#other than Carol showing up the finale is underwhelming as shit

[albiclalepsza]

Yesss Melissa McBride is back!!!

And I'm finally free. I caught up to the series and don't have to think about it outside of the days when The Ones Who Live comes out

[arkus-rhapsode]

Captain Marvel Movie: My Thoughts

So I just went to see Marvel’s Captain Marvel and I have some opinions. Repeat, these are opinions. You are free to disagree with me if you so desire. I respect your decision, and I simply wish to tell you that this is not an objective dissection of this film. But before I do, I will be warning you (obviously) Spoilers Ahead. I will be putting this under the cut.

Other thing I’m warning of this (I cannot believe I’m doing this). I know this film has been having some controversy. And frankly I don’t give a shit. As someone has actually, y’know, watched the movie, I can say nothing about the controversy seems to have any effect on this film, nor should it. I’m saying my piece as a film goer.

So one last time spoilers ahead. You have been warned.

So before I talk about the film proper. I would like to give my general opinions the comic Captain Marvel Carol Danvers. I love her. I love Carol Danvers as character, she, in my opinion, is Marvel’s Wonder Woman. Her no nonsense attitude, but compassionate heart, would make for a great character in a solo film. As well as add some much needed diversity in terms personality in Marvel’s cast (Trust me, I was relieved by Black Panther actually not making jokes and being primarily serious).

I should also say, I love Marvel Cosmic. Seriously, Marvel’s cosmic stuff is so creative and you better believe I’m all for seeing them finally come to the big screen. To see the Kree and Skrull finally fight on the big screen, hell yeah. I was expecting the adaptation to have changes because getting the concept of the Cotati and the Celestials. But as long as its done well, it can work.

And boy oh boy, this movie was kinda underwhelming. Yeah, its not even like backlash hype, but this movie was kinda boring. It says something when during the first third of the film I checked my phone’s time. Yeah... Not a great sign. I do wanna say this though, the film does pick up after the first act. Like really it improves as it goes on, but boy is it bit of a hump.

Again, I wanna make this clear. This movie is fine. I recall people walking out of the theater saying I liked it. And as this is a marvel movie, it is better than other genuinely bad movies. But unfortunately as it isn’t strong one way or the other, its not in the best area. I didn’t mind that I saw it. For something to do for 2 hours it was nice. It got a few good laughs out of me. But boy this was... Kinda textbook Marvel film.

Okay, people have a tendency to say Marvel’s too formulaic or its too childish at times. And this movie fixes that. Oh not by twisting those formulas on its head like Black Panther. No it does the formula and removes most of charm. Yeah, this movie is Marvel films distilled. Everything in this film, you have seen done somewhere else, and done better.

Okay maybe I should get into the story. The story is again fine. It almost feels like a syfy channel original at times. And maybe that comes from the fact this movie had 5 writers and 2 directors. Cause boy this film is all over the place.

At first it seems like its all Kree vs Skrull, but its never really elaborated on why. There is no bitter history or reason other than they are skrull. Which is weird cause this film is exposition heavy. There’s one moment that sticks out and that was Monica telling Carol about her dad and her having a bad relationship. Now granted we saw a glimpse of this during one of many flashing sequences, but its never truly let sink. Its just the bare minimum. And Carol’s relationship with her dad and how he treated her is a big part of who she is.

But back to the juggling plots, when Carol lands on earth it seems like they wanna go the Thor 1 route while also there being a secret invasion. Which could work. Y’know, start of with the war, then Carol is trying to stop the invading Skrull who are planning on using the earth. But then it becomes a McGuffin run. Where the skrull apparently only want this lightspeed engine, and Carol must stop them cause... Skrull.

But then it turns out the Skrull are actually the victims this whole time and we need to get them off here before the Kree kill them. And I’m sure your asking, “what is even the point of this already?”

