Captain Marvel - Review...
Mar. 16th, 2019 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Saw Captain Marvel today with movie buddy (aka cjlasky). He wanted to see US - I told him that I don't see horror films on the big screen and wanted to see Captain Marvel. US is the sort of movie that will give me nightmares. The trailer is enough to give me nightmares. (I also spoil myself for horror movies. I was discussing this with a co-worker -- who agreed. She asked if I looked up the synopsis first and read the plot before seeing it. Yep. She does the same thing.)
Anyhow, Captain Marvel -- I hate to say this, but, the audience made the movie a lot more fun. It was very interactive. Applauded. And it knew there would be stuff after the credits. A couple of people didn't. But most of the audience did -- we saw it at the Court Street 12 plex, which caters to a more diverse crowd than the Cobble Hill Art House -- which tends to be upper middle class white, Court 12 is a lot more diverse. (One of the reasons I prefer it, the other is leg room.) What blows my mind is now the movie theaters have reserved seating -- like live theater. You have to pick a seat on an electronic chart before getting there and you get that seat. Most people buy ahead of time on a Movie Theater App on their phones. This annoys me and makes no sense. Number one, it's not exactly easy to find the seats. And it doesn't add anything. Movies are supposed to be spontaneous, you just decide to go. You don't buy tickets ahead of time. Also what if you want to get tickets separately. And end up getting seats not together -- where's the fun in that?
But all whinging aside, I enjoyed the flick, well for the most part. It's a whole lot of fun. And the characters are likable.
Unfortunately, Carol Danvers was the least interesting character in it -- which isn't Brie Larson's fault. The writer's just didn't do a great job of developing her character -- and focused too much on theme, plot and making her an icon. (Although I did like her flying and the special effects, I wish they'd developed her more.) This is a trend I've been seeing in female-centric superhero films. I don't know why they can't do a female super-hero flick the same way they do the male super-hero flick. Why does it have to be about "female empowerment" and icons? Why can't they do a film like Batman or Superman or Spiderman or Iron Man but with a woman in the lead?
As an aside, this reminds me of a speech my boss gave about a female VP at the Railroad who was retiring. And how he had sent her bio to all the women in the group to help "empower" us. And I thought -- I'm sorry, I know you see this as empowering, but I find it depressing. We have one female VP. We had one female head of the Railroad, who got pushed into resignation and replaced by one man after another, and 98% of the management is male. We had one female head of procurement, when she left, there are no women in direct line for her position. That's depressing. It's depressing when you have had over 100 superhero films and only two have had female leads, and without exception in both films, the male sidekick was more developed and more interesting than the female lead. She was upstaged by her male co-stars.
Although at least this round the male co-star was Samuel L Jackson, and he was comic relief, and not a romantic love interest. But I'd have preferred it if Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) had that role. Jackson didn't help develop Danvers character much, while she did develop his -- the movie reads more as an origin tale of Nick Fury and the Avengers, than it really does of Danvers.
What the film does right is - it doesn't give into the temptation to have a love interest or to make Jude Law's character the love interest. It also focuses heavily on the friendships and camaraderi between Maria, Nick and Carol. Annette Being is also fun in the role of Carol's mentor. I really liked the relationship and deep friendship between Maria and Carol -- that's the love story in the film, if there is one.
There's a mislead about Carol being Kree or half-Kree, when in truth she's not Kree at all and had somehow become Kree through a blood transfusion. Also, a mislead regarding who the real villains of the film are. It's not Ben Mendalshon's Skrull Leader. Actually the twist is a bit jarring, because the Skrulls go from entertainingly moustache twirling villains, to...well, not at all, in a blink of an eye.
I liked the twist. But I think it would have worked better if they'd downplayed the Skrull villainy in the beginning a bit more. Also, there's far too much exposition and back-story plot that requires unpacking.
The narrative is told in an interesting manner -- but it is jarring and hard to follow and causes pacing issues, also the audience struggles to connect with Danvers. Instead of starting on Earth, with Carol struggling with flashbacks of becoming a Kree warrior. We start on Halo, Kree's homeworld, and Carol struggling with flashbacks of being a pilot on Earth -- memories that make no sense to her.
