#their younger counterparts had more chemistry and their acting was weak so that says a lot

[guyveranimefan87-blog]

"Captain Marvel" review -  Not terrible, but not marvelous either.

As we all know, the latest MCU movie "Captain Marvel" had finally reached our cinemas, and thus after months of drama surrounding it, with one group hailing it as the best thing Marvel ever did, and other claiming it would be a movie that would destroy the whole franchise... before anyone had a chance to see it... we can finally see how is it.

And well...

In my opinion it's a solid Marvel movie, not bad or anything, but nothing special either, something around the level of "Captain America - The First Avenger", or first "Thor".

It has it's moments, but compared to previous MCU movies like "Doctor Strange" or "Black Panther" it lacks something that would make it special and unique.

I mean, with "Doctor Strange" we had our first introduction to magical side of MCU, plus trippy visuals connected with the Mirror World, and "Black Panther" had introduced us to the whole new culture and unique visual style of Wakanda, so they had something going for them even in their weaker moments.

And I don't think "Captain Marvel" has something like that.

I mean, 90's references are cool and I got a few chuckles out of them, but if I wanted to remind myself of those dumb and glorious times, when I was younger, slimmer and less cynical I could go on Tumblr...

Oh, yeah I am already here.

And people who don't remember those times would probably be as baffled by seeing pager and dial-up modems, as they were be seeing alien cities and spaceships...

But let's start at the beginning, that is with the plot.

Our heroine is Vers, a member of an elite military unit known as Starforce serving the interstellar Kree Empire, but despite her unquestionable power and fighting skills, her commander and mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) has doubts about her performance, since she has a tendency to let her emotions guide her, something that Kree warrior shouldn't do.

Yeah, this cyborg guy from “Guardians of The Galaxy” is there too...

Vers emotional problems are connected with the fact that she lacks memories from before she joined the unit, and is tormented by recurring nightmares where she sees chaotic and fragmented pieces of her past.

Still, as I mentioned before, she is still a powerful and confident warrior, so despite Yon-Rogg's doubts, she takes part in a mission to extract a deep-cover Kree agent from one of the border planets controlled by an ancient enemy of her people, a shapeshifting race of Skrulls.

Mission ends badly, as it turns out that the agent was already compromised by Skrulls and Vers is captured during a resulting ambush by a Skrull commander, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who used some kind of memory probe to access her buried memories... that turn out to be about her previous life, but not on one of Kree planets, but rather on a primitive, backwater planet C-53, also known as Earth.

Apparently Skrulls are looking for a scientist known as doctor Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening), that Vers somehow used to know, and who according to her memories developed some kind of new faster-than-light engine.

Vers manages to escape captivity using her ability to generate energy blasts from her hands, as well as her hand-to-hand skills, but the escape pod she steals from Skrulls gets damaged, causing her to crash-land on Earth, to be precise in one of Los Angeles Blockbuster Video stores.

Does anyone remember Blockbuster Video anymore? Sorry, getting back on the topic...

Her less-than-stealthy arrival alerts the local authorities, including a pair of S.H.I.E.L.D agents, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Mothafu#kin Jackson), who are a bit skeptical when a woman "dressed like for Lazer Tag" tells them she is an alien soldier who hunts other aliens, who are shapeshifters, but they are attacked by one of Talos's troops, confirming that her story is true.

And thus Vers and Fury would have to join forces to stop Skrulls and find the truth about our heroine, from her fragmented memories...

Before the movie I was curious and to be honest rather worried about how screenwriters would tackle the backstory of Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, since in the comics it was rebooted so many times, that I doubt that even people writing her remember about everything, with numerous costume, identity and power changes, not to even mention new personality traits with each new writer...

But they did managed to jump this hurdle, by creating a completely new origin story from the ground up, that while using certain elements from her comic book counterparts, gives us something relatively simple, and accessible to causal moviegoers and hardcore nerds alike.

And let's be honest, since Carol is not exactly the most popular character ever, despite numerous attempts at making her relevant in the last few years, so I don't think there would be any purist fans outraged by the changes made for the movie.

I mean, whole cast of "Guardians of The Galaxy" had undergone massive changes, and everybody was OK with that, heck some of those changes were even retconned into comics, so probably here it would also work that way.

