Captain Marvel 2019

This movie feels like a piece of music where somebody polled most listeners of music and then took everything they like and just smash it all into one piece.

It has all the elements we like in a Marvel-Movie, but it doesn't necessarily seem to fit.

To be clear, it is not an InYourFace-Feministic movie.
It has a strong (in the end ridiculously strong) female lead character (to be fair, Cpt Marvel is that in the comics too...) but they don't demean the male characters in order to do so (Well, at least not more than they do in superhero-movies with male leads).

Not a spoiler regarding this movie, but Marvels - Infinity Wars - to be clear, it is nothing more than a broad summary to make a point, but some ppl here are marking entire posts as spoilers because of stuff you can't fend off if you are an internet user...:

To make clear why this feels smashed together at an example:
What the FUCK is an emergency?
How did THANOS IS COMING TO EARTH not constitute one? I can't imagine that resettling as few refugees - even if it is an entire race is more important than trying to save 50% of all sentient life in the galaxy?!?

To Paraphrase Brie Larson: "This Movie wasn't Made for Marvel Fans. Am I saying I hate Marvel Fans? No, I am not. What I am saying is if you make a Comic Book Movie that is a love letter to women, there is an insanely low chance a woman will see your movie, and review your movie.”

I don’t hate Captain Marvel the movie. My 4/10 rating indicates a score as an MCU movie, but also because of the inherent deception of the marketing and story/writing.

Captain Marvel the character is entirely CG, and they could quietly replace the actor. If you go into this movie thinking it will introduce Captain Marvel in the MCU, it didn’t achieve that. They don’t even call her Captain Marvel.

Much like Edward Norton’s ”Incredible Hulk”, it’s the woeful and unlikeable storyline/direction that makes the movie hard to enjoy, not Edward Norton. People will argue for the next 5-10 years about Edward Norton or being MisCast, or wether CM should have been made, or wether to recast Captain Marvel.

Just like how people argue for the Film versions of Daredevil and/or Elektra to be part of the MCU for some reason. The Director team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and Kevin Feige as Producer on the entire MCU to this point, is going to take the bullet on this one, not the “Dream Team” of disposable screenplay and Indie Directors that are more likely to be responsible. Most MCU fans forget that The Incredible Hulk is part of the MCU, because of the successful recasting.

Phase 4, which begins in July 2019 with Spiderman 2 Far From Home, will likely be the point at which they choose another Captain Marvel, or set up a replacement/apprentice character for the main actor to retire the role.

I find CM to be damaged and disappointing because the potential to make “Superwoman” in the MCU, building a character that has the potential to explore amazing new stories, pulling apart the flaws of other superheroes, learning from the mistakes and pitfalls of others, is going to happen in another movie. Just not this Captain Marvel.

The worst aspect of Captain Marvel is realising how the after-effects of this movie, will bleed into 2020 and the next few Marvel movies. Namely, that WOKE marketing worked this time, despite efforts to mislead. There is feminism in the film, but it’s insulting parody to call this a feminist film.

They successfully highlighted the unlikeable Brie Larson, and used her to keep the cycle of attention and outrage, while presenting the movie as a female led story. This might not work for other movies, especially if the Actor(s) are sensitive to being leveraged, or their careers destroyed. Much like Solo: A Star Wars Story, or Ghostbusters 2016 tried to use Pansexuality, blaming the fans for not liking a bad movie.

It’s also becoming harder to ignore the spectacle of outsourcing 19+ companies with 900 different CG artists that modern movies are reliant on, disguising a rotten core with spectacular imagery. When you just look at the story being told, or try to remember what the story is… That’s what matters. Not the explosions or the delights made by artisans. Because, you’ll forget them after a few days.

The Biggest Flaw of Captain Marvel is that it fails at being an origin story

Beyond all of the other tiny flaws, average scenes, disconnected plot moments, the absurdly mishandled retcons, and the attempts at activism and humour that prematurely die due to a lack of talent in the writing and directing teams, among a litany of small and large problems that mount up,

Carol/Captain Marvel is given superpowers and is not changed or motivated to do anything different. The convolution of the “Amnesia soldier” trope and the convoluted surprises during the film, hide the fact that Captain Marvel is underwhelming and disappointing. The use of the Star Trek Insurrection plotline in Act 3, isn’t the issue.

