characters. If the Eternals are around, we know they're getting their movie. So you couldn't really do it as much, right? Even Captain Marvel comes before in her own film, and then they give it to her right after. They rushed Captain Marvel's development into the M.C. to you, that's not typically the way they would do things as much. I even think the problem with the Infinity Saga now is that, John, we've got in four movies

at this point that all have to answer this annoying question of like, where was this character during the snap? Where was this character during the snap? What happened in this? And it was cute at first. And now it's like the Eternals is very, very hurt by this idea of just like, y'all are all powerful beings and y'all did nothing. Same thing with Shang Chi.

Shang Chi is just like, where was everybody in this movie? during the snap. And I honestly would give Kevin Feigy and the MCU the biggest like pass if we never heard about the snap again after this movie. I never want to hear about it. It happened. I don't know what to tell you. Like,

all right, let's look at it to the post-credit scene and look ahead here. The first post-credit scene actually knocked me on my ass. If I was to give the movie, if I was to give it a six or seven, it would be because they brought somebody on screen that I never thought I would see in the MCU.

which is the little big homie PIP the troll. I'm in the screening and all of a sudden Pipp stumbles out and I'm like, oh shit. And nobody in the audience gives a fuck that it's Pipp the Troll. Love Pipp the Troll played by Patton Oswald and the introduction of Aeros, played by Harry Stiles, Aeros, who's of course Star Fox brother of Thanos. Thanos in the MCU is not of deviant origin.

In the comic books, he is of deviant origin. He makes sense that his brother is an eternal, right? He has a deviant. He was born. He had a deviant strain. Eros had an eternal strain. What does this mean? So is Thanos an eternal in this?

Because it seems as if they're making Star Fox one, is Thanos an eternal in this? What's going on here? He wouldn't be an eternal because they showed us in the, we didn't talk about the big twist that the eternals are essentially robots. They're robots in this created by the Celestials. And I got the feeling that the eternals that we saw in this movie are the only eternals. Like there's a bunch of eternals around the galaxy, but they're models.

Is that like a wild take? Like I thought like there are certain models for each. There's a bunch of them throughout the galaxy. So what you're saying is in this movie then it might be the case. that Star Fox is not an Eternal himself. I don't know if he is. I haven't, like, guys, I will go see this movie twice because we're filming it to get it to you guys.

They didn't show me the scene, so everything I've learned is from the Midnight Boys. But I don't think that Harry Styles would be an Eternal because I thought we saw all the models in this movie. Show me the explainer. What are your thoughts? I'm going to incline to agree with you. I don't think he's an Eternal because we saw all the models

of all the Eternals. and he wasn't one of them. I think he's just, you know, literally Dinos his brother, you know, and he's got his own superpowers or whatever. And he just knows about the Celestials and about the Eternals and he's just coming out to help. Is it wild to you guys that the Eternals are robots?

Or the reveal that they're like robots? Was that a little like, okay, all right. Sure. I mean, I don't know if it was supposed to be like a big reveal, but like it fell a bit with a thud because I'm like, well, I mean, anything that's supposed to live forever isn't exactly human. So, like, man. It was a weird moment in the theater.

I was just like, oh, okay. I guess. Sure. Yeah. It makes it a little weird to, like, get busy with, like, a robot if you're dang. That doesn't seem right. I would never, it's like, I would be honest with you. I would never know if you loved me or if it was your programming. Have you not seen Blade Runner?

I mean, look, I've seen Blade Runner. I mean, he's also got to think about the fact that his girlfriend's going to live for thousands of years long after he's dead. I'll ask you this question, Van. Van, let's say your beautiful fiancé in a thousand years is no longer in the equation. Whatever. You're still alive.

You're drinking the eternal elixir. And there's a robot. There's a very sexy robot that comes up to you. You're telling me you would knock into a relationship with this robot. Well, see, that's a thousand years later, though. You have to ask me if I would be with a robot now. Would you be with a robot now? No.

What? See, I'm different. All right, don't do you. I think of the rules. You know what I mean? I don't think a robot can consent. I never know of a robot's program to love me. I'll tell a robot, go out there and live your life.