As for the plot itself, it really did reminded me of first "Thor".

I mean, we have a superhero from an advanced race, that is dumped on Earth without having any idea of how the place works, but finds a hypercompetent human sidekick, and together they stand against Big Bad only for The Hero to unlock their True Power in the third act.

Yeah... Seems kinda familiar, eh?

It's not necessarily bad or anything, but it's really a shame that some things hadn't been expanded upon a bit, like Kree culture, relationship between Carol a.k.a Vers and Yon-Rogg, etc.

I mean "Black Panther" managed to fit whole three act formula into the plot, while also show the viewers quite a lot about Wakanda, so why not here?

Movie also drags a bit in the middle, as save for two action scenes, most of the story-arc is comprised of our heroine and Fury driving from place to place looking for answers, talking a bit and so on, which is not really adrenaline-filled superhero cinema...

It hadn't reached the point when I got really bored, mainly due to good chemistry Larson and Jackson have together, but I did though that MCU movies managed to overcome their pacing problems after Phase One, so it wasn't a pleasant surprise seeing that they had taken two steps back here.

Another controversy about the movie way before it's release was our lead, Brie Larson, not only because of doubts about her acting prowess, but also quite a few ill-thought things she said be it in interviews, or through Twitter, but the latter is not really important here, so let's focus on the former.

After watching trailers and promo clips quite a few people were doubting Larson's ability to carry the movie, and accusing her acting of being "stiff" and "emotionless" and they were partially right, though I am not sure all the blame can be put on actress herself.

Vers/Carol does seem rather stiff and emotionless through most of the movie, but it looks more like a conscious decision of director's part, as I mentioned Kree pride themselves on controlling their emotions, which is fine, but severely limited Larson in the role, as it's hard to say anything about her character's personality.

I mean, there are a few scenes when she does show that she can act, usually during her scenes with Nick Fury, cause as I mentioned before, they have a nice chemistry together, flashbacks from before she was trained as a Kree warrior, but still comes out a bit bland through most of the runtime.

It becomes even more jarring during the scene when Vars meets her old friend Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), who is rather shocked to see her, torn between happiness and confusion, giving a strong, emotional performance... while Larson keeps the same facial expression through most of it.

As I mentioned before, it's not the actress's fault, but it does harm the movie on some level.

Samuel L. Jackson however absolutely nails it as younger, less cynical Fury.

Now, we got used to gruff, no-nonsense and properly paranoid commander of S.H.I.E.L.D but here we get Nick who sees a being with superpowers for the first time in his life, and is appropriately shocked / awed by the fact that aliens exist, which gives Mr. Jackson an opportunity to have a bit of a fun with the character.

I mean, I had never expected to see Fury going "oh so cute" about a cat, or freaking out about seeing an alien, but it's lot of fun watching him do it, and judging from his actor, a lot fun to play it, which is rather infectious.  

Also, this cat is awesome.

Sadly, yet again movie’s villain remains one of it’s weak points.

I mean, damn, I really though that after "Black Panther" and "Infinity War" we got over the so-called "Marvel Curse" and villains who are not Loki wouldn't suck anymore. And yet, here we are, back to square one...

Now, don't get me wrong, Ben Mendelsohn does what he can to sell Skrulls leader, and even managed to have some fun with his portrayal.

For example being rather laid-back and even funny in his true form, and a bit stern and stiff in his preferred human form, as well as giving each of them a different accent, but as they say, You cannot get water out of a stone.

He got very little to work with in terms of motivations, background or even personality of his character, making Talos quite flat, despite the actor's best efforts.

If I had to compare it to other Marvel villains, he would be right there with Malekith the Accursed from "Thor - The Dark World", as both movies had absolutely wasted a great actor due to not giving him anything he can use, nor any freedom to flesh the character out, which is a damned shame.

I mean, they tried with a bit of a twist near the end, but You can see it coming from miles away, so it's not really a surprise, and nor does it help our villain in the slightest.

What else...

... Oh yeah, I had evaded this particular elephant in the room for long enough.