Nothing can be done to fix or remediate this, because the movie can’t or won’t go in the direction needed to tell the story that the audience wants to experience. Instead, the writers and directors show us an afternoon for Carol Danvers in which she snarkily destroys things with a smile on her face, but looks bored most of the time.

Removing the Feminism isn’t effective. Re-casting Carol Danvers for another actor won’t modify the screenplay or change the directors. Swapping Brie Larson for ANYONE, can’t make people care about the character, because the character is unchanged from the beginning to the end. We never see Carol evolve, her challenges don’t change the character or make her heroic.

To summarise

• It’s not the worst MCU movie.
• It is the most disappointing though.
• Avengers: Endgame is ~6 weeks away or so, by then, everyone will have forgotten CM.
• Yes, it is a film with Feminism - It’s treated as a joke or punchline by the writers.
• Going into 2019, expect movie critics to attack fans when they lose “Access” for bad PR.
• Goose the Cat should kill Captain Marvel, and the entire Avengers team during the mid-credits break on Endgame, as they’re celebrating their success, to end Phase 4.
• The retcon of Fury’s Eye being lost is a deep insult to MCU fans, or, it’s a light-hearted nod to the fact that this is a comic book story franchise, that has made $18 Billion US Dollars, and is going to go on for 20 more years. You decide.
• Captain Marvel will defeat Thanos, by bringing up his sexist tweets from 2009 in Avengers:Endgame
• Goose the Cat is going to kill Thanos in Endgame, because someone at Disney will find it funny.

The Good

• The CG team did a fantastic job in making Captain Marvel.
• DC’s Captain Marvel trailer, looks fantastic…
• Great work was done by ILM & 20+ CG studios to make the Suit/Mohawk/Breather work and not look out of place.
• The Mohawk does not look silly. The “Tesseract Fire” and “Photon Blasts” are messy.
• The De-aging on SLJ works, Coulson’s is a bit more jarring as you struggle to recognise his face at certain angles.
• Every character in the movie is more interesting to watch than Brie Larson.
• Ben Mendelsohn’s Australian Accent is Superb, elevates the movie and has subtlety, it makes you notice by contrast how mediocre Brie Larson’s delivery is.
• The Cat, is pointless.
• 11-year old Monica “Lieutenant Trouble” Rambeau, isn’t terrible, but the age will be a problem. Expect “Trouble” to show up in SHIELD, 25 years later as another RetCon.
• The overt activism present in the movie, does not detract from the movie’s plot, but it shifts tone and leads to disconnected moments.

The Bad

• There is a continual dissonance when Brie is playing Air Force Carol, Starforce Soldier Veers or pyrotechnician Captain Marvel, or regular casual Carol. It never feels like a character, not even when the costumes change.
• Usually there’s a few moments of crossover, where you might get Robert Downey Jr instead of Iron Man, etc, you never get the sense that Brie Larson is a pilot, kree soldier, Superhero, or human character within the story unless her clothing changes.
• Your experience might vary, but Brie Larson is unlikeable at times. “noble warrior heroes” isn’t supposed to sound condescending or sarcastic.
• The levity, backstory and character moments in Act 2, do not help make Brie Likeable.
• The moments of Levity and snark, which work on other characters, and female characters, feel wooden, rehearsed and sociopathic when Brie Larson is reciting them.
• The scenes as Full Powered Super-Saiyan Captain Marvel, feel out of place because there’s no teasing or sense of context. She goes from fist-fighting Kree and Skrulls to flying length-way through a starship to destroy it as an invulnerable missile.
• The visual Look & Focus of Captain Marvel when using the tesseract-given power, perhaps due to storyboarding of combat to look like flight or aerial combat maneuvering, needs improvement or better storyboarding to follow the danger and action.
• The plot is intentionally convoluted, and does not actually fit together, because the screenplay is intentionally patchworked together to bring characters to action scenes.
• Unravelling the timeline of the movie, shows a few plot holes with the character of Dr Lawson / the Kree Scientist Mar-Vell who has been hiding on earth during the early 80s or earlier.
• Rather that uncovering world-building, Mar-Vell hiding on earth unpacks a larger set of questions about how Yon-Rogg finds & kills Mar-Vell, and the “Engine Prototype”, which is the Tesseract-Lite.
• Hala, the Kree Homeworld, looks good, but it feels like a badly made CGI city because the writers don’t seem to understand EVERYTHING needs to be fleshed out and named for these films.
• The setup of the Skrulls as the Kree’s public Enemy is hammy & executes badly.
• Nobody calls Carol Danvers… Captain Marvel.
• Act 1 is very similar to Battle Angel Alita, but also Ghost in the Shell 2017.
• Act 2 is occasionally interesting. It’s supposed to be the point where you learn more about Carol Danvers and her personality, But you end up being more interested in the other Actors
• Act 3 ‘s Star Trek Insurrection reference, the Skrulls are “ILLEGAL ALIEN” Refugees, And Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) was scanning Carol Danver’s memories to locate MarVell and find his family.
• The Skrull, and the Kree are turned into 2D villains that RetCon earlier and later versions of those characters in the MCU.
• Turning the Skrull into “Illegal Aliens” and Refugees, is stupid on several levels and I wish that this story was removed from the movie,
• The Cat is pointless.
• Once you get home from the cinema, or get up from the couch, the clock starts ticking before your enjoyment wanes.
• The screenwriting team of Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Nicole Perlman (GOTG, Detective Pikachu), Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider), Meg LeFauve (Inside Out, Good Dinosaur), but also uncredited work from Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch (Nurse Jackie, GLOW) are more likely to be the cardinal dilemma, of how not to write a superhero origin story.

