Captain Marvel - Spoilers - Enter at your own risk

I guess I'll go first!

I've never teared up during the company logo part of a movie before.  Marvel deserves a tip of the hat.  A thing about Lee's cameo, I think he's reading the screen play for Mallrats which is his first movie cameo.  The movie was released in 1995, which I think is the year Captain Marvel is set in.

I didn't get to read all the Marvel comics thanks -- it started with Neal Adams (probably due to drawing the Kree-Skrull War).

Also, I am not sure, it was quick and I missed the credits to check, but I think Kelly Sue DeConnick was in the subway sceen.  Carol walks through crowd and there's a quick flash of red hair and it looked like Deconnick's glasses.  I'm going to have to watch it again.

As for the movie, I really enjoyed it.  I think Brie Larson delievered what they asked her to.  She had great chemistry with Sam Jackson.

Of course I really liked it when she threw off her fetters and came into her full power.

A nice re-telling of her original origin shaken and stirred a bit (with some changes to Mar-vell).

Good use of the Skrulls and misdirection.

I haven't been paying attention (I didn't want the movie spoiled) so I don't know if the Skrulls bit was revealed in the trailers or Mar-vell's identity.

Of course, Goose stole the show.

A tale of the DC and Marvel Captain Marvels,  and a detailed breakdown of the train fight scene. www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/03/cap...-carol-danvers-guide

No spoilers in this comment and I will keep it brief.  It was a good movie but not an awesome movie.  For those who care about the strength feats I would give it an eh.  Throughout the movie it is clear she is very strong but that is demonstrated in super fights where she punches and kicks Skrulls across rooms as opposed to her lifting and tossing cars and tanks for example.  When she comes into her own at the end of the film she becomes VERY powerful but we only get a sense of that with her flying through space ships and stopping a rocket in mid-flight. 

Perhaps there will be more badassery in End Game.  That could be likely as I get the impression she is integral to the fight against Thanos.

The movie is okay.

For me (us?), it is so awesome to watch such an ubergirl getting onto the stage

My only critique is that the second half of Captain Marvel was a bit too predicable. The whole movie played too safe, as it seems to avoid any kind of risks

And I think it played so safe because Marvel/Disney producers knew that so many toxic nerds want to destroy her character

look at this youtube channel right now www.youtube.com/channel/UCMvVQIAfsGwzrfPLxiaIG8g/videos

Half a dozen videos each day distributing disinformation, hate, boycott

what the hell is up with this people? There is an ongoing online obsession on hating her. Look at the views... any drivel against captain marvel gets 10x more views on this channel

The problem with it is not with the movie. As I said, the movie is okay.

The problem is with part of the audience. Their problem is politics.

And I find deeply disturbing such politics

Watched it today.

The movie was fine imo.  Nothing special. Nothing outstanding.

It was an origin tale, but at least it mixed up the formula a bit.  You didn't get the standard "A - B - C" arc.  Instead, Carol starts with her powers, and the narrative is then slightly jumbled up.  This allows a sense of mystery in the audience as the piece together what happened as Danvers does.  That was a nice touch.

The origin is a mash-up of her comic book origin and worked well imo.  And I too also liked the Skrulls and the little misdirection along the way.

The film was also fairly well-paced, with the story constantly moving along.   It felt as long as it needed to be, and I am glad they didn't pad it out with silly sub-plots.

I enjoyed Larson as Carol Danvers, and felt she captured that character really well.  That was my biggest takeaway.  I loved the cocky arrogance and confidence she exuded.  And she had really good chemistry with Jackson.

Ben Mendelson was great (as always) in this.

And ofc, Goose the cat was hilarious  

Ultimately this was a film that checked some boxes more then told a good story.

- We got to see how Fury lost his eye (though many predicted this months ago tbh )

- We got to meet Carol Danvers in this universe

- We got to see the origin (of sorts) of the Tesseract, where it was before Avengers

- We got to see how the Tesseract was with SHIELD in the beginning of Avengers

- We got to see Carol give Fury "the pager" and why

- We got to see where Carol was for the last 20 years

I am sure there were some other things.

Oh, one thing that did stand out in a big way to me, and Im slightly confused as to the internet reactions because of it - there was VERY little SJW messaging/pandering in this film.  The way some ppl have responded, you would think its chock full of the stuff.  But there isn't really anything (especially compared to WW, which was full to the brim with that stuff).

Overall, I really enjoyed it.  Not the best Marvel film, or even the best Marvel origin film.  That credit, for me, goes to GOTG.

A solid 7/10 imo.

Enjoy.

Peace.

/K

P.S. Capt. Marvel is one bad ass girl   

Watched it today.

The movie was fine imo.  Nothing special. Nothing outstanding.

It was an origin tale, but at least it mixed up the formula a bit.  You didn't get the standard "A - B - C" arc.  Instead, Carol starts with her powers, and the narrative is then slightly jumbled up.  This allows a sense of mystery in the audience as the piece together what happened as Danvers does.  That was a nice touch.