Before the movie premiered many people, myself included, were afraid that it would delve too much into politics, since both the cast and Marvel PR people were putting a lot of emphasis on the feminist message of "Captain Marvel", throwing the phrase "First Female Marvel Hero" etc.

Thus I had expected a sexist, and politics heavy crap like "Ghostbusters 2016", but really for all the bluster of Marvel execs, and journalists focusing of this, the whole "feminist" part of the movie turned out to be nearly nonexistent.

I mean, sure we get a scene with male soldiers telling Carol she is "too weak" to be a pilot, or a guy who obnoxiously tries to pick her up, but it's not like the movie spends extended periods of time on it, or goes to extreme length to show all men as idiots, manbabies and chauvinists, as "Ghostbusters" did, so really there was no point to the whole sh#tstorm about it in the first place.

And really, "Wonder Woman" was really a lot more about "Girl Power" than this movie, so I don't think that people who expected it to be about "powerful femininity" and stuff would be totally satisfied with it...

Other than that, we get good special effects (Especially the ones used to de-age Jackson and Gregg), few nice fight scenes, especially in the third act, overall good acting despite problem mentioned above, and a few obligatory callbacks to other MCU movies...

And that's basically it.

It's a competently done movie that nevertheless lacks the bang it supposed to have, and I think that in a few weeks most people would forget about it, like they probably did with "Doctor Strange" and "Ant-Man & The Wasp", because they would be busy talking about "Endgame".

It would still make a ton of money, as all MCU movies do, even if it clearly show that their formula got a bit stale at this point, and even without making a lasting impression it was a well-made popcorn flick.

Still, it shows that Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel does have a potential as a movie character, despite all weird stuff Marvel did with her comic book counterpart, but it wasn't the time when this potential had the chance to be fully utilized. So, better luck next time, Carol?

[reactingtosomething]

Daring To Dream

a Black Girl Magic essay by Marchae Miller

I am back and in this installment of my Black Girl Magic series, I’ve decided to look at three of the hottest film adaptations that the universe has been gifted over the past year and a half: Hidden Figures (2016), Black Panther (2018) and Wrinkle in Time (2018). Why these three films? First, I generally SUCKED at science as a youngster, BUT I’ve ALWAYS had a passion for learning about science and exploring its wonder. Secondly, seeing black women take the lead on screen as scientists has been bittersweet. 

Bitter: When seeing films like Hidden Figures, I find myself asking: “Why did it take so long for people to learn about these beautifully brilliant women who were essential in changing the course of American scientific history?”

Sweet: When seeing Black Panther’s self-assured Shuri own the land of Wakanda as if her power in the sciences is all she’s ever known, I become excited that kids who are old enough to enjoy the movies will have never lived in a time where seeing a Shuri is abnormal. Kids will see Wrinkle’s Meg Murry, who’s been trained by her mother and father, discover the confidence she didn’t know she had as she comes of age. You know her understanding of math, science and physics and philosophy are going to be even more powerful for her as she ages.

These things matter as they signify that HOPEFULLY, we are taking a turn in the way in which black women and girls are perceived in the media. HOPEFULLY, gone are the days of the slave narrative, the sad black woman pulling herself up by her bootstraps narrative, and the narrative that you must have had some awful atrocity to be seen as strong and have a movie. Gone are the days where the awards we receive are for being “the help” or “the abused slave.” Hopefully, we are in a space where seeing black women as assured and using their wit and intellect to get ahead is the new norm. I mean, HOPEFULLY, we are now entering a space where seeing WOMEN in general in this way is the new norm.

First, and most importantly WOMEN AND GIRLS NEED TO SEE THAT THEY CAN DO MATH AND SCIENCE. MEN NEED TO SEE THAT WOMEN AND GIRLS CAN DO MATH AND SCIENCE.

Science is a field dominated by white men and that’s sad, not because these individuals haven’t made contributions to the sciences, but because everyone else has too and yet everyone else receives so little recognition for their contributions. For example, George Washington Carver, most commonly known for the creation of peanut butter was also a renowned botanist. Consider these other scientific pioneers: James West, co-inventor of the electret microphone (if you’ve ever used a landline you’ve used the electret microphone). Mae Jemison, first African American woman to go into space. Or even Marie Maynard Daly, a pioneer in the study of the effects of cholesterol and sugar on the heart and the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, to name a few. These individuals changed the way we operate in the world.