The Ugly

• We get Brie Larson, Cosplaying as Carol Danvers in a Captain Marvel suit.
• I don’t believe it’s Mis-Casting alone, the writing and direction is to blame for a lot of faults.
• They broke the Marvel Formula, by failing to make an Origin Story.
• I’m not sure the writers understood the Marvel Formula, but Kevin Feige should have. It’s his franchise to ruin, and he’s certainly put this movie in the best possible spot to be forgotten. That’s not going to work Kevin.
• The montage of “Rise Up” scenes are parody.
• The way that the “Women Rise Up” Feminist agenda moments happen in the movie, it takes you out of the nostalgia of the 90s when it occurs.
• There’s a Ghostbusters 2016 moment with a biker parking nearby, telling CM to “Smile More”, next scene, you see her riding his bike.
• There’s a Dick Measuring scene. 6 Female Screenplay writers, Go figure.
• Fight scenes are choppy & hard to follow due to frequent cuts.
• Due to the absurd dropping of all tension once Talos reveals that he’s a refugee, at least 20 minutes earlier, his team was shooting at Danvers & fighting with Fury.
• Music and Foley / sound is occasionally all-over the place. Layering and separation was messy at times with the music. I get that it’s bombastic to hear No Doubt “Just a Girl” at 95db, but there’s also dialogue and combat going on. Possibly a result of flattening the Atmos audio to regular audio levels.
• Captain Marvel is a Mary Sue insert, it’s hard to empathise with a perfect character or predict what they’ll do.
• Maria Rambeau, who plays Carol’s BFF. That relationship is hostile at times, Maria doesn’t react appropriately, and there’s a lack of emotion expressed.
• I Like the Cat, but the RetCon with Fury is not a “funny joke moment” and it makes the movie worse in context. This is a “throwing the lightsaber away for a joke” moment in the MCU, that should have been stopped by Feige and others.
• I Hope that Endgame does not balance on the personality of Captain Marvel’s choices or powers.

The problem with movies like Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman is that we put too much weight on them. It can't just be a good movie because try to rest the future of all female movies on one origin story, which is ridiculous. Wonder Woman was lucky in that all previous DC movies were pathetic so it didn't have too much to live up to, though it highly exceeded all expectations. The problem with Captain Marvel is it's being compared to 10 years of Marvel movies. We're comparing it to Infinity War, to Civil War, to movies that were a culmination of years of character building. If you compare this to the first Captain America origin movie, its on par. If you compare it to the first Thor movie, its even better. And yet, instead we expect it to build on all that Marvel has done, which is impossible. No, it's not as good as Infinity War, and that's okay. For an origin story its good. And its silly to dislike it because of what it represents of because we're comparing to every othet Marvel movie. It's all silly to pretend that its better than all previous Marvel movies just because it has a female lead. Its good. As an origin story its good but it is not world shatteringly amazing. Its lacking some depth, some darkness and pain, more of a sense of overcoming. But its still good and I enjoyed it.