The origin is a mash-up of her comic book origin and worked well imo.  And I too also liked the Skrulls and the little misdirection along the way.

The film was also fairly well-paced, with the story constantly moving along.   It felt as long as it needed to be, and I am glad they didn't pad it out with silly sub-plots.

I enjoyed Larson as Carol Danvers, and felt she captured that character really well.  That was my biggest takeaway.  I loved the cocky arrogance and confidence she exuded.  And she had really good chemistry with Jackson.

Ben Mendelson was great (as always) in this.

And ofc, Goose the cat was hilarious  

Ultimately this was a film that checked some boxes more then told a good story.

- We got to see how Fury lost his eye (though many predicted this months ago tbh )

- We got to meet Carol Danvers in this universe

- We got to see the origin (of sorts) of the Tesseract, where it was before Avengers

- We got to see how the Tesseract was with SHIELD in the beginning of Avengers

- We got to see Carol give Fury "the pager" and why

- We got to see where Carol was for the last 20 years

I am sure there were some other things.

Oh, one thing that did stand out in a big way to me, and Im slightly confused as to the internet reactions because of it - there was VERY little SJW messaging/pandering in this film.  The way some ppl have responded, you would think its chock full of the stuff.  But there isn't really anything (especially compared to WW, which was full to the brim with that stuff).

Overall, I really enjoyed it.  Not the best Marvel film, or even the best Marvel origin film.  That credit, for me, goes to GOTG.

A solid 7/10 imo.

Enjoy.

Peace.

/K

P.S. Capt. Marvel is one bad ass girl   

For any interested, as of 10/3/2019, Captain Marvel has taken $455,000,000 at the box office (worldwide).

This does not include Sunday's takings to conclude the opening weekend.

I thinks its safe to say that the film was a success  

Peace.

/K

Saw it yesterday.
It's a good movie, but not great. It's on par with the rest of the Marvel origins movies and suffers the same problems as well. A decent 7-7.5/10 movie.

It has some nice superwoman stuff, especially at the end. But it doesn't top Wonder Woman as the go to live action female super hero movie.

Glad it's doing well. Would be a shame if it bombed just because Brie said some minor stuff that people overreacted too.

Hopefully we get a 2nd one and get to see the character shine properly.

Some fans in my area got lucky!

nj1015.com/captain-marvel-in-clifton-sup...rised-nj-movie-fans/

--Brantley

I found it very disappointing, plagued by the same kind of sloppy writing that plagues most comic book and space opera movies these days.  And the howlers -- Wendy Lawson was trying to invent a light speed engine in a universe with FTL interstellar travel? Not to mention the "energy core" that fits in a luch box. The plane Carol and Nick steal from a NASA facility in 1995 has scramjet AND fusion engines? Skrullls can match human DNA, but are made of something "off the periodic table?" And the magic: our heroine fiddles with Nick's i-phone and turns it into an ansible! .And silly stuff like the cat that can turn into a tentacled monster.  The best scenes were those involving the Rambeau family rather than the frantic action.  Great SFX, but SFX are so easy to do these days that filmmakers get lazy about everything else.

--Brantley

Woodclaw wrote: I just returned from the cinema and I'm still processing some of the element, but I generally feel that this was a "checkbox movie".
It was entertaining  and I actually appreciated how they reworked the Kree-Skrull War to fit into the Cinematic Universe, but it didn't have the "wow" factor I got from many other Marvel movies. In general, the movies of this last phase of the MCU tried to put superheroes into different genres: spy-thriller, heist movie, crazy family comedy, etc. Captain Marvel doesn't even try to break any new ground, it felt like the writers were filling a checklist of elements that needed to be included in a origin movie.

That's a bummer, Woodclaw. As far as Marvel Universe goes, I keep hoping for another Guardians of the Galaxy. The original. That movie delighted me despite myself, and that's rare. 

But I enjoyed the Ms. Marvel character of the 80's, and the Skrulls are neat because I think shapechangers can work well in genre fiction, so it's worth seeing for that.

Even if there is a damn cat in it. My three Labs, at least one of whom always has their eye on the TV if I'm watching, will get VERY loud when the cat appears, so I'll never hear the dialog in any of those scenes.  

Upside is that based on the totality of the opinions in this thread, I can stream Captain Marvel someday knowing it won't delight me, but that it should still be entertaining, I can't be disappointed that way. 

Shadar

brantley wrote: a NASA facility in 1995 has scramjet AND fusion engines?

That line bugged me too. 
Especially as the Quadjet has previously taken off unassisted, so it also needs a third propulsion system. Editing that technobabble to drop the scramjet reference and just be "Switching to fusion engines" would have been an improvement.. But, "Here's where we see if those modifications work" would have added brief tension and helped build audience trust in that skrull further when nothing went wrong. It would have been that easy to change a line that told me your final screenwriters are bad at technobabble into a line that told me something relevant about your characters.

So she is super strong when the movie start? What's she's doing that proves her strength?

Captain Marvel doesn't even try to break any new ground, it felt like the writers were filling a checklist of elements that needed to be included in a origin movie.