And that’s just the thing. This film is trying to be clever, but simultaneously, its really behind the times. Its almost fitting this is in the 90s as this feels like a 90s family movie. Its just so bland. Like got this ship dog fight in a canyon, its got the friend who lets the heroes go when they are suspects, and its got the whole, I was originally from here by looking at a photograph. By trying to be many things, it end up being nothing. Its just kinda okay. Not a bad movie, but when you’re in phase 3, this is shockingly more.

If this was like phase 1, maybe. But if you are expecting a Wonder Woman style film, this one is blown out of the water by WW. And I’m a guy who’s Marvel leaning when it comes to comics. But no Marvel, banking on this, its outdated.

In terms of characters, lets talk about Carol herself and her performance. Brie Larson is not a bad actress, but boy... The problem with her in this film is that Carol isn’t consistent in characterization. There are times in this film where I’m like, “Amazing, you got Carol.” Then there are times where she acts like a generic marvel protag. And then there are time “you really wanna go with that take?”

A wise word I heard was that how you know someone is the right fit for a marvel hero is you can see no one else playing that role. You can’t see Nick Fury not being played by Samuel L Jackson, you can’t see Iron Man not being played by Robert Downey Jr. etc. And unfortunately, I can see Carol being played by someone else. And it didn’t help that person was in this film.

Lashana Lynch acted her ass off in this film and was a better Carol Danvers than Carol Danvers. She played Maria Rambeau (Though really she’s playing Monica Rambeau in spirit, but given the time period, Monica is actually a little girl, but Maria acts exactly how you’d expect Monica to act from the comics and wibbily wobbly timey wimey) who is acting circles around Larson. She’s allowed to be very human while express a full range of emotions. While Carol is just kinda bland. (Also doesn’t help Monica was actually captain marvel before carol while she was still Miss Marvel) So if that’s one thing this movie got me eager for, it’s Monica Rambeau in the MCU.

Sam Jackson does a great job and is basically the linchpin of comedy in this movie. Yeah this movie’s humor is kinda non existent for a while. Again, it gets better as the film goes, but its again a slog. That said, Jackson handles the roles like a champ and is doing his best.

Talos was actually doing pretty good as a villain. He’s not Loki or Vulture, but he’s closer to Darren Cross from Ant Man. Having fun, while trying to be menacing. But he’s not a villain. Literally, the twist in this movie is the Kree were bad this whole time. Even though the point of the kree-skrull conflict is that both sides are wrong, nope. Skrull are the victims and they’re refugees. Christ, this movie basically told me, “Yeah, you’re never getting super skrull or a good secret invasion.” Christ.

All in all he turns in my favrite performance, but his Jason Statham impression is kinda distracting. I really think he could’ve been a good adversary in a better script.

No are real villain is Yon and he is basically Kaecilius from Doctor Strange. He’s Carol’s handler, he does that whole, playful banter while fighting thing. Then he disappears from film. Then it turns out that he’s the one who shot down Carol and that he’s the real villain. And he is not interesting.

Kinda comes with the fact that you literally didn’t make this twist until the end of the second act. So we have no strong impression of him as a character. Hell there is also his squad who fights Carol and its basically like watching the Black Order fight but blue. Its boring.

Oh there is the supreme intelligence. And that’s done so weird too. It projects itself int whatever form the person holds dearest (For Carol its Mar-Vell) and that seems like a great thing. Using the skin of a loved one, but in reality being nothing than cold unfeeling pragmatism. But then they start acting really gitty and emotional when they go into carol’s head again. This should be horrifying. This is just Jeff Goldbloom as the Grand Master lite.

Ronan also shows up in this movie. And he’s not the main villain! You have this chance to make Ronan (one of the most universally thought poor villain) and make him better. It would make a larger tapestry in films as we know what he’s like in guardians, but I would’ve like to see him before this. Show the seeds of just someone overtly self righteous that would bloom into zealous. I feel like this film could be much better with replacing Yon with Ronan.