I’m gonna share a quick story. I worked for years in fundraising and development,  working to get girls engaged in STE(A)M/ STEM (science, tech, engineering, [arts] and math) at the beginning of the STE(A)M revolution, trying to get girls on the bandwagon. This project was fulfilling and encouraged girls to think about game design, aquaponics,  and a host of other science-based subjects. What I learned during that time was that the disparity between boys and girls and then later men and women who pursue these careers is tremendous. As I was researching for this essay, I learned that over the past 5-7 years, not much has changed since my days as a fundraiser. Let’s take a quick look at some stats before turning back to a discussion about the films.

K-12  

19% of female high school students choose to enroll in AP computer science courses, while the remaining 81% consists of male students.

While in elementary school boys and girls do not differ much in their abilities in math and science, their confidence and interest in STEM subjects do, with boys showing greater interest and far more confidence in their abilities to do complete assignments and answer questions in class.

COLLEGE

Women make up only about 30% of all STEM degree holders.

Women who do hold STEM degrees are disproportionately less likely to work in a STEM profession than their male counterparts; many instead work in healthcare or education.

THE WORKFORCE

35.2% of chemists are women;

11.1% of physicists and astronomers are women;

22.7% of chemical engineers are women;

17.5% of civil, architectural, and sanitary engineers are women;

17.1% of industrial engineers are women;

0.7% of electrical or computer hardware engineers are women; and

7.9% of mechanical engineers are women.

When you break some of these numbers down by race, the statistics are even worse – take a look.

Minority women comprise fewer than 1 in 10 employed scientists and engineers ( to simplify <10%)  

Hispanics, blacks, and American Indians/Alaska Natives make up a smaller share of the science and engineering workforce (11%) than their proportion in the general population (27% of U.S. working-age population).

In 2013, 70% of workers in science and engineering occupations were white, which is close to the proportion of the U.S. working-age population.

So let’s quickly recap: Women AND Minorities are underrepresented in STEM careers and in disproportionate numbers to their white, male, counterparts.

Now, let’s put this back into the context of the film industry. While there aren’t many films that feature females leading the charge in sciences, there have been a few. Consider Alien (Ripley), Star Trek (Lt. Uhura – if you don’t know why she decided to stay on the original Star Trek series, check it out) and Star Wars (Princess Leia), for starters. However, in the past year and a half, we have had the glory of being gifted three films that prominently featured women, and more specifically, women of color doing the unthinkable and shattering the barriers we so frequently see in science fiction films. We know that the media has the power to determine what is popular and what’s gauche. It has the power to show young kids what they should be doing and how they should be acting. And, for adults, the media has the power to right decades and centuries of under- and misrepresentation.

Hidden Figures is the remarkable true story of three women -- mathematicians Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), and engineer Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) -- who beat the odds, had their jobs put at risk for simply wanting to use the restroom, and were expected to fail. The women featured in the film had to endure what I call (and live) called the Ole' Double Whammy, or simply put the societal disadvantage of being born a woman and black. There was a constant struggle to prove that they were just as polite, just as smart (if not smarter), to be seen as half as good. Once they were seen as half as good, then as “equally as extraordinary,” they were able to flourish. For young girls, young black girls, being able to see themselves, not as the help, not as slaves, not as weak or broken, but as strong, self-sufficient, intelligent beings lets them also see their own vast possibilities.

For instance, it wasn’t until I experienced Mae Jemison, the first African American woman launched into space, that I even considered the possibility that space travel was a thing that black people were interested in doing. I wasn’t ignorant, I'd just truly never experienced it. I'd never seen myself or anyone like me represented in that way. I was also eleven and right at the precipice of losing interest in being good a science. The window of time was slipping away. It wouldn’t again be until high school that my interest was reignited. I had an awesome chemistry teacher who explained I didn’t have to be good at something to necessarily enjoy what it had to offer. Point blank, he was informing me that I wasn’t allowed to not be interested and a participant. Little movie-going girls are going to understand and know that they can achieve greatness on earth and in outer space thanks to this gem of a film – and many of them will be younger than eleven.