It certainly looks like the internet has broken into two camps over this movie. Either it’s an incomprehensible mess with way to on-the-nose feminist messaging or it’s a feminist masterpiece with great characters and bad-ass action scenes.

Personally I think it’s somewhere in the middle.

Boden and Fleck have proven themselves with character based indie films such as Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind. Captain Marvel is at it’s best when they channel that style, Larson and Jackson have great on-screen chemistry and watching the two becoming friends and solve the mystery of Carol Danvers’ (Brie Larson) past makes for a fun buddy type film.

Ben Mendelsohn is clearly having a lot of fun playing a slightly different role than he is known for and it is great to see Clark Gregg back on the big screen as Agent Coulson.

The 90′s nostalgia aspect of the film can come across pretty heavy-handed at points but I think for the most part it works. The soundtrack is full of great 90′s songs, even if one particular music cue was way too obvious.

As far as the feminist undertones go I think this film did a pretty great job at incorporating a pro-female message without it ever feeling preachy. When the film does decide to focus on it’s feminist theme it tends to do so with a humours tone that feels even more satisfying after seeing the immediate backlash this film got from certain pockets of the internet.

Despite all this, the film does lack the unique visual flare of the past few MCU movies. At points Captain Marvel feels like it would be more at home with the phase one Marvel films with its lack of direction which is disappointing as I have already said that Boden and Fleck are talented filmmakers. Most action scenes are forgettable and without that extra visual element even the dialogue scenes can tend to drag and even enter melodramatic territory at points.

It should be said regardless of your opinion on the film as a whole that the special effects used to deage Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg are absolutely remarkable. For the most part the special effects are really good throughout the film, one model towards the end can look a little rubbery but compared to some of the character models in Black Panther this is absolutely an improvement.

Overall Captain Marvel is far from the best MCU film and certainly isn’t the masterpiece that many fans had hoped it to be but it also isn’t anywhere near the garbage-fire that many other fans where ready for it to be. I have to recommend this one on the basis of it being a fun buddy movie with a great cast.

A mediocre movie that pretends to be an empowering female lead movie but ends up just being kind of dumb. Anything I was actually interested in was glazed over, there is no clear villain or even a satisfying climax, and I honestly found Jude Law to be more interesting than the main character. The problem with Brie Larson's character is that she doesn't have a lot of personality traits other than she's "strong" and sarcastic. She is uninteresting, and her awesome helmet is barely used. She doesn't even appear to need it. Since I can't spoil anything else, I'll end this review here, but yeah. It's a movie that is being praised for its mediocrity simply because the title character is a woman. Anyone who dislikes it is suspected to be a hater or a toxic white male, and the point of the movie is that the world is holding women back. That might not seem bad until you remember that there are two genders - male and female. If the oppressed people are women in general, then that makes everyone else (aka men) the metaphorical enemy. It's uncomfortable to be a guy watching the movie, even though I've wanted a good female lead Marvel movie just as much as everyone else. Not all men are sexist. Perhaps if they had taken a page from Wonder Woman's book and created a character that both men and women could genuinely look up to, we'd have a better movie. But alas, I found myself praying that Jude Law would make it to the end of the movie. Carol just isn't that interesting, funny or even likable.

Undaunted by reviewers and critics, alike, who were giving the movie a 6 out of 10 when the day began, I (with adjusted expectations) ventured out to see this movie which I had highly anticipated. I thought it was really good. I wonder, if I had not adjusted my expectations and gone to see it, still seduced by the advertising hype which led me to believe this would be Marvel's challenge to WONDER WOMAN (which I have now seen 3 time and gave an enthusiastic 9 out of 10), would I have felt let down (as it seems others felt after the opening night). Perhaps. But, having been cautioned by early opinions, I found the story to be clear cut, the performances to be solid (Brie Larson was spectacular), the Marvel humour to be fully present and appropriate to the tone of the characters and the special effects great. In my ad hoc exit poll (OK, more like casual chats with others as we exited the theatre) I found others also enjoyed it. So, I am giving this film an 8.5 (really good) out of 10. So, I say - Go see it - let it stand on its own merits - and I think you'll like it, too. [Superhero Adventure]