But nope, in this film he’s just some asshole who is on screen for like 5 minutes. Oh but he’s got this group called the accusors that bomb out Skrull. Which also leads to this plot hole, why did Carol think that the Skrull caused ruins on the planet she visited? We saw her squad arrive while Ronan was bombing!

Then we have Mar-vell. Mar-vell is a woman this time and I was fine with that. She’s a good actress, if not enough time with her. Also the cause of Carol’s powers is the tesseract. Sure. Makes more sense.

I’ve been sounding lime a dick for a while, so I’ll quickly list off the good stuff in this film. I like the color pallet. I actually think Carol dressing in the grundge outfit is cool. I love goose. I think Talos and his family’s scenes are adorable. And I think the scene where Carol stands back up is empowering, but god I wish it was in a better film.

All in all, this film is fine. But its so on the bland side. And that leaves me in a wierd place. I want this film to do well, mainly cause I know how board executives work. “Oh a female superhero movie wasn’t profitable? Guess no more female superhero films.” And that’s not the case. We saw with Wonder Woman that you can do a female super hero movie, just get good writing and good directing. I want more females in Marvel movies. I want a damn Black Widow movie for christ sake!

But at the same time, I kinda want Marvel to take the L on this one. I want them to see that doing the bare minimum isn’t going to fly in the this oversatured market. Marvel was the best and only game in town for 10 years. But now. DC has clawed its way up, Wonder Woman was good, Aquaman was good, Shazam looks good, etc. And they all seem to want to try something new while being good. Marvel, you need to step it up. Because you’ll soon not be top dog anymore.

I feel like this film would’ve benefited from a director like Taika Waititi. Someone who knows how to take the fantastical of Marvel cosmic and  make it come to life. I also think it needs one writer. You though Justice League was bad as it feels like it was done by two different films directed by two different people, well this feel the same.

Is it bad. No. Its basically ghostbuster 2016. Its not bad, its not good. Not seeing seeing this film doesn’t make you a misogynist, seeing this this film does make you an asshole who is betraying the comics. Am I going to think less of you if you like this, god no! Am I saying its drek? No I still enjoyed the 2 hours I used up to watch this movie. So ball’s your court folks.

[sizequeen1]

Marvel Movies from Worst to Best

Thor: The Dark World: Pure garbage. I honestly can’t remember anything about except how pissed I was that i wasted money on two tickets. Just an absolute waste of time.

Iron Man 2: This one seemed rushed, as if they had churn out a sequel as quickly as possible. Some inadvertent hilarity with Poor Mickey Rourke’s accent and costuming.

Captain Marvel : Terrible. Just the epitome of paint-by-the numbers-Marvel factory junk. Destroyed Nick Fury’s characterization. A poor story in which Carol’s secret is already revealed the audience before she knows it leaves the film devoid of suspense. Carol herself is just incredibly dull.  Her character makes no sense and her lack of connection to the other members of her group leave the betrayal she discovers at their hands limp and unemotional. Finally, at this point the anti-SJW crowd is being blatantly used to market films starring minorities and women and to encourage those who support films starring marginalized groups by tickets in groves to fight sexism and racism. The film industry knows that we think that we’re doing politics through buying movie tickets. And all we do is further enrich a bunch of wealthy white men.

 Ant-Man and Wasp: Every singe moment of possible pain or suspense is wrecked by the worst imitation Whedonesque humor.  The only saving grace is how nice everyone is.

Ant-Man: Luis is the only reason to rewatch this. It wastes every scrap of the inventiveness inherent in the premise.

Avengers: Age of Ultron: Honestly, not the worst film in the world but the plot and characterization of Tony Stark and the bland jaw droppingly bad romance between Bruce and Natasha is hard to recover from and the lack of consequences for Wanda beyond the death of her brother is a head scratcher. I did like Ultron though. He was appropriately creepy villain, and I got his motivation: Peace can only be achieved if humans are gone.