I'm not ex-Machina guy. I don't want robots sex slave prisoners. That's not my thing. Here's the thing. I'm about to blow your mind. With robots, you're saying, you know, I don't know if they're programmed to love me or not, but with humans,

are we sure they're not programmed to love us? Let's go to the next thing. Wow. Just letting that sizzle on the grill. Oh, okay. Okay. What did you think about Harry Styles popping up in the emceu? It is a casting choice that has left me scratching my head being like,

all right, I liked him in Dunkirk, fine. But are we running out of act? But I will say this, to play Star Fox, he is the perfect choice. It is the perfect choice.

The only thing is, obviously, you know, you might feel a way, it's almost like when, on a Game of Thrones, when Ed Shearing popped up, you're like,

that's what you're saying. You're just a little like, but at the same time, it is perfect. casting, perfect casting for him to play Star Fox. Like, you couldn't do any better. I'm not, I'm not hating. Like Giannis, Antikubo, he's a big

Harry Styles fan. I am less. Janus. Janus. This isn't the end. Don't say it. Don't say it like the people who don't watch basketball. Don't say it like, we weren't going to let that one slide, man. All right, fine. All right. Second post-credit scene, post-petits.

Second post-credit scene is Kit Harrington as Dane Whitman. attempting to pick up the mysterious Ebony Blade. The Ebony Blade is what lets Day and Women become the Black Knight. He hinted to his family legacy in the movie. But just as he's about to pick up the Ebony Blade, a voice calls out to him. Any theories as to who this mysterious voice was? Some people think it's the watcher.

Some people think it is Dabney Coleman. some people think it's blamed. Who do you think it is? I mean, we got a scoop coming up. I'm not going to spoil it, but we got Kamal telling us who it is. We got later on Kamal Najiani

Kingo from the Eternals telling us definitively who that voice is. He told us. But let's get back to Dane. We didn't talk about Dane that much. Was Dane underused in this movie? just like, what the fuck?

Like, Kit Harry was underused. He wasn't used. It was not. It's not, he was, look, look, man, shout out to Kit, because Kit got that bad for six hours.

Dropped on it. I don't know if Kit ever left Atlanta. He was like, put a couple of like little backgrounds past him. Kit got that bad. They literally had Kit FaceTime in for a scene. They literally had them face time, man.

If he was standing next to Searcy for all those scenes, I'd be wildly surprised. They'd probably green screened that motherfucker again. Like, also, I was a little hurt. I'm like, y'all got the Game of Thrones boys in this movie and they on screen together for like one minute. What are we doing? If that.

If that. Like, what are we doing? I'll tell you something, though, when I saw them sharing, like, when they were in that scene together, and I was like, they're going to share screen time. Rob Stark and John Snow are going to share screen time. And then as soon as you see them in one frame together, you're like, yeah, let's go.

And then that was it. That was just, it was done. Which was good enough for the people that needed. It gave me a rush of excitement. I'm not going to hold y'all. I was like, ah! But, you know, it was still cool to see the, like, Rob Stark and John Snow.

No, I wanted them at Lee. You got to give me a little bit more time with the Stark Boys. My heart was broken. I have a question for you, Charles. Nate Moore is on record saying that this movie doesn't necessarily need a sequel. However, at the end of this film, there is seemingly at least a cliffhanger ending.

Do you think Eternals needs a sequel? I'm a man about this. Before I answer this, I'm a man about this. I know when I'm wrong on this podcast. And I'll admit it. So I want to send out a special apology to Steve and Jomey and everybody when I was like doing it again a sequel. It got a sequel.

I was fucking wrong. Charles Chedamas was fucking wrong. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on for a second. We know why we don't need your apology because we watch the movie and it very clearly said Doom part one and we're not...

The second one was in Greenland. I'm just apologizing. Can I get back to Eternals? I just want to say, I'm sorry for being cranky. There has to be a second Eternals. The movie ends and like the ending was wild

in the theater because it comes out of nowhere where, spoiler alert, but Arsham comes back and he takes the... He takes a few of the Eternals. The rest of them have gone off into space.

essentially to look for more eternals to free them. Icarus has flown into the sun. We don't know his status, whether he's alive or dead. And there's three left. I think it is Circe, Fasdos, and Kingo. And he's basically like, I'm going to take y'all. And I'm going to basically read your minds, download all of the history to figure out

if humanity is worth it or not. That is a very, very big cliffhanger to end on. I kind of feel like you need a sequel at this point. You do. By the way, not like that wasn't scary, by the way. When I say scary, I mean, like, I was, like, frightened. I don't like stuff with people being dragged into space. Like, you grab a person and bring them into space

and they're out there in a cold, desolate void of space. When Leah was flown through space? Top five dumbest shit that has ever happened in a Star Wars movie. I'm sorry. But then flying the ship into the other ship was pretty fucking cool. What's good. All right, wait, wait, wait, really, really quick, before we get off this, do you think if there's an Eternals to,

Chloe Zhao returns with how critically. No, hell no. What? Does Chloe Jal return? No. Hell no. No, no, no, no. Do you think this was a misstep after the Oscar?

No, it was not a misstep. She's got to go get that B-A-G so that she can make a another movie where like people roam around and don't do anything. So this, like, like I can tell you, I can tell you right now that, by the way,

I'm not saying I didn't like Nomad Land. I thought it was fantastic, but that, you know, you got to be able to, you can't base your whole yearly salary on like Nomad Land. You got to go and make a couple of these so that you can do Nomad Land too.

The check has to be secured. Because like, let's be real. The next close, Jal movie is probably not going to make blockbuster money. It's going to be an Oscar thing. No, the next story of the movie is going to be Alicia

Vakander in like a shack in Greenland trying to figure out like her memories going back eons and decades, maybe you get one wolf in the movie with her and then she'll win all the awards. Like that's what

the that's what, but you have to do the internals so that you can then go do that. I bet the entire like, Like, I bet the entire time she was on the Eternals, Chloe Jiao was like, all right, let's go. I guess we got another day of this. Damn. We didn't talk about Chloe Jow, but like before we wrap up, my big question with Chloe Jow in this movie, do you think it was a misstep for her to try? Like, she really did try to push the MCU, like the guardrails of it.

And like, it just wasn't successful. But I like that she took a swing. Yeah, of course. We talked about that. I mean, yeah, she tried to bring her her savvy and her expertise as an artur to something that's, you know, a little bit less than that. The MCU is a little bit more than cookie cutter, but a little bit less than envelope pushing.

It's almost like you can't do too much in the MCU. What I mean by that is like, you just got to do enough. And people would be like, all right, that was amazing. When you try to do too much, how about this? You can do a lot, but not too much. Right. All right, we're going to leave real quick,

but before we do it, we're going to do rapid fire, Eternals versus. Okay, Steve, I know that we're going long and you don't feel like we have time for it. No, we're good. I can tell you one thing, the movie was nine hours long,

so the pod can be too. So Steve, go ahead, set us up. We're going to do Eternals versus, tell the people what it is again. All right, rapid fire around, team you guys up with different categories of things that happen in this movie and similar movies

to see what you guys liked better from the two. First category, superhero sex scenes Eternals versus Zach Snyder's Watchman. What was the sex scene in the Watchman again?

It's when Owlman sleeps with Scarlet in the ship. I'm gonna go with Watchman because that one was very horny. Yeah, that's the... Can I give you an alternate one? Okay.

Eternals versus the sex scene in the Boys season two with a homelander and what's her face. Oh my God. Oh no. Jesus Christ. That one was tough.

I don't want to think about that. I don't want to think about that. That's too horny. That's too. That's way over the limit, Charles. No. All right. Well, let's go on to the next category.

Cold deaths that happen in South Dakota. Eternal's versus the Revenant. So the Revenant, we're talking about Tom Hardy's death. Yes. One of the most brutal things I've ever seen on screen. So I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to go with Ajak here just because I promised myself I would never watch the Revenant again. and I don't want to think about it either so I'm gonna go with Ajaxi

The Revenant death was brutal I'm going to recuse myself because you guys know how I feel about gore in movies I've never seen the Revenant but I just finished Squid Games so I'm getting there. Oh wow, baby steps. Okay.