She has an odd relationship with Jude Law's character, her superior, who is also her mentor. They have chemistry, but it appears to be more on his end than hers. (Jude Law can generate chemistry with a door.) But she doesn't seem close to anyone and a bit lost. They go on a mission to pick up an agent -- and things go awry. Basically Carol gets grabbed.
Most of the film is a slow reveal of Carol's powers and her discovery of her powers, while being caught between the Kree and Skrull fight for a device that would make it possible for the Skrull to return home. The device in question is the Tesserect, which Loki steals from Fury in the first Avengers film. Only to give it to Thanos in the last Avenger's film.
The other section is back story on Fury and how starts the Avengers and takes Shield in a different direction. Including how Fury lost his eye...which is clever and completely unexpected.
And the scene stealer is a domestic ginger cat named goose. Who spends most of its time with Jackson, because Larson is allergic to cats. She has two brief interactions with the cat.
Maria Rambeau is largely wasted, although I love their relationship -- I wanted much more. Perhaps we'll get it in the Avengers Endgame or the sequel to Captain Marvel.
It's very much an origin tale and they are original in a few ways, no emphasis on childhood, or parents, mainly on her friendships, pilot background, and time with the Kree. Heavy emphasis on science-fiction much like Black Panther, and powers from an alien device.
The 1990s retro adds humor to the mix and there are some rather amusing tid-bits. It's subtle humor, which works better for me, actually. There's one amusing bit where they wait forever for something to download from a flashdrive.
Overall? It's not the best of the films to date. And they really need to up their game with the female super-hero films. Provide more depth. Danvers deserved a film that had the same amount of emotional pull as say Iron Man or Captain America.
Less posing more emotional arc. And it's not there. I don't know why. In some respects, Wonder Woman was the better film -- because it had more of an emotional center. While Captain Marvel was by far the more diverse and politically palatable one.
2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Crimes of Grindemore has finally found its way to On Demand, along with Green Book. Also I discovered they have all the Marvel films available, except for Into the Spiderverse.
Anyhow, Captain Marvel -- I hate to say this, but, the audience made the movie a lot more fun. It was very interactive. Applauded. And it knew there would be stuff after the credits. A couple of people didn't. But most of the audience did -- we saw it at the Court Street 12 plex, which caters to a more diverse crowd than the Cobble Hill Art House -- which tends to be upper middle class white, Court 12 is a lot more diverse. (One of the reasons I prefer it, the other is leg room.) What blows my mind is now the movie theaters have reserved seating -- like live theater. You have to pick a seat on an electronic chart before getting there and you get that seat. Most people buy ahead of time on a Movie Theater App on their phones. This annoys me and makes no sense. Number one, it's not exactly easy to find the seats. And it doesn't add anything. Movies are supposed to be spontaneous, you just decide to go. You don't buy tickets ahead of time. Also what if you want to get tickets separately. And end up getting seats not together -- where's the fun in that?
But all whinging aside, I enjoyed the flick, well for the most part. It's a whole lot of fun. And the characters are likable.
Unfortunately, Carol Danvers was the least interesting character in it -- which isn't Brie Larson's fault. The writer's just didn't do a great job of developing her character -- and focused too much on theme, plot and making her an icon. (Although I did like her flying and the special effects, I wish they'd developed her more.) This is a trend I've been seeing in female-centric superhero films. I don't know why they can't do a female super-hero flick the same way they do the male super-hero flick. Why does it have to be about "female empowerment" and icons? Why can't they do a film like Batman or Superman or Spiderman or Iron Man but with a woman in the lead?
As an aside, this reminds me of a speech my boss gave about a female VP at the Railroad who was retiring. And how he had sent her bio to all the women in the group to help "empower" us. And I thought -- I'm sorry, I know you see this as empowering, but I find it depressing. We have one female VP. We had one female head of the Railroad, who got pushed into resignation and replaced by one man after another, and 98% of the management is male. We had one female head of procurement, when she left, there are no women in direct line for her position. That's depressing. It's depressing when you have had over 100 superhero films and only two have had female leads, and without exception in both films, the male sidekick was more developed and more interesting than the female lead. She was upstaged by her male co-stars.
Although at least this round the male co-star was Samuel L Jackson, and he was comic relief, and not a romantic love interest. But I'd have preferred it if Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) had that role. Jackson didn't help develop Danvers character much, while she did develop his -- the movie reads more as an origin tale of Nick Fury and the Avengers, than it really does of Danvers.
