Introduction to Change
Well this is a BIG week! Not only is this a 2 4 1 review but also, at the text request of Mildred, Monday with Mildred is being retired to now be the Cranky Curmudgeon. * giggle * Welcome to 2024 early. *
Now let the reviews begin.
The Marvels
by Mildred the Cranky Curmudgeon
CFR and I went to see this in the theater a few weeks ago, and I have resisted writing a review because I know she enjoyed the film a lot more than I did. But then, I am older and way more jaded than she could ever hope to be. Not that she hopes to be old and jaded. I’m glad to have seen it in the theater but disappointed that my current spate of bad service everywhere I go robbed us of the 3D experience we had expected. Even without that extra, I had a good time, but it was more about hanging with friends than the actual film.
In this iteration of a Marvel super hero movie, there is a bit of angst, a bit of humor, a suggestion that something may go wrong as the heroes work to save the entire universe from a dire threat.
That, in a nutshell, is my biggest problem with the film. It is super unoriginal, a storyline we have seen repeatedly the last couple of decades from Marvel. Apparently the company motto is, we have saved the universe from complete destruction. How can we top that? We’ll continue to save the universe from complete destruction!
I’m unhappy that Marvel Studios have given their fans a lackluster movie starring a rare thing, a woman super hero. I don’t know much about the actress who plays Captain Marvel, Brie Larson. I’ve heard that she’s amazingly strong physically, and that the Marvel troll boys hate her. I suspect it’s because she’s so much stronger than them. I think she’s fine for the role, a decent actress who has the physicality and comedic timing required by a history of very fit, funny actors portraying heroes in that universe. I call it the Chris Hemsworth model. I also have a sad suspicion that they rant about the film because it’s super diverse, with only one Caucasian main character.
The next biggest peeve I had with The Marvels was the lack of chemistry between the three actresses. Again, I haven’t read much about them or the behind the scenes of making the film or any of that. I saw the first movie and enjoyed it. As an origin story it’s not bad at all and I thought Larson was very good in the role. I really, really enjoyed the relationship between Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) and Maria Rambeau (her equal as a fighter pilot and very close friend, played by Lashana Lynch). The women had great chemistry, as did Larson and Akira Akbar, who played Rambeau’s daughter Monica.
In The Marvels we take up the story years later, after Captain Marvel has disappeared to help everywhere in the universe except Earth. Grown up Monica (Teyonah Parris, Candyman, WandaVision) has become a bad ass woman like her mom, but she’s angry with CM about running off. The other person in the triumvirate is Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani, who is brand new to movies), massive fan of Captain Marvel. It amuses me how much the troll boys have piled onto the Khan character, I strongly suspect because they see themselves in her as they worship male super heroes to a ridiculous degree. Disregarding the message of the movie that says it’s okay to be a fan, even in the extreme, that doesn’t make you incapable of being a hero. They only see the fun being poked at super fans.
The three women are forced to bond so they can defeat this week’s villain du jour, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton, The Handmaid’s Tale). Dar-Benn has a lot of power, and she intends to mess up everyone in the universe to get revenge and help her people, but I couldn’t get over how underwhelming she is as a bad guy. From my notes, “She just never gave me evil vibes. Just barely crazy. More…constipated.” Worse than that, though, the three leading ladies never developed a feeling of having grown close through their exploits. No chemistry between the actresses became my second biggest problem with the film. I didn’t believe their motivations or the bonding arc that was central to the plot.
The only time the lack of chemistry didn’t bother me (much) was during one of the sequences I enjoyed in the film. There is a training montage that my notes named “weirdest ever” and it was a lot of fun. But again, the film fell down with that, because they never really used the strength that the montage created. There was some toying with it later, but nothing really specific came about. That’s breaking one of cinema’s oldest and biggest laws: If you show something early in the film that is important to the plot, you must use that something later in the film. Is a specific gun highlighted early in a crime movie? Then that gun must later be prominently used later to pay off the introduction. It’s the law.
My third biggest complaint is something I have issues with in general about modern super hero movies. The fight sequences are over long and over the top unbelievable. After about the tenth time in one fight scene where someone has delivered a blow that should kill the bad guy and they just get up, dust off their suit and keep fighting, my mind wanders. It’s boring and confusing, and irritating when characters hit each other with buildings and spaceships and planets and just dust themselves off and keep fighting. What is the POINT of fighting if no one ever wins even the bare minimum of incapacitating the bad guy?
I liked the training montage, and the sequence set on the musical world. That was a surprising bit of originality and humor. Has there been a Marvel musical before? The parents were a hoot, and of course Goose, who is not a cat, makes a big showing here. He’s the only character very well used in the film, with another patented Marvel action sequence grounded in comedy. No one does that better than Marvel.
The problem is I liked parts of the film very much, but as a whole I thought it was uninspired and unnecessarily weak. I know CFR likes it a LOT more than I do, and I suspect most people like it a lot more than I do. And that’s fine, it’s not a bad film, I just wanted it to be better.
The Marvels
by CFR
I really liked it. Mildred, you Cranky Curmudgeon, I’m really sorry you didn’t get to see it in 3D. sorry…. Now I shall go to my bubbly – like Ms. Marvel – review of this very fun movie.
Popcorn movie. That is how I think of The Marvels. Popcorn. It is a fun romp like a fund comic book issue and I enjoyed it. Saw it twice and would like to see it again (curse you sinus/ear infection and finals). It is a movie that you go to to have fun and smile and feel good. Do I think that Mildred’s Cranky Curmudgeonly points were accurate? Yes, I can see her point. However, I just enjoyed myself.
Now I do wish the movie had been longer, but director Nia DaCosta wanted the movie to be under 2 hours. So The Marvels is a fast and fun, colorful ride with lots of giggles and smiles, pretty colors, and characters that I loved.
I have decided to make a list of things I liked/loved. They are a BIT SPOILERY so you have been warned.
BIT SPOILERY LIST:
- Don’t Tell Me To Smile. O.M.G. The first teaser trailer (see below) has this amazing, edgy some that I loved the first time I heard it. It is Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys. What really got to me was the lyric “Well now, don’t you tell me to smile.” Now I don’t know how or why this song was chosen BUT, for me, I resonates back to the Captain Marvel movie. Brie Larson was criticized for not smiling in the movie poster. So Ms. Larson noted that yes of course she should smile and Photoshopped smiles onto all of the male hero movies posters. The smile, obviously, didn’t work. (God, I love her.) Perhaps this song salutes that. Perhaps not. It has has the wonderful line “If you wanna battle, you’re in denial.” Perfect for a superhero movie that takes place in space. Find the lyrics here.
- Nia Dacosta. Thank you Marvel aka Kevin Feige for hiring this woman who gave us a joyful and colorful movie of just popcorn, bubble gum smiles.
- Cats & Flerkins. Yes, flerkins look like cats and Goose is a flerkin. Who towards the end of the movie, becomes surrounded by sweet little baby flerkins, aka kitties. The characters must chase down these furry cuties and to the tune of Memories from Cats, proceed to chase them. O.M.G. See the movie for that alone
- Oh Captain! My Captain! I have always heard this statement in the past few years as an erotic comment. It’s really a eulogy to Abraham Lincoln. So LOLOLOL! So when teenage Iman Vