MCU: Captain Marvel - SPOILERS

purplemur

Discussing the Marvel movie : Captain Marvel

*****SPOILER ALERT*****


*****SPOILER ALERT*****



I thought this was a good movie, enjoyable throughout.
I laughed out loud at most of the Flerkin Scenes and could tell several other people had read the source in the theater cuz of the laughter before the reveal.
I thought they like, ya know, totally got 1995: AltaVista, True Lies Standup, the music, the clothes
The pacing was spot on. One of the reasons I love the Punisher Netflix is that he doesn't waste a bunch of time talking to the bad guys and trying to decide his motivations. He just shoots people(that's what he does) and develops his character through the interactions with those close to him. This is an important break from the mold that we have been laboring under. When Spiderman came out and was hugely successful everyone copied the formula of a hero taking a whole movie to decide that he needs to accept and embrace his power. blech. 10 years+ of that has been awful for the genre. Which is why it was so, so refreshing when Homecoming totally broke that mold and skipped all of the origin story, all of the moral dilemma and got down to it. Keep both the action and the interpersonal growth moving. When they stop for the other it just bogs everything down and diminishes the impact of both. Captain Marvel was great that there would be breaks where Carol was really figuring it out by talking with the Rambeaus and LISTENING to Talus, But would then just blast off and take care of business. They didn't try to just use the skrull pretending to be Monicas mom to be some empty threat that is held dangling as a propeller to action. They had a dialogue and they thought about it and the tension was resolved. That type of clean cycle makes a person feel good and ready for the next emotional delivery but if the whole movie we were held in suspense over but what about the baby girl?! wears down the audience and makes the big threat less and less palatable and it's effect is reduced to not caring. When those type of situations persist your mind stops it's suspension of disbelief and starts being critical. If it keeps rolling you don't notice as glaringly or just don't care cuz the ride is still moving and you are eager for the next.
I really enjoyed the confusion and mystery of her origin. Audience and screen were discovering at the same time. They didn't go into a bunch of bubblegum physics or mumbojumbo about how her powers work. She absorbed the energy and now she can do all this cool stuff. Done and done. The difference with Super-hero action vs a Liam Neeson thriller is we don't need some longwinded backstory about special-ops and extreme toughness on why this dude can kick so much tinykitty; kid got bit by a radioactive spider and can now kick tinykitty. 
Stan Lee: that opening title = the feels. then the Mallrats script!! 
The acting was all solid. This is actually making my partner and I go watch The Room. Brie Larsons Oscar winning role. It looked grim and a tough watch but everyone I know who has seen it says it is most excellent. She has personality and a good range. Jude Law was a good villain without being EVIL. He didn't want the native pop to be hurt, He wanted to try and (in his mind) redeem Vers. He resisted calling for Ronan cuz that dude is sick.(glad Lee Pace revisited that role) Djimon Hounsou while still a minor role was a great nod. Ben Mendehlson as Talus stole most of the scenes,(the meta of him playing Fury's boss was great especially I miss those blue eyes). I sometimes find kid casting to be grating: like who's uncle pulled the strings for your role, but I enjoyed Akira Akbar as Monica( Mom won't let me wear it cuz I spilt ketchup..). and of course we got some real QT with THE BOSS : Sam L.
My Favorite Scene: When She just blasts dude into the rocks and is all I don't owe you nuthin! and then drags his kitty back to the pod and puts him in. also with Minn-Erva  "No, I just don't like you"


NitPicks: I wanted more Coulson, Small plot wrinkle with Fury having his eye scratched instead of whatever was hinted at with Robert Redford in Winter soldier, Chewie not Goose( but Goose fit so just a small quible), confusing post-post credit scene: So WHEN did Goose hack up the cosmic hairball?


I am even more looking forward to endgame. I am convinced now that Ant-Man coming back from the Quantam realm will be the crucial piece instead of carol coming in and saving the day like superman just cuz which is better for that type of ensemble number.


What did you Like or Dislike? Did you see any Easter Eggs? Thoughts on the Next Phase of MCU? Who else from the movie do you think will be joining MPQ?

Pongie

Quick question for those who have seen the movie, that's her normal form after the dampeners were removed right? We have yet to see her full on binary form

Chrono_Tata

Agreed on all points. Thing that left the most impression on me was Talos. What a great character and he was the highlight of the second half of the movie.

