Captain Marvel (2019) Review

Captain Marvel came out in March of 2019 to some fanfare. This movie had a bit of hype surrounding it for being the first female lead Marvel movie. Response to it was mostly positive leaning mixed. Which I feel is pretty accurate for the movie. As we’ll see in the review, it’s not a bad movie, but its also not a great movie.

So I just got back from seeing Captain Marvel, it was pretty good. The movie has this fun tone surrounding it. The narrative is pretty formulaic, but I kind of has to be as it’s an origin story, a prequel story, and a set-up for future movies. I think it works well as a majority if the origin stuff comes from Carol discovering her past throughout the movie. It goes a lot of the places you expect it too. Even the twist is pretty expected, especially if you know of the character from the comics. Even with these issues I feel that the movie is well-paced and makes good use of the time period it’s set in. It works to establish things that we know of in the universe, which I will not mention due to spoilers. It goes places that you both expect and don’t expect given the characters and their relationships in the comics, especially between the two alien races that are focused on within the movie. The comedy works well in the movie, especially the comedy that comes from the characters and relationships.

The characters and performances are all pretty good and effective. Brie Larson as Carol was pretty good. She is an Oscar winning actress for a reason and gives a pretty good performance as a brainwashed rogue soldier that is slowly learning her true past and what her true purpose will be. She’s a badass that’s headstrong and emotional, but makes use of her emotions. She’s confident in her abilities and learns throughout to movie to be confident in herself and her emotions. There’s also some really good scenes and emotional acting when she really gets into her past. Her relationship with the other characters are pretty good, especially the relationship between her and Fury.

Sam Jackson as Nick Fury was also really good, effective, and a lot of fun. We get to learn more about his past and even how he lost his eye, which is a pretty lame reason. His relationship with Carol feels a lot like a buddy cop comedy relationship does. His relationship with Goose the Cat is where a lot of the comedy comes from and is effective and works really well. 

Ben Mendelsohn as Talos was effective and a blast to watch. He gets a little meh after a certain point, but overall stays good. Lash Ana Lynch as Maria was also pretty good, and where a lot of the emotion in the film comes from. Jude Law as Yon-Rog is ok, it’s a good performance but the character is pretty ok overall. It’s kind of hard to describe as the character is pretty formulaic overall. The other characters in the film are pretty similar as they aren’t really given the time to be developed like the earth characters are. A big example of this are Korath and Ronan who are there to give som past to them but don’t really do anything in the movie other than being a fun cameo/call-back to GOTG. 

The action in the film was good, a lot of it is expected stuff. Some space battles, dog fights and some hand to hand fights. The Starforce characters has some cool abilities, especially Yon-Rog’s arm gravity sling things. Carol’s abilities were shown pretty well throughout the film and their effects were pretty good. They are simplified for the film, as with most characters. Overall the effects were pretty good and don’t really fall into the trap that Black Panther’s did with that final battle. The only iffy effects to me were on Coulson’s de-aging as it look too young. Although that is in comparison to the great job they did on Fury in the film. 

The score and soundtrack is pretty good and effective. The score is good at conveying emotions and epic moments but overall isn’t really all that noteworthy. Like the most memorable moments of the score are the kind of techno sounding bits as well as the use of the avengers notes during a scene at the end of the film. The soundtrack was used well throughout the film, about as good as most movies do. There are a few fun jokes and references at the time period of the film but doesn’t do much with it. 

My only real issues with the movie not mentioned earlier is that it really does feel like a phase one movie in a phase three world. To be fair if it was in phase one it would be one of the better movies, it’s just that there’s a lot of really strong and good movies in phase three so far. In terms of a comparison I feel like Wonder Woman was a better film overall in terms of characters, action and score. The flip side is that this film holds up better throughout the film and doesn’t fall apart in the final action set piece like Wonder Woman did. 

Also the opening crawl was great and is very emotional, as well as the Stan Lee cameo. 

Overall I’d say it’s a good movie that is worth going to see in the theatre. Two Thumbs Up !!

Ever since then my opinion hasn’t changed that much. It’s a good movie, a little middle of the road in terms of Marvel movies, but still good nonetheless. My biggest issue is how it feels like its a movie that should have come out during phase one and not at the end of phase three. It feels like a rush to set up the character for Endgame which didn’t work all that well. Over-all it’s still a good movie and worth seeing at least once.

Aquaman (2018) Review

Welcome to my first review of 2020! Coincidentally this was also the first movie I saw last year in 2019. Aquaman came out in December of 2018, to a lot of fanfare due to the popularity of Jason Momoa and the Haka he lead at the films premiere, as well as the fact that people were excited to see how the filmmakers would help remove the stigma around the character whose best known image is from the Super Friends cartoon. I have to say they succeeded. Which will be seen now.