[7.4/10] Captain Marvel is essentially a phase one Marvel movie. That’s not a bad thing! The original dose of MCU superhero flicks are generally doubles more than they’re home runs, but each is enjoyable and establishes their characters nicely. The journey in each is clearly a personal one, as much about the hero becoming who they’re meant to be as it is about defeating the forgettable bad guys. That’s certainly true for Captain Marvel, where the nominally cataclysmic stakes, already diminished by the period setting, take a backseat to the audience getting to know this new character and her path to self-actualization.

And yet, it’s hard not to be a little disappointed in the staidness of the formula here. Over the last few years, Marvel has given us character introductions films in the way of Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and even the fine-but-not-great Doctor Strange that offered something a little different, a little more striking than the old norm. Captain Marvel is a solid and entertaining rendition of the phase one form, but it’s tough not to wish for a film that broke the mold a little more.

Then again, maybe it’s enough that the MCU is breaking a different mold that it took Marvel Studios 20 films to crack. Captain Marvel is the MCU’s first female-led solo flick, and is self-conscious of that fact. The film is unabashed about the specific challenges faced by its title character because of her gender. And the movie carries a laudable message about embracing the emotion and the strength that women are otherwise encouraged to quell because it’s not expected of or embraced in them. To their credit, directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck didn’t just make a superhero movie starring a woman; they made one about being a woman.

The problem is that the film is fairly heavy-handed and cliché on this front. I’m not averse to important lessons needing to be shouted for the people in the back. But the bluntness of the “powers as emotions” metaphor, montages of generic sexism, and lines to the effect of “I don’t need your approval” lay it all on very thick. In an age where certain corners walked away from Black Panther thinking it was somehow an endorsement of the current U.S. administration, maybe films need to be that direct to make their points understood. But the foregrounding and standard delivery of those points lessened their impact for me.

But there’s plenty that the film does well. For one thing, it features an outstanding twist, where the squared-jawed, slick-looking heroes turn out to be the bad guys, and the orc-looking, shape-shifting scoundrels turn out to be sympathetic refugees. There’s a solid dose of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s influence on Captain Marvel, but no more so than in the chosen one and her pals having casual, even jokey conversations with prosthetics-covered monsters who have more depth and character than their first impression would suggest. Ben Mendelsohn emotes through the rubber appliances with endearing aplomb, and reorienting of the game board that comes from his character’s reveals is one of the film’s strongest choices.

I just wish we saw more of an impact on Captain Marvel herself. For being the epiphany that changes which side of the fight the title character is on, the movie doesn't really linger on it, or give us much time to see our hero processing it. Instead, it’s just sort of a given that she’s swayed and bothered by this, and the movie jaunts off to Captain Marvel and her allies striking back. For such a devastating reveal, with lies that Carol Danvers had been catching onto already, I wanted more time seeing the protagonist dealing with it rather than the film just dashing off into the next set piece.

But they’re good set pieces, by and large. The third act CGI-palooza becomes too much at some points, with some odd Super Saiyan-y choices for Captain Marvel herself and the perfunctory, stakes-lowering presence of the villain from Guardians 1. But a series of cat and mouse chases through the stacks of a military facility, and a handcuffed throwdown with the Skrulls all have some nice verve and character in them. Like all of the cosmic-set Marvel movies, you lose a little punch (figuratively, definitely not literally), when the setting makes things seem a bit too unreal, but there’s plenty of high points to enjoy.

It’s also easy to enjoy the dynamic between Captain Marvel and her unlikely allies. The aforementioned human/Skrull friendship is an unexpected source of warmth in the film. But Carol’s relationship with her forgotten friend Maria and her daughter Monica (a.k.a. Lieutenant Trouble, a downright adorable nickname), gives the film its heart. The strength of that friendship (and Lashana Lynch’s performance) adds the emotional ballast that helps ground Captain Marvel’s wrong-side epiphany and bring her back to Earth. Even the presence of Goose the cat adds some levity and surprise to the movie.

