Watched it this evening.
I think it was perhaps a bit too predictable, a bit too much MCU-formula (I can see why some reviewers think that this drags it down), but all in all, I thought it was a good, entertaining movie. Not the best MCU movie, but very far from the worst.
Brie is awesome in the role, IMO. The “emotionless” acting in the trailers that she was being criticized for, makes perfect sense in the movie, and I can’t wait to see how she’ll interact with the rest of the MCU. And hopefully she’ll get more solo movies - she deserves a chance in an adventure less weighed down by 10 years of movies.
Goose is a scene-stealer. Mendelsohn and Jackson are excellent as well.
For a while, I wondered whether there would be a double-double-cross; i.e., that both the Kree and the Skrulls were the bad guys, and that both were just after the tesseract. But the ending as it was worked well in terms of making sure that she is kept “out of the picture” until Endgame. Good call, I think.
I also like that they make the Skrulls good/morally grey, rather than “eeevil”, which is their usual role in the Marvel comics. At this point, with the Skrulls, Kree, Nova Corps, Reavers, and all the rest, I actually think the MCU could out-Star Wars the Star Wars saga, if they wanted to. There’s some rich storytelling potential in the universe they’ve built out there, and they’ve only just scratched the surface.
I saw some critics grumbling that there are “Solo”-type moments in this film, but I don’t really agree. IMO, the callbacks here make sense and fit - unlike someone being given a stupid name, and choosing to keep it for… reasons.
We’ve been discussing the cohesion of the X-Men universe in the Dark Phoenix thread. This is a perfect example of how you do a flash-back movie without screwing up anything (at least not anything I noticed).
I can kind of understand @WhollySchmidt’s comment that some of the moments of triumph felt flat.
I mean, I don’t think there’s anything in this movie to match Thor’s big moments in Ragnarok or Infinity War, and there should be - there absolutely should be given what happens. I think he is right that something about the cinematography/composition/pacing just isn’t quite up to the level that we’ve been given in those other movies.
That being said, I still enjoyed the movie and it definitely gets a thumbs up from me.
I see there is already speculation that Monica Rambeau (the girl) might be the one to take over as the new Captain Marvel after Larsson, given that she was actually the second Captain Marvel after Mar-Vell.
Doesn’t make sense to me. You’ve just signed an Oscar winner in the role; and (presumably) tied her down for at least 2 more solo movies + ensemble appearances (anything else would be very weird). It just makes no sense to me that they’d want to replace her anytime soon.
But she’s - pretty obviously - going to star in future MCU films, that much is certain. You don’t give a character this much screentime without having some plans for that character.
My wild guess? She’s brave (they really emphasize that, IMO), she’s bright, fixes old planes in her spare-time with her badass fighter-pilot mom, and has a huge role-model in Auntie Carol. No way she isn’t going to be a USAAF pilot, the way they’ve written her. And that would make it easy to write her into Endgame (or some other MCU movie) if, e.g., the heroes deploy a force of Iron Man/Warmachine suits led by Rhodes, controlled by the best pilots of the USAAF - one of them which just happens to be the adult Monica (cue tearful reunion with Auntie Carol). All the other suits get killed/destroyed during the movie, with only Monica surviving at the end, and Tony Stark either dead or retiring. Cue the newest member of the Avengers: Ironheart aka Ironman/Warmachine for the next generation of the MCU.
Perhaps too predictable, but I can’t imagine that this exact storyline hasn’t been pitched at an MCU storyboard meeting.
Sorry about the long rant. I guess I liked it more than I thought, otherwise I wouldn’t bother writing this much.