Even more important is that children as young as fourth graders are reading A Wrinkle in Time, a science, physics, philosophical piece of literature. Nine-year-old children are sifting through the headiness of this beautiful novel and then the breathtakingly beautiful film to get a visual representation of the fact that they can literally use math and science as stepping stones. Meg (Storm Reid), like so many girls her age, is struggling with the awkwardness of adolescence and is plagued with self-doubt and confusion. Hers is only magnified by grief. Her anger is palpable, and rightfully so, because of the loss of her father. We’d all feel that way, I’d suspect. But we see the images of Meg and her father doing the work, AND the image of her learning that she can do math and do it well!  Many studies cite that the reason girls lose confidence in math and sciences is that, at the middle school age, their self-confidence begins to tank. Meg is the personification of what’s going on inside of our girls as they sit in their classrooms. Doubt, uncomfortableness, and a host of other things keep girls from even wanting to raise their hands. It could be something as simple as liking a boy in class, or not wanting to be seen as a nerd. This film is important because it shows that confidence can carry you. Black girls struggle with this.

There are tons of things that society says that black girls shouldn’t be able to do – right down to wearing their bouncy curls to school without ridicule (if you think I’m kidding, check out the ACLU’s website and take a gander at the two cases that were in court at the end of last year). Girls see themselves in Meg. Black girls who feel a little awkward see themselves in Meg. They see the ability to be vulnerable (that’s a completely different essay), and they see the ability to love themselves and be brilliant thinkers and academics. They also see Meg's mother, who may look like their own mother. Meg’s mother is also brilliant and a great scientist.  Specifically, in regard to representation, the images of this functional relationship with loving parents, doing legitimately magical science and math work, will serve the African American communities for years to come because we need to see more people who look like us glorified and lit beautifully in films and speaking life into our greatness, that in today’s society is often burned before it’s been lit.

Shuri, Shuri, Shuri. Shuri (Letitia Wright) of Black Panther (#WakandaForever) is truly her ancestors' wildest dreams, she is who every science blerd and nerd aspires to be. She is cool, she is vibrant, and she is confident in her abilities to perform not only her sisterly duties to her brother, the Black Panther, and remind him that she’s way cooler, but also is the scientific brains behind her country’s and her brother's safety and success. Oh, I forgot to mention she’s only sixteen! If this essay were to be placed into a visual representation, Shuri would be the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. She is actualized. Shuri is what happens when the power of representation (as she had the WHOLE village of Wakanda telling her she was capable and wanted and loved and saw herself lifted up in her community historically) meeting opportunity (she was indeed a princess) and equaling success (I mean she was sheer magic). 

Here girls and women everywhere get to see themselves at their best. I have had several of my friends of all backgrounds texting to let me know that they want to be “the tech girl” or “I want to be Shuri so bad,” and to be honest who doesn’t? Shuri is living in a perfect world where she is the best that her community has to offer. Resources are being poured into her and all the youth of Wakanda, because Wakanda knows that they are only as great as their weakest link – and if their weakest link is Shuri and the other youth, then they are in great shape. Black girls, girls of all races are seeing that not only is science a means to some greater societal end (e.g. space travel, finding your father in an alternate universe, curing all the earth's ills, literally) but that it is also fun and engaging and exciting!  We all want to be Shuri because she made a difference. In my humble opinion, all girls should be required to watch Black Panther, if nothing else but to understand that they can accomplish anything and that they can give back to their communities in ways that are tangible. That they are examples for their children and for their children’s children. We can be Shuri.

These films show that black women (women period) are leaders in science. This is why representation in films matter. Shuri knew she had strength and power because she’s always had it. Meg had to fight against herself, and also Ms. Whatsit’s nagging nonsense, to find her confidence, and to some degree, we all go through that. And finally, the women in Hidden Figures had to contend and deal with the oppressive forces of the people around them and the world as it stood at that point in history. Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson legitimately fought against real-life oppression so we could have the Megs and Shuris of the world for years and decades to come to inspire the next group of WORLD CHANGERS.

Previously in Marchae’s Black Girl Magic series:

The Girl with All the Gifts

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