obj/subj: captain marvel (2019).

letterboxd:

★ ★ ★ - (2.7/5)

imdb:

★ ★ ★ - (6.8/10)

rotten tomatoes:

★ ★ ★ ★ - (79/100)

submitted by flynn-

my summary:

Carol Danvers, local warrior woman that let's her emotions get the better of her all the time, gets caught up in a war with super duper evil shapeshifting aliens that honestly deserved better. While she's fighting off these aliens, trying to control her emotions, and accidentally getting adopted by local drama king spy Nick Fury, she's also getting flashbacks of a former life and former lover, I mean best friend. There are lots of witty jokes and one liners, tons of explosions, and some seriously gay implications. It's ends spectacularly with Carol realizing, what a surprise, her emotions make her stronger! She defeats the real bad guys, which obviously wasn't the shapeshifters, and then decides to peace out and keep protecting people, because that's what they always do. Nick loses his eye to the kraken cat, and gets a little pager from our so cool Carol. Then of course he uses said pager to call for her when he dies.

my thoughts on this popular opinion of this movie:

They're too blinded by the fact that Marvel finally gave us a movie about one of their female heroes, along with the motorcycle scene, to realize that the plot line was stolen from the most cliche of women empowerment movies, so it's not actually new and impressive. It just looks different than the older movies.

my personal movie rating:

I'd give the movie a 4/10. It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but since I've seen at least half a dozen movies with a unfortunately similar storyline/message, all I could enjoy were the jokes and the cat and the character design. Otherwise? Unimpressive and quite frankly, boring.

my critical movie rating:

5/10 The movie was made for a certain audience, delivered itself well to said audience. It kept the story moving, and while it did linger on certain spots for a bit longer than I felt necessary, it was overall a well flowing story. However, because it was made only for a certain audience, most other audiences wouldn't enjoy it as much, making it harder for just anyone to watch it and not feel like they wasted their time.

Appealing factors: the kraken cat and Nick Fury. The kraken cat was a little new and funny. Nick Fury has always been a character I like, so it's hard, but possible, for me to be disappointed with his character in most media.

if I were encouraging someone to watch this:

I'd tell then about the kraken cat, the gay implications, and how Nick Fury loses his eye.

if I were discouraging someone to watch it:

If you've watched literally any superhero movie about a woman, chances are you've seen this movie already. Biggest differences is that she doesn't have a love interest tbh.

further comments:

I respect that people like the movie, and don't mind that it's well liked. I just wish it could have been liked for actually being a good, well written, ORIGINAL movie instead of being the first movie Marvel made about a woman.

personal thoughts

I fully agree with Flynn on this. This movie, while having its upsides, tends to be painfully boring and uninteresting at times where it should be very much the opposite. Captain Marvel as a character feels somewhat flat, but thankfully she's saved from being entirely cardboard by some sharp edges. However, it should be easy to see that there's not much about her character that reads as likable, or anything at all. She's strong and powerful, but not much in addition to that. This is extremely discouraging to those willing to look beyond the surface of "hey, the first Marvel movie with a woman as the main character" because it doesn't elaborate at all on her- it more just takes a side character relegated to an overdone trope and tries to put her where a traditional main character should be.