But the gold standard is the quick camaraderie between Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. A Captain Marvel movie rightfully ought to have solid snootfuls of cosmic chicanery. But this film left me wishing that we could lean less on intergalactic intrigue and more on the outstanding buddy cop movie starring Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson that took up the middle of the film. Their dynamic is the best thing in Captain Marvel and manages to humanize both characters in the midst of these otherwise world-shaking, life-changing events.

Captain Marvel also does well with its 1990s period setting, and other bits of texture. The song cues are all enjoyable and, while becoming more standard, still have the novelty as the soundtrack for superhero film. There’s a few moments in the film that feel a little cheesy -- like the “here’s why my suit is this color” or “here’s how we named The Avengers” bits that seem awfully close to something out of Disney stablemate Solo: A Star Wars Story. But by and large, the film is good at parceling out the inevitable superhero origin story details judiciously and mixing them with humor and more particular character beats.

It just doesn't do much to subvert or change-up the Marvel intro-movie formula that had, given recent output, seemed to be more a thing of 2009 than 2019 (or 1995 for that matter). Captain Marvel is thoroughly enjoyable, with a neat twist, a strong central pairing, and a commendable message. It just can’t quite transcend its “self-realization + punching” roots to become more than another link in the great MCU chain. But if this formula is still in play, if it’s still Marvel’s preferred method for establishing a new pillar of its uber-franchise, then I’m still glad to finally see it used on a different sort of Captain.

So, is it overly feministic? No, it isn't. I'd say Wonder Woman is more so than this film. It holds it's character strongly and does not diverge the audience's views when watching. The undertones are there sure, but it isn't in your face. Just thought I'd get that out of the way because some around me were wondering that themselves.

Carol Danvers is a great addition to the MCU. Not only has the studio thought long and hard about her placement, but also on how they can make her a defining character for our day and age. No doubt that in the future she will grow and see stronger days herself. But for now, we are left with a very fast paced story with Carol herself, not seeming quite right. There is something off about Brie Larson's performance, and I think it's because of the quick cutting of emotional stages she goes through. I know they are making an amnesia story (with a slim amount of tropes I might add!), but for some reason, she can't seem coherent enough in emotional performing to make this character fully likeable. Then again. it's an origin story. The way she is blunt with others is a plus though.

The villain is complicated here. While I'd say one of the better in the MCU. There are some drawbacks to how they interact with Carol. Not much I can say about them. But having a movie set in the past with a big threat like in the 3rd act was kind of stupid in my opinion. No stakes at all.

For the technical side of things, shots were nice. Too much cutting than I would have liked in fight scenes in hand to hand. The final fight was greatly done though. The music didn't stand out much and was unneeded in some scenes that would have benefitted from silence or a more subtle tone rather than an orchestral track. CGI was fairly good. But, Captain Marvel's powers make her look really fake when flying.

Young Nick Fury and Captain Marvel are, of course, the main highlight to take away. Like a buddy cop movie, but with more superpowers and cats. The chemistry between the two was funny and well put together. The final line said by Carol in the mid-credits scene is a nice callback earlier in the film to cement the two.

So yes duh, there is a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene. But you could leave after the mid-credits. As the final scene is just a cutesy one. But if you want absolutely no spoilers at all and are the type to even avoid trailers for the new Avengers. It may not be the best play to watch the mid-credits.

Captain Marvel is a good introduction to the strong female lead Carol Danvers. A fun journey with a duo I'd love to see more of. As well as more of Carol's flaws in a visual medium, not vocal. It's no Iron Man, but I see a bit of that Tony Stark spark in this promising character.

Second Viewing Update

So after another look because of uncertainty. I can say now that I was frustrated with the lack of actual character build. Before I remarked the amnesia story being an excuse for the lacking of visual storytelling. But now it was getting to me. Carol Danvers deserves better. And I hope in Endgame she gets it. I have faith in the Russos to give her better development. If not, other instalments will hear our cries for giving this amazing promise, flaws. Downgrading my rating a bit as for a movie about this character, it focuses more on her abilities than her as a person.

7.2/10
6.8/10

Check here for my MCU rankings.
https://trakt.tv/users/corruptednoobie/lists/my-mcu-rankings?sort=rank,asc