If there is one fault I could find about the movie was that it was a little too safe and there wasn't anything too innovative about it. Maybe if it came out before GotG. That's the difference between a good movie and a classic though and Cap Marvel was pretty dang good.

As for the timing for when Goose coughed up the Tesseract I don't think it was supposed to be too important, although from the furniture changes I guess it was a few years after Cap Marvel. In any case it would be some time before Avengers 1. I guess the scene was just to confirm how SHIELD got hold of it and also played for the physical comedy.

GrimSkald

Chrono_Tata said:

Agreed on all points. Thing that left the most impression on me was Talos. What a great character and he was the highlight of the second half of the movie.

If there is one fault I could find about the movie was that it was a little too safe and there wasn't anything too innovative about it. Maybe if it came out before GotG. That's the difference between a good movie and a classic though and Cap Marvel was pretty dang good.

As for the timing for when Goose coughed up the Tesseract I don't think it was supposed to be too important, although from the furniture changes I guess it was a few years after Cap Marvel. In any case it would be some time before Avengers 1. I guess the scene was just to confirm how SHIELD got hold of it and also played for the physical comedy.

The chair was much more current but he still had a CRT screen monitor on his desk (as opposed to a flat screen.)  I'm guessing early 2000s, which would also fit for the timing in Avengers.

I agree with pretty much all the points above, but I disliked the scene where Ronan arrived and basically just launched missiles to carpet bomb the Earth.  It was too much threat for too little lead up - it was very casually done and very casually handled.  The point was to emphasize CM's power, sure, but I feel they'd already done a good job with that with her fighting the strike team.  That was much more real.  I absolutely love how she didn't indulge in fisticuffs with Yon Rogg, that would have been a dumb game and she knew it.

Straycat

I had a little issue with the overall structure of the movie. It's not the typical hero origin story, she doesn't really get her powers until the final battle, and has maybe a second of struggling with it. It was jarring to see her in mask with her eyes closed, suddenly having that black eye makeup before going glowy eye again.

I remember for tv critic Andy Greenwald saying that Carol would be a kind of change of pace since she would be a rare hero that thinks its fun. To that end we hear her enjoying flying, but just for a sec while also stopping a random world ending event. I just didn't get a good sense of her character since she had amnesia the whole time.

I did enjoy it, and am liking it the more I think back on it. Talos was great, the skrull's are actually good turn worked on me, tho I probably should have realized it when her kree team was working with Ronan. I thought it started out kinda slow, picks up when it becomes a Fury/carol two hander.

GrimSkald

The movie really played with your expectations if you're familiar with the comics.  You'll note that Jude Law's character was not identified by name until well over half the movie - they were trying to set up an expectation for people who know the comics that he was Mar-Vell.  I didn't recall the Lawson connection (I never actually read the original comics, they're before my time, but I've read about them,) so I was very pleasantly surprised when that role was also taken by a woman.

In the comics, the Kree are a militaristic empire, but the Skrulls are actively worse.  Again, the movie played up those expectations with making the Skrull look like the villians, and it defied them by making them, well, at least victims if not actively good guys.

Malcrof

Moving to Off Topic. (this is about a movie, not the game)

Phumade

GrimSkald said:

I agree with pretty much all the points above, but I disliked the scene where Ronan arrived and basically just launched missiles to carpet bomb the Earth.  It was too much threat for too little lead up - it was very casually done and very casually handled.  The point was to emphasize CM's power, sure, but I feel they'd already done a good job with that with her fighting the strike team.  That was much more real.  I absolutely love how she didn't indulge in fisticuffs with Yon Rogg, that would have been a dumb game and she knew it.

Too much setup in the movie.  Personally,  I think its pretty clear that the reason why the Kree signed the treaty with Xander probably has something to do with Captain Marvel and or the defeat of supreme intelligence.   I'm sure the next two movies will effectively be prequels to GOTG 1.  It would not be surprising if Cap Marvel 2/3 ends with Ronan being thrown out and declared the zealot that he becomes.  I'm sure Ronan and Korath will factor in the direct sequel

Chrono_Tata

GrimSkald said:

The movie really played with your expectations if you're familiar with the comics.  You'll note that Jude Law's character was not identified by name until well over half the movie - they were trying to set up an expectation for people who know the comics that he was Mar-Vell.  I didn't recall the Lawson connection (I never actually read the original comics, they're before my time, but I've read about them,) so I was very pleasantly surprised when that role was also taken by a woman.