What the film does right is - it doesn't give into the temptation to have a love interest or to make Jude Law's character the love interest. It also focuses heavily on the friendships and camaraderi between Maria, Nick and Carol. Annette Being is also fun in the role of Carol's mentor. I really liked the relationship and deep friendship between Maria and Carol -- that's the love story in the film, if there is one.
There's a mislead about Carol being Kree or half-Kree, when in truth she's not Kree at all and had somehow become Kree through a blood transfusion. Also, a mislead regarding who the real villains of the film are. It's not Ben Mendalshon's Skrull Leader. Actually the twist is a bit jarring, because the Skrulls go from entertainingly moustache twirling villains, to...well, not at all, in a blink of an eye.
I liked the twist. But I think it would have worked better if they'd downplayed the Skrull villainy in the beginning a bit more. Also, there's far too much exposition and back-story plot that requires unpacking.
The narrative is told in an interesting manner -- but it is jarring and hard to follow and causes pacing issues, also the audience struggles to connect with Danvers. Instead of starting on Earth, with Carol struggling with flashbacks of becoming a Kree warrior. We start on Halo, Kree's homeworld, and Carol struggling with flashbacks of being a pilot on Earth -- memories that make no sense to her.
She has an odd relationship with Jude Law's character, her superior, who is also her mentor. They have chemistry, but it appears to be more on his end than hers. (Jude Law can generate chemistry with a door.) But she doesn't seem close to anyone and a bit lost. They go on a mission to pick up an agent -- and things go awry. Basically Carol gets grabbed.
Most of the film is a slow reveal of Carol's powers and her discovery of her powers, while being caught between the Kree and Skrull fight for a device that would make it possible for the Skrull to return home. The device in question is the Tesserect, which Loki steals from Fury in the first Avengers film. Only to give it to Thanos in the last Avenger's film.
The other section is back story on Fury and how starts the Avengers and takes Shield in a different direction. Including how Fury lost his eye...which is clever and completely unexpected.
And the scene stealer is a domestic ginger cat named goose. Who spends most of its time with Jackson, because Larson is allergic to cats. She has two brief interactions with the cat.
Maria Rambeau is largely wasted, although I love their relationship -- I wanted much more. Perhaps we'll get it in the Avengers Endgame or the sequel to Captain Marvel.
It's very much an origin tale and they are original in a few ways, no emphasis on childhood, or parents, mainly on her friendships, pilot background, and time with the Kree. Heavy emphasis on science-fiction much like Black Panther, and powers from an alien device.
The 1990s retro adds humor to the mix and there are some rather amusing tid-bits. It's subtle humor, which works better for me, actually. There's one amusing bit where they wait forever for something to download from a flashdrive.
Overall? It's not the best of the films to date. And they really need to up their game with the female super-hero films. Provide more depth. Danvers deserved a film that had the same amount of emotional pull as say Iron Man or Captain America.
Less posing more emotional arc. And it's not there. I don't know why. In some respects, Wonder Woman was the better film -- because it had more of an emotional center. While Captain Marvel was by far the more diverse and politically palatable one.
2. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Crimes of Grindemore has finally found its way to On Demand, along with Green Book. Also I discovered they have all the Marvel films available, except for Into the Spiderverse.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 08:19 pm (UTC)(This movie gave my family enough "flerken" jokes to last my cat's natural lifetime. For that, I will always be grateful.)
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 11:29 pm (UTC)LOL! You and the rest of the movie going public that happens to own cats, apparently. Particularly those with fat ginger cats.
I guess I was slightly disappointed that the movie never hit that "next level." Maybe on rewatch, I'll appreciate it for what it is--a solid, science-fiction action/adventure flick.
I went in with low-expectations. The critical reviews were luke-warm at best, as were many of the reviews on DW.
So, I knew from the reviews -- it would be great on the politically progressive front and fast-action sequences, but lacking in overall character development. (Although to be fair, most action adventure sci-fi movies do..) Also...it had two directors and three screen-writers -- this never bodes well for a movie. Considering that? It was actually pretty good. Also if you compare it to a lot of the DC flicks (ie. Superman and Justice League), it's very good. I'd put it and Wonder Woman on the same level, in some respects WW was better, and in other respects CM was better...