I agree Woodclaw, this was more of a "we need to do this this and this to set/introduce this character before Endgame", then a Carol Danvers story.

I would like to say that, Capt. Marvel did have its own "genre-take" like the other Marvel films.  It was noted in interviews that the genre/style they were going for was the 90s blockbuster and sci-fi invasion films.  They have been noted as saying Independence Day and T2 were their influences.

I totally got that in terms of tone and style for the film.

But ye, the story itself isn't anything special and is a origin story for sure.

Peace.

/K

That actually explain a lot. For me the Blockbuster invasion movies are some of the most boring movies ever.

Fair enough

I didn't mind those tbh.  I remember having a blast watching ID4 and T2 when they were first released in cinemas   Not once thinking they were high art, but good old fashioned popcorn movies

I enjoyed Capt. Marvel from that perspective for sure

Peace.

/K

The Air Force loves the movie; it's even running a commercial urging young women toi find their Origin Stories. Can't find a link to that, but there's this about the hype:

www.dailydot.com/parsec/is-captain-marvel-military-propaganda/

--Brantley

brantley wrote: The Air Force loves the movie; it's even running a commercial urging young women toi find their Origin Stories. Can't find a link to that, but there's this about the hype:

www.dailydot.com/parsec/is-captain-marvel-military-propaganda/

--Brantley

The military has collaborated with film makers since at least WWII, with the goal of attracting the best and the brightest (along with a lot of ordinary folk) to join up. When you're a a militaristic country, no matter who is President, this is always a good investment on the part of the military. 

It was far more blatant in the past...

I don't know how many of you recall the Star Troopers movie (of the Heinlein book of the same name).

Some Heinlein quotes from the book and/or  movie that will demonstrate that even the most military-friendly movie of today is nothing like what we watched or read in the past. Some of Heinlein's quotes from his imagined future world made great sense and yet would be impossible to utter today. In Heinlein's world of Star Troopers, voluntary military service is the price of citizenship. 

“Under our system every voter and officeholder is a man who has demonstrated through voluntary and difficult service that he places the welfare of the group ahead of personal advantage.” 

“Citizenship is an attitude, a state of mind, an emotional conviction that the whole is greater than the part...and that the part should be humbly proud to sacrifice itself that the whole may live.” 

“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” 

(Of course, Heinlein was thinking of a world government of Earth that was facing alien enemies. Not Nationalism, but instead Worldism. Not Racism but Species-ism.)

(Here's another Heinlein quote from the book that would be inappropriate to discuss in a workplace today, but is delightfully honest and understandable to me, and old fashioned cis-male.) 

“Girls are simply wonderful. Just to stand on a corner and watch them going past is delightful. They don't walk. At least not what we do when we walk. I don't know how to describe it, but it's much more complex and utterly delightful. They don't move just their feet; everything moves and in different directions . . . and all of it graceful.” 

Sigh...

Shadar

Woodclaw wrote:

shadar wrote:

brantley wrote: The Air Force loves the movie; it's even running a commercial urging young women toi find their Origin Stories. Can't find a link to that, but there's this about the hype:

www.dailydot.com/parsec/is-captain-marvel-military-propaganda/

--Brantley

The military has collaborated with film makers since at least WWII, with the goal of attracting the best and the brightest (along with a lot of ordinary folk) to join up. When you're a a militaristic country, no matter who is President, this is always a good investment on the part of the military. 

It was far more blatant in the past...

This always makes me laugh because it reminds me how the Marine Corps withdraw the official support from Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge  because the characters in the movie swore way too much for their liking. I think that's funny for two main reasons: first the entire point of the movie was to showcase how a bunch of different characters fit in a USMC recon unit and how some people actually love military life, despite being hell; second... well we are talking about a movie written, directed and starring Clint Eastwood, who is often considered the incarnation of the grizzled veteran.

Elevating and celebrating the military has always been a confused and cautious endeavor in the US. On one hand, many view military service as an honor and a duty, but many others see it as an illustration of a military empire gone insane. Yet people can support soldiers while simultaneously hating what they are asked to do. Confused messaging -- you bet, but that's the nature of American culture today. 

I'm a veteran of the Vietnam war, so I've got my own experiences, pro and con the military. 

Hollywood, of course, tries to tap into that at various stages, but never in a way that satisfies everyone. 

Yet if you go too far one way, then you've got the Third Reich. Go too far the other way, and you've got snowflakes who can't handle a little heat. The search for the center is a story of over and undershooting the original goal of citizen soldiers (as in, to serve and then return to civilian life) led by political leaders of wisdom and experience and selflessness. 

Only in the movies do we get a chance to actually see such things, and not all that often then. So if Captain Marvel celebrates this a bit, that's cool with me.  

Shadar

Nothing to do with the military, but a "clever" political reference: calling Earth a "shithole planet."

--Brantley

For grins, here's a drawing of the original 1980's Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) punching out a Skrull. 

She changed just a bit before getting to the movies.... 1980's versus 2019 perception of a superheroine. 



Shadar