Baby steps. I'm rocking with the Revenant. I'm already got messed up. That's a messed up one. You got real messed up. Yeah. All right. Next category.

So you're just going to let that happen, huh? Eternal's versus Captain America at the end of end game. Well, you got to, We got to think about Wakanda, too. Wakanda was chilling. I'm just, I'm, I'm talking about Cap. He hit the reset button for 60 to 70 years and had to do nothing as Captain America,

that whole time. He was with this, he was with his girl who's on Haley Atwell. You got to understand, you know what I'm saying? So you're picking, so you're picking Captain America. I'm picking Wakanda. What was Wakanda doing? Slavery? You know, World War II, World War I?

No, we're just going to pack it up. We're just going to kill it at the crib. Option C. Wakanda, they need to do better. Come on now. I'm going to go with the Turtles. I'm going with the Eternals. Yeah.

We'll go with the Eternals on this one for sure. A lot of a lot slide. All right. Next category. Final category. Not quite sure what Kit Harrington was going for. Eternal versus all of Game of Thrones season six. Ooh.

Game of Thrones season six easily. Got to be. Easily. Like, got to be. I don't blame all the Game of Thrones season six on on Kit though. No, no, no. Yeah.

It was a weird part. It's got a weird part. wait no if we're not sure what kit herrington is going for are we saying like in the final season of game of thrones he was making a lot of decisions that were just like so wildly irresponsible and so dumb you're just like too yeah all right yeah it's game of thrones season all right all right okay guys we have a special treat for you if you've managed to hang on this long in the podcast hopefully you have especially interview now with kumal nangiani who plays Kingo in the internals of the midnight boys getting our Hollywood on. We talk, we do

a segment that Charles invented produced by Charles Holmes a segment called 12 questions at midnight where we ask him 12 of the hardest most burning questions in all of fandom. These are the burning questions. That makes it sound like an STD,

I don't know. Whatever, whatever. Don't shame people. I'm not shaming people. Whatever. It's just saying. So stick around for that on the other side of this break. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus.

Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has a return, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival ranch, willing to protect its secrets at all costs.

Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring Colehauser Kelly Riley, Annette Benning, Ann Harris, now streaming on Paramount Plus. Okay, today, the Midnight Boys, we have a treat for you guys. We are joined here today by Kamal Nanjiani, aka Kingo of the brand new Marvel Studios movie, The Eternal.

And we're going to play 12 questions to midnight the way that the Midnight Boys can only can. Poo-Poo! Charles? All right, yeah, in honor of our namesake, my co-host and I are going to ask him all, 12 of the toughest questions we could come up with about the Eternals and see if he can answer them all in 20 minutes. Are you ready? Let's go.

I'm going to go first. All right. Okay. I'm nervous. So you play a Bollywood star in this movie, all right? Bollywood star that's lived over the ages. let's say that aliens were going to destroy the entire world and you had to prove humanity's worth

by showing them one Bollywood movie. You have to show the aliens one Bollywood movie. Which Bollywood movie would you choose? You know, the first one that comes to mind is a movie called Amar Akbar Anthony. It's about three brothers, one's Hindu, one's Muslim, one's Christian. I haven't seen the movie in a long time,

but it has some of my favorite actors in it. And I think it's from the 70s or early 80s. But it's really about, you know, that we can all coexist. There's differences. It doesn't matter. We're all people. So that's a nice positive message to show the aliens. Like, we all believe different stuff.

We really get along, you know, basically we survived by lying to the aliens. I was about to say. So we're going to lie to the aliens. That is one of the, you are on fire. That's one of the best answers. Dude, is going to stop the aliens from wanting to kill us? We got to hide from something. shit. All right. Next up. I know

actors. They know everything about the characters, even the stuff that's not on screen, okay? And one of the most controversial points of The Eternal's movie is when Kingo dips out on his family in the final fight. So, Kamal, where was Kingo doing? What was he doing during this fight? Well, he had a movie to wrap. He was, you know, he had like, it's the first movie. A movie was more important. You can't just, listen. This fight's going to go. how it's going to go, but the movie, you know, that's his full-time job. Honestly, this is the real answer. So there are two different perspectives that the eternal stake, right?

