The latest massive Marvel blockbuster Eternals has finally hit big screens globally and sees the Marvel debut of Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie.
Like so many other big blockbusters, two years of COVID Horribilis laid waste to production and release schedules but now, finally, Marvel fans get their Eternals.
A swathe of new superheroes make the leap from the comics to the screen and they're not what we're used to seeing, in the very best of ways.
"Of course there's a deaf superhero, of course we're from all over the world and of course everybody is a different shape, of course," actress Angelina Jolie tells Newshub.
Eternals also features Marvel's first openly gay superhero, leading to the news overnight of the movie being banned in Saudi Arabia and several other Arab countries.
"Even though everyone is so different and there is so much diversity, it's not the theme," Jolie says. "We tried as much as we could to normalise that we all work together, that we are a family and that many people you've not seen as superheroes are superheroes. And it should just feel normal."
A big theme knitting Eternals together is a very timely one, individuals coming together to amplify their powers. Jolie believes now is the right time for the film.
"There's no way forward if we're not working together. We're not going to solve these global problems we're not going to do better for our children if we are all thinking selfishly with fear of just how to survive ourselves in our own little bubble with our own people who are similar to us.
"It's not interesting. It's ineffective and it's ignorant."
Jolie plays powerful warrior superhero Thena in the film, working closely with her director Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao to bring Thena to life.
"It's like therapy. You talk a lot about what your own personal struggles are and aspects of yourself. Then she develops the character in that direction. So each of our characters are very similar to who we are in fact."
Jolie says that's true with her and her character.
"What I loved about her, and I think this is true for a lot of people, but I'll say for women, and a female character, she's often wondering if she's strong enough to protect those she loves, if she can do everything she needs to do.
"She is weighed down by a lot that she feels and has experienced and a lot of her pain. I think a lot of people and a lot of women can relate to that."
Marvel will be hoping all those people will indeed relate to that and power up the box office in the process.
Eternals has just opened across the world.