Thor: Meh. I think I rewatched this once. Thor’s wig is bad, the story is basic, and Natalie Portman is embarrassed to be there. Also, the Loki cult was born here, and I never got the appeal.

Doctor Strange: Who cares?  I just got nothing out of this. It’s not a bad movie at all and has lovely visuals but I have no interest in a sequel.

The Incredible Hulk: This movie was...fine? It was fine, It was decent. It was like a cafeteria pizza. Okay.

Spider-Man: Homecoming: Great casting can’t defeat the fact that this is the third go-round on this character in a decade. Despite this, the fact that destroyed the soul of the character by taking away his guilt over the death of his uncle, making the franchise a non-starter for me. Spider-Man isn’t Spider-Man without his pain. He also isn’t Spider-Man in a high-tech robot suit.  

Guardians of the Galaxy: I saw that the film was quality, but almost nothing made me laugh. I thought Gamora was such a boring warrior chick stereotype and Peter was just an unbearable man child. Drax made me alternately laugh with his literalness and wince at his sexism. The only characters I liked completely were Rocket and Groot. Rocket is a tragic figure. This is the only Bradley Cooper movie I could sit through. 

Iron Man 3 2013: I liked this one surprisingly well. The plot twists were great and we got to see who Tony is without the suit, and he is more than a philanthropist billionaire. I liked that Pepper got to fight and save Tony for once. The banter with Rhodey was also good. 

Captain America: The First Avenger: The end drags a bit, and the villain is disposable, but this is the Steve Rogers that I originally fell in love with. The first half creates a character that is indelible and moving as Christopher Reeve’  Superman.

Iron Man 2008: Some of this hasn’t aged well but I guess Tony was supposed to be a repulsive scumbag, but RDJ knocked the character out of the park.  Tony’s losses, his suffering, his betrayals, shaped him into a better man.  

Avengers: Infinity War: The film is solid, emotional, and the end packs a wallop. The only problem is that it is incomplete. 

 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: I didn’t bother seeing this in the theater since I was underwhelmed by the first one, but when I did see it, I was surprised by how moved I was by the story of fathers and sons and sisterhood, and surviving abuse.  They managed to take some pretty shallow characters, like Yondu, and create people whose lives and feelings I cared about. I got to know Gamora and Nebula, a seed that really comes to fruition in Endgame. In this film Gamora began to be a character for me beyond “reluctant love interest” and I came to understand the source of Peter’s childishness. The sexism and racism in the film are still jarring, and those aspects won’t age well.

Captain America: Civil War: Woo. Where do I start with this one. I actually thought they did a great job of expressing Tony and Steve’s philosophical differences although I know that these people are too smart to ever let it come to blows. There were real emotional stakes and consequences here to Rhodey’s health, Bucky’s freedom, and Tony and Steve’s friendship.The originl of Black Panther was entertaining and perfectly integrated into the film. The break up at the end felt genuinely heart breaking. It also had one of the best fights (Steve and Bucky vs. Tony) since the elevator fight in CATWS.

Marvel's The Avengers: Joss had a hell of a challenge in making this, the first real superhero team up, and he did an amazing job. He had to have costumed (no in all black leather) heroes on the screen and have the audience take this seriously. He had to make Loki scary enough to warrant the assembly of super heroes. He had to quickly get the audience up to speed on the characters.  The end battle goes long as these movies tend to, but all of the action told a story, was exciting to watch, and illuminated character.  Yes, Cap’s characterization is a little wonky, but this is the first version of Black Widow that felt three dimensional and the best, most accurate Bruce I have ever seen.

Black Panther: Great sets, costumes, characters and a unique story put this one high on the list, but the politics are wonky (they made the CIA the good guys WTF and portrayed Erik’s desire for revolution as sheer psychotic violence). In addition, the political mobilization around the film was disturbing to me. It scares me that black people think we’re doing politics by buying movie tickets that will just make a lot of rich white men even richer.The film also suffers from having an uninteresting protagonist.  I’m also concerned about the fact that it eliminates two out of three of BPs major antagonists (Klaue and Killmonger) and makes an ally out of the third.