One is what they think is the intellectually moral thing to do. I'm trying to talk really fast, which is what the Celestials want them to do is, Earth will be destroyed, but a billion more Earth will form. Intellectually, that is the ethical thing to do. You let Earth go, more life can thrive. The other side is, these people did not choose to be killed. shouldn't be killed. It's about community, right? Those are the two different, it's about compassion versus duty. Those are the two moral standpoints. King is the only one who has both. And he says that.

He says, I still agree with the Celestials mission. I think Earth should be destroyed so that more worlds can form, but he doesn't want to fight his family to do it. So I think he makes the only truly moral choice and steps away. He pieces out. That's fine. That's fine. He pieces out. Question an answer. Pieces out is feeling a little editorialized and dismissive. It's a strong moral stand. Amen. All right. If the Eternals were real

and you could force them to intervene into one thing that is threatening humanity besides climate change, what would you want to use the Eternals power for? I feel like not enough restaurants are serving breakfast for dinner these days.

Why is it? You got the eggs out there. Just make me some eggs. Like, I want it. I know you've got the batter whip me up some waffles and pancakes. Can I have a pancake? Can I get a pancake at nine? I know you can do. All right. This is a lie, Kamal. I know for a fact that you can get breakfast at any restaurant you walk into. They're telling you no. They're telling you no. They have the stuff. There's no delivery that comes at midnight. It's all back there. It's easier than making like chicken piccato or whatever, just toss it in the waffle iron, put some berries on there. I know it's back there. I always wonder why superheroes don't take up causes like that. That's the type of shit I want to

see. Help me get pancakes at 9.30 at night. Charles, it's to you. That's a great answer. Fourth question. If you could only save one of your Eternals co-stars from the wrath of the Celestials, who would it be? Everybody else dies? Yes. Oh my God. We're talking the characters, right, not the actors. We're talking the co-star that you built the bond with. Come on. The people themselves. People.

Okay. Well, I mean, I love everybody. I love everybody. But, oh, my God. You know what? I'm going to save Brian Tyree Hunter. We've got. We have an ally here on the Midnight Boys.

I'm going to say fastos. Because I don't want all the other actors to die. My God. Only question for? Next question. All right. So there was a, I'm not sure about your superhero acumen, but I'm going to ask you to weigh in on a big superhero thing that was happening on this place called Twitter where things that are always positive. What's the place called?

Twitter. Huh. Yeah. The place where only positive things happen. I should check it out. You should try it. It's a utopia. There was a big talk, a big debate on Twitter about who would win in a brawl.

all out superhero brawl between the X-Men and the Avengers. Now, they haven't met the Eternals yet. You guys will be in that discussion after this movie goes on to make a billion dollars. But for right now, if you had to choose a winner between the X-Men and the Avengers, all-out superhero brawl, who are you going with? Okay, so you got Wolverine, you got Gambit, you got... Listen, I got to go with X-Men because, like, because Iron Man's dead.

So they're down flat. There's a new cap in America. He's awesome. He can fly. So that's a plus. But I got to go with X-Men because they've got, like, all those innate abilities. They're not, like, relying on shit they've made.

I mean, one of the Avengers just has a bow and arrow. Oh, shit. Hawkeye catching strays out here from Kingo. It's true. But that's the thing. The X-Men can, like, move and warp reality and time and telekinesis, I get it. No, you're right. Yeah.

Wolverine can heal himself, you know? I mean, there's just like, it just feels that whereas, you know, Thor and Hulk have, like, actual, you know, I mean, what's that man going to do? Like, yeah, real small. All right. Amazing. Amazing. Next question. It was recently revealed in the Eternals post credit scene.

that Harry Stiles is Aeros, aka Star Fox, aka Thanos's brother, who has, quote, pleasure stimulation powers. For those wondering, that means he's very sexy and people can't help but fall in love with him. So, in your opinion, who has the most game in the MCU between Tony Stark, Kingo, and Star Fox?