In the comics, the Kree are a militaristic empire, but the Skrulls are actively worse.  Again, the movie played up those expectations with making the Skrull look like the villians, and it defied them by making them, well, at least victims if not actively good guys.

I get the impression that the Skrull Empire was probably an actual threat to the Kree at some point, but by the time of the movie they have pretty much been defeated and the survivors are being hunted to the brink of extinction. 

Ragnoluce

Phumade said:

Too much setup in the movie.  Personally,  I think its pretty clear that the reason why the Kree signed the treaty with Xander probably has something to do with Captain Marvel and or the defeat of supreme intelligence.   I'm sure the next two movies will effectively be prequels to GOTG 1.  It would not be surprising if Cap Marvel 2/3 ends with Ronan being thrown out and declared the zealot that he becomes.  I'm sure Ronan and Korath will factor in the direct sequel

Thiiiiiiiis. I did find the movie enjoyable, but there was so much table-setting. I think it's the closest in tone to Thor 1, in terms of being a 'cosmic fish out of water' story, and also because it really forces the main character to 'find themself' over the course of the movie when we just want them to be butt-kicking from the jump.

I am much,MUCH more excited for what the studio can do with Captain Marvel sequels, because (much like Thor) now that they've dispensed with the basics they can basically tell any kind of crazy story they want in a space opera format. (She's already traveling with a wise-cracking skrull, how amazing would it be if they added in some of the Bob Layton Hercules storyline in the middle of it?).

One last thing--I am wondering how Mar-vell got her hands on the cosmic cube--as far as I can tell, Howard Stark had it at the end of Captain America 1, which is why we assumed there was an unbroken chain of SHIELD ownership from that movie's after-credits scene. Possible seeding for some kind of 60s movie with a young Mar-vell, or some kind of other psychedelic storyline? 

Dormammu

The movie made absolutely no impact on me. I didn't laugh once. I didn't say 'oh cool' at anything. They basically took two hours to tell an origin story, which could have been told in 20 minutes so they could move on to something more interesting. I had some real problems with this movie:

1 - It took Fury about 2 seconds to come to terms with the fact that two different alien races existed and were on his planet. That would be a mind-blowing, monumental discovery that would impact the human race like nothing else in history. But for him (just a field agent at this point, mind you) it's just another day at the job and an excuse to get into some crazy caper.

2 - Carol was bland. Brie Larson didn't seem to know how to portray the character, probably because there wasn't much there. They tried to give her this 'I get knocked down but always get back up' attitude but it mostly fell hollow. Her powers were bland, too; they needed to be better quantified and explained.

3 - I'm cool with the Skrulls being victims and a total 180 from the way they're depicted in the comics, but the way they go from a world-invading species that takes over entire governments to a bunch of refugees is a bit of a head-scratcher.

4 - Um, why is the Tesseract a Kree light-speed engine? Wasn't it at the bottom of the ocean... oh, no, wait. I see, it was dug up by Howard Stark and given to Annette Benning so she could make a faster than light-speed ship for the Kree. But wait, can't the Kree already travel faster than light? Why would they need that? As a galaxy-spanning empire how do they get around? I mean, traveling at light speed, it would take 10 years to fly from our sun to the nearest star (Alpha Centauri) and I know it didn't take Carol more than ten years to get to Earth and crash into a Blockbuster.... oh, okay, I'm clearly over-thinking this.

Straycat

Phumade said:

Too much setup in the movie.  Personally,  I think its pretty clear that the reason why the Kree signed the treaty with Xander probably has something to do with Captain Marvel and or the defeat of supreme intelligence.   I'm sure the next two movies will effectively be prequels to GOTG 1.  It would not be surprising if Cap Marvel 2/3 ends with Ronan being thrown out and declared the zealot that he becomes.  I'm sure Ronan and Korath will factor in the direct sequel

I hope they don't make any more prequels. I'm fine not knowing what Carol has been up to for the past 25 years. This and Antman & the Wasp were good, but I was almost more interested in the end credit scene to see how it'll tie into Endgame.