Avengers Endgame:  I’m putting this third but honestly, I enjoyed every part of this movie from beginning to end. The Stony shippers, the Stucky people’s complaints, the time travel arguments? All of that shit perplexes me. I honestly thought the entire film made sense emotionally. The deaths made sense. Those who were brought back made sense. I don’t watch these films for scientific accuracy or to have my slash itch scratched. It was straight up fan service. I left the theater was a scratch in my throat from all my joyful shouting.

Thor: Ragnarok: Just spectacular. I found the first two Thor movies forgettable and didn’t bother watching this one in the theaters. Waititi took certain aspects of the character teased them out more fully and let Chris be Chris.  The visuals are gorgeous. I laughed. I cried.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Yeah, this is still the best Marvel Movie, probably because it feels least like a Marvel movie. It’s a tight spy thriller from start to finish. The last James Bond movie attempted a similar plot about government surveillance, and frankly crashes and burns. The plot, characterization, dialogue, and action in CAWTS in addition to being utterly fantastic, all work together to show how Steve is and is not getting along in the present. It shows me who Steve really is always will be the guy who fights for what’s right no matter what. This film brings Steve into the 21st century and he’s the same guy but somehow more so, and his old fashioned morality turns out to be exactly what we need. Finally: elevator fight.

[dandelioncherokee]

Episode 10 impressions

Just finished the episode and want to tell you guys my instant thoughts.I’m always happy to hear what you think.This are instant impressions.I may change my opinion after watching the episode again and again...

1. I’m honest.I was actually underwhelmed by the second hug and everything that happened inside the house. It was so short.It was still too ambiguous imo. It was nothing really new either.What Daryl did for Carol through lying,he did for her before,although on another level.We all thought the creepy house was a setup for relationship development,(perfect setting by the way)imo it was a setup for Carol to finally leave her misery and to show us the amount of HURT from both sides.

2. BUT I was overwhelmed by other scenes actually.There was one particular scene that confirmed Daryl’s romantic love for Carol more than I have ever dared to hope. When he asks Richard about the woman’s name,he knows it is Carol just by knowing it is a woman.

You can see how his heartrate picks up and his mind goes blank,his eyes are glazed,he even squints as if he is about to faint,he looks like he is in trance.It’s shock,it’s relief,it’s the realisation what he was about to do,it’s so much LOVE his body nearly can’t handle it.

Everything that goes down with Richard and even with Morgan (at the beginning and end) is so much confirmation I just can’t. Confirmation happened actually in places I didn’t expect it to happen and it was purely in a “passive”way.

3.Melissa McBride’s performance was not from this earth,but Norman Reedus’ performance was equally as good. The best acting I ever saw from him.His facial expressions and especially his eyes ARE PHENOMENAL.Holy shit that man is fucking INTENSE.Hats off.

4. I saw nothing,I REPEAT NOTHING that points to Carzekiel AT ALL.

5. One thing was clear as day. Daryl has gained a lot of confidence,has come into his own.He is determined. And most important,it very much seems to me as if Carol’s and his roles are switched right now. You see it in the way they hug and how he breaks away first both times. Is it hurt about her leaving him?Has he lost hope that she would ever feel about him THAT way and it is finally enough for him if he is only able to keep her save&alive?Is it that he can’t handle to prolong it because the emotions would carry him away?Does he leave a ball in her court?I don’t know.Carol actually seems actually way more involved in the sentiment for me( but only during that time they are actually together!)Anyway,in this episode,he is clearly the leading one of both.

6. In that scene with Shiva, I think you can briefly see how happy Daryl is about finding Carol when he tells Morgan.Also,Shiva /Daryl parallel confirmation.

7.I still have to watch TTD,but many Carylers seem to be angry at Norman. What happened?

8. conclusion. I’m clearly going with canon in season 8, hopefully 8.1