All right? It's you, it's Harry Stiles, it's R.D.J. Who has the most game? That's tough, man. You can't put this up against one direction. I mean, that feels unfair. I'd love to say, Kingo, but I think it's got to be Harry Styles. Really?

Not all those Bollywood dance moves? You don't think you don't think you could do good in a club. I mean, I would do okay in a club, but Harry Styles walks in, and I wouldn't do okay in a club. I mean, you know, I would do, I'd do great in all Harry Styles list clubs. Once he shows up, I mean, he looks so good in the movie. movie and he's in it for like 30 seconds. The outfit is cool. The hair.

I'm getting angry. Next question. It was pretty obscene. Yeah. It's pretty obscene. Okay. So you became a movie star with your eternity on earth as an eternal. You became a movie star.

I loved how you passed the legacy on from person to person, but really it was just you. Which eternals, which of your eternals, the fellow characters in eternals, would be the most likely to, A, become a YouTuber, B. starting only fans, and C, sell humanity's artifacts on the dark web. Okay, sell humanity's artifacts in the dark web. I feel like Makari would do that because she collects stuff and I think she would sell it. I think Sprite is most likely to start a YouTube only fans. I mean, who's in the movie?

I got a dark horse for you on this one. go ahead. I think it's Icarus. I was going to say I'm only fans? Really? Yeah, I think it's

acres. Because Icarus is all, you know, Icarus is all about business. You know what I mean? I think that's what he left. I think that's what he left Cursley to do. I'll be honest with you.

And I think he like carries so much on his shoulders all the time. You know, it would be nice to like cut loose, you know? That's what you're right. Talk a little bit. Right.

All right. So I have a multiple choice question for you. as well. Kingo projects cosmic energy from his hands. I want you to see who he could beat out of the following. Could Kingo beat Goku's Kamea Mea from Dragon Ball Z? Yes

or no? I'm going to get in trouble for this. Yes. All right, fine. We have three more. Captain Marvel in her binary form. Could Kingo be here? I don't think. Captain Marvel is very, very powerful.

Yeah. Okay. All right. So we have a yes, we have a no. Naruto's Rosangone from Naruto. I don't really know Naruto really well. Damn, all right. I'm so fucking happy that you kept it real right there because I was about to be like, if he knows Naruto, then we need a third slot on the podcast. For real.

All right, that's fine, that's fine. Well, what do you guys think? Do I beat Naruto? No. I don't know Naruto, Charles knows. I don't think so. I don't think so. Okay. No, no offense.

No, it's okay. All right. Kamal and me have some tension right now. I don't know where it's coming. No, no, it's all good. It's fine. Last but not least, Cyclopsies laser beams.

I think Kingo beat Cyclops' laser beams. I think maybe not even the first one, but I think Kingo beat Cyclops' laser beams. I have, yeah, he beats them. No. No. Okay. This is my last one.

Who is more likely right now on this planet to be a celestial in disguise? Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or Barack Obama. When you mentioned it, I knew that you were going to ask, I knew Elon Musk was going to be on the list. When you said Celestial, I was like, Elon Musk. But that's not my answer. Barack Obama, Elon Musk, or Jeff Bezos, I got to go with Barack Obama. Barack Obama? Really? I think so.

Because I don't, I really don't want to. don't want to wade into the rest of the debate. Can I say that? Very fair. Very fair. Totally fair. Very, very, very smart. You guys are trying to trap me?

No, we told you. Can I be honest with you? You are navigating the 12 questions to midnight, minefield, as expertly as anyone ever has you. This is exactly what you say to get me to trip up. You know, when you're doing interviews, of people and they're like trying to be your friends and nice and then they like hit you. That's what you guys are doing.

All right. Next question. Let's see if that's, if I have the right read on it. All right. You have, we see in one of the post-credit scene, our man, Dane being spoken to by someone. You know what I'm saying? And Dane famously was an Avenger, okay? So you get six slots for a new Avengers team.

Who are you going with and does Kingo get one of those slots? Yeah, Kingo. Dane. Do you know who's talking to Dane off screen in that? I don't know. Do you know who's talking to him? Yeah, I do. You saw that scene, right?