So I just got back from watching Aquaman and it was very good. It’s a fun action adventure movie with a little bit of horror thrown in during a particular sequence. 

Let’s start off with the story and plot. I feel that the story was effective and worked for what it was trying to tell. It’s kind of like a reverse of Black Panther where this time the hero is the outsider and the villain is the one trying to unite the kingdoms for a common goal, while also working with the secondary villain for monetary reasons. While the story is pretty formulaic, it has fun with it and actually works really well to get Arthur to where we want him to be going forwards in this new version of the universe. The film is well paced and never feels too long or too slow. The film also has effective use of flashbacks in showing how Arthur got to where he is today. 

The comedy in the film is good and effective, I mean they make a (literal) potty joke but over-all it works. Even Manta gets some comedy

The characters are all effective and work really well in this world. The casting is good with everyone really fitting as their characters. Arthur and Mera are great together, you can feel their chemistry and their development works. Arthur is really fun in this movie working off of his character in Justice League and expanding upon it. Black Manta and Orm worked really well as villains and each having their own reasons for why they are doing this. You can tell they are setting these villains up for something big going forward into the universe, especially with the developments they gave Manta. Orm is a little bit typical superhero movie villain, but I think he really works as his performance is good and his reasoning is there. They even do that thing that these movies do when the hero and villain are related. But what’s great about this one is that they kind of do a reversal of it, yes they do that thing where they don’t want to kill each other cause they’re brothers and of what could have been, but they also get away from that as Orm resents Arthur and blames him for what happened. Other than that, all the characters were great and all badass. 

Speaking of badass, the action in this movie was incredible. They made effective use of the environments, their abilities, and of the technology available to them. The fight scenes are all standout and very creative with the camerawork. All the fights in this movie were great, especially the Sicily fight and chase scene. The final battle was also pretty awesome, both the big CGI battle as well as the Arthur Orm rematch. Another effective scene was the stuff with the Trench and the Trench dwellers. That’s where Wan’s horror background comes in to play. It’s full of tension and you do kind of worry for the characters.

The CGI in the film is very good and effective. It’s all believable and any weirdness works because it’s all underwater so things are going to be weird anyways. Atlantis is cool and the technology is great. This film is visually gorgeous and beautiful. It’s dynamic and makes great use of landscapes. A great example of that is the aforementioned Trench sequence. This is where it’s superior to me than Black Panther as I feel that movie suffers from the lacklustre CGI especially in that final battle. 

The designs of the costumes and weapons were all great and gorgeous. They really work and are futuristic while working for an underwater civilization. The suits on the characters were all great adaptations of their comic book versions. 

The score was pretty effective, if a little formulaic for a superhero movie. It hits all the beats that a superhero score should. It’s epic, whimsical and effective in it’s use. 

This film is in many ways another course correction for the DC movies. It makes better use of it’s villains and doesn’t fall into the trap of big grey villain like Wonder Woman did, and they actually have the villains (SPOILER) which a lot of superhero movies don’t do. 

Over-all this is a fun action adventure movie  with great effects, costumes, props, and action that is well worth seeing. It’s a two thumbs up for me. Go see it if you haven’t yet.

In the time since this film has come out my opinion hasn’t changed much. It’s still a fun movie with incredible special effects, fights, and moments. I think this movie represents that change that the DC movies have been going too as it doesn’t fall into the trap that the first few did, even though I do like those movies. I personally think it’s been a good change, as we’ve already seen 2 more really good-to-great movies since Aquaman. Anyways, Aquaman is a great movie that if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s easy to find.

Blog Update

Hey everybody, it’s been a while hasn’t it. I’ve been away for a few weeks due to happenstances and this post is going to go into that and what is there to look forward to in the future. So the first and main reason I haven’t posted in a while is that my computer was in for repairs. The screen was cracked and I decided to take it in to be fixed…….I legitimately just got it back a couple hours before writing this post. So ya, it’s kinda hard to use wordpress without a computer. I just now found out that this site also has a mobile app, but I haven’t used it yet. Other than that I’ve been away due to the final two week insanity that is end of term assignments and exams, as well as the usual family holiday stuff.

Now transitioning to what’s going to go on in the future. Going forward I’m going to continue the way I handle my blog, with updates to past reviews with from when i first saw the movie to reflecting with time and rewatches. With the release of Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker I may end up doing a rewatch of the whole franchise leading up to the review of the film, I may alternate between a star wars review and something else before i get to it, so that I can do a more fullrounded review after the initial thoughts, as opinions change with time, an example being my thoughts on the movie, I’ve seen it already but my opinion is already changing in the time since I’ve seen it. After I post that review, I’ll do a post on what I think about the Disney Era of Star Wars as a whole, and any criticisms I have or have had with it.

With that, I hope everyone had a merry christmas, happy holiday, and a happy new year. Looking forward to what 2020 brings.