Yeah. Did you recognize the voice? We thought it was millions of voices. We've talked ourselves into every different voice, every character in the fucking Marvel universe we've talked ourselves into. Now, it's a specific voice. Whose voice is it, then? Whose voice is it?

You guys have seen the movie. This is after. Yes, we've seen the movie. I've seen it twice. Blade. Is it Blade? It's Maharshala, yeah. Are you sure? Are you positive?

Yeah, I think, I hope I'm done in trouble. But yeah. Oh, wow. That's amazing. All right. We drop up a flex bomb on that. We got some news. So you have four more members. You said, Kingo?

Shang Chi. Oh, wow. Okay. Love it. And then are there like, is Captain Marvel in it? Anybody. This is your team. You could pick anyone.

Captain Marvel. I think we got to bring Circe in. I think she's, I think she's going to be in there. and Thor. So who's out? You wouldn't take Captain America, the new Captain America? Oh, yeah, the new Captain America.

Who stays out? Who does he muscle out? He muscles out Thor, I think. Yeah, he muscles out Thor. Because you got enough firepower. You need some leadership. And Thor's part of O'Guard. He muscles out there.

That's right. That's right. We already got two big egos with Kingo and Thor. You got to get one out. You got to get someone in who can like. Remember, and remember you said, that Thor used to follow you around when you were a kid.

So it's not going to it's going to mess up the team chemistry. So it's Captain Parval, Circe, Shang Chi, Kingo, Captain of America. No,

he'd be in there. And then, Van, you got one more question and I got one more question. Besides the Eternals, because these are some sexy robots, who do you feel like

was the sexiest robot of all time? We're talking Think about the robots that we've had. You've had robots with all different types of charms. You got Johnny Five. You know what I mean? I have a special part of my you got your man from I, robot. Who do you feel like was the robot?

That was a sexy robot. That was a sexy robot. No. Would the woman from weird science count as a robot? How did I not fucking think of that? Is she a robot? Does she count as a real? Because she's Frankenstein's monster.

Is she a robot? I'm going to look up. up is... That's a good question, though. Is she a robot? Because if she is, that's by far the easiest answer. I thought I had a great question.

But would she be considered a robot? Or is she an artificial life? After hooking electrodes to a doll, that does sound like a robot. Sounds like a robot. Yeah. Sounds like a robot. We're going to get a rule,

a final ruling on that later. Let's just go with her. But if you couldn't take her, who would you take? I'm trying to think, You know, I mean, honestly, the metropolis robot is pretty cool. And has influenced a robot design to this day. Robots are like based on the Metropolis robot.

I think that's a sexy robot. All right. The last question. Toughest of the day. For this role, you know, broke out your dance moves, your Bollywood dance moves. I'm going to throw out some people and I want you to know, could you beat them in a dance battle? The first one, could you be? Omarion.

No. You don't think so? No. Are you a fan of Omarion? I mean, I know who he is. I'm not like a fan fan, but... All right, well, I'll send you some... I'll send you a playlist of Omarion, but that's fair.

Chris Brown. Do you think you could beat Chris Brown and dance about? No. Last or not least, Michael Jackson. Do you think you could beat him? Yeah, yeah, I could beat Michael Jackson. Yeah, what are these questions? Charles.

I just wanted to know. I could beat him today. Oh, my God. Come on. Last interview of the day, best interview of the day. Okay? There's more, man. There's one more.

I'm going to go to Seth Myers after this. Oh, shit. Oh, wow. Well, listen, man, big moment for you. Big moment for the entire cast. Appreciate having you. You're a man. You're a superhero now.

You are a superhero. Like, what is, like, I'll let you have the last word. What is it like now for you to be a part of a film franchise and a part of so many people's imaginations, man? It feels amazing. It hasn't hit me yet. the movie's actually coming out tonight. So I think once things settle down, a week from now, I'll be like, okay, wow, this is,

this is real. It's, you know, I have an action figure. I got that action figure. I did buy five of them because I wanted on Amazon to be like, wow, the Kingo action figure is selling really well. Are you going to, are you going to cede them to any of your family being like, here's your Christmas present? Yeah, yeah.

You know, I'm sending them to my family and stuff. I've signed a bunch of them. I've been given them out. You know, Emily was like, we were right before this big publicity tour, we were sitting on our couch and Emily turned to me, and she was like, we went to see Iron Man together opening weekend. And now you're in.

We've seen every MCU movie in the theater. And she was like, and now you're in it. And I was like, oh, well, let's talk about it in three weeks because it's too overwhelming right now. So I just, I'm like, you know, I hope I get to come back. I have no idea what's going to happen next. Like, you know, Dane, Dane feels pretty good.

He feels like a lock. All right, you're coming back. Kingo is coming back. Of course he comes back. We got taken by the most powerful being in the universe who's going to come and rescue us? The other turn goes. You guys will be back. Come on.

Don't act like you don't know how these things go. Your other superpower is humble, being very humble, but come on, man. Don't mess with the midnight boys. We know you coming back. We know you guys are coming back. We appreciate you making the time for us today on the midnight boys. you purported yourself really well in 12 questions at midnight

Kamal Nanjiani Kingo from the Eternals wish you guys all the success and I know we'll be seeing you back around these MCU parts later on. Thanks for talking to me guys someday we'll be in person That is a wrap for us

Thank you so much again to Kamal Nanjiani This coming Monday join Malie Rubin and and Jonah Robertson for their deep dive into Eternals. I'm interested to see what they have to say. I saw this movie with Mal. Will the reel be kept?

Ooh, throwing down the gauntlet. It's a challenge to the House of R. You think they're going to keep it 100? I think they will. We'll see what happens. The Midnight Boys will be back later for the first ever edition of Midnight. Misses. Please stay tuned

for what films we're going to choose for Midnight Misses. Until then, you must follow us, you must, you must, you must. At Ringerverse on Facebook, IG, and Twitter, joined and send questions, ideas, and thoughts. We love talking to you guys, and we love listening to you guys. Producer credits. Our producer is Steve

Alman. Our social producer is Jomey Adiron. Hashtag Fri Jomey on social media, an additional production, as always, from Arjuna Romgapal and T.D. Chuck, take us out. All right. Should the MCU be more horny with the Eternals drink Desani?

I want to send a special shout out to honorary midnight boy. Come on, Nanziani. You, y'all love the Starks, huh? You don't walk with the Starks, man? The dumbest niggas in Westero. Bro, come on. Man, they got heart, man. Sometime it ain't about that.

So they got heart. The dumbest, the dumbest, the dumbest, the dumbest niggas in Westrose. It's not even, man. I love, look, I love it. I love Ned. I love, I love them all. They just dumb, dumb. Aria saved the whole family.

She's the only G. Oh, come on. Wait, actually, I was about to defend John. but like I remember the Battle of the Bastards. I'm like, yeah, he's dumb as hell. That nigga's like, dumb to worse, bro. The worst.

Dumbest, dumbest, dumbest, dumbest, dumbest dudes in all of Westworld. John was in his, listen, John was in his bag the whole series. Hey, Mel Chauvinist, because women keep telling them what they need to do and they don't never listen. Like, like Kat said, hey, just marry the girl. Guess what? You don't marry her. Not everybody gets killed, including this dumb.

Like, I, anyway, let's go, let's get back to this. Okay, so what do you think when Ro Boosy sees this movie?

Do you think he's just going to like blow a gasket? Boosey can't see this. It's like, Boosey, now Boosey can't see the Eternals. Boosey can't even walk into any theaters where the Eternals are playing.

You see scanners where people's heads just explode. You know what I mean? Like, Boosey, Boosy can't be nearly, he can't, it's myriad reasons Boosey not going to deal with this.

Boosey played him, self in his biopic. Was it like, I would see screenshots with this. He was supposed to be like 15. Yeah. And this thing was just like, Boosey, you 50. Like, you couldn't get a younger actor. Get old Cripkeeper.

Shout out to Boosie, though. Baton Rouge, bro. That Boosey does not sleep Boosey out of it, bro. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy? It's the real California farm families behind it. Real people. Real care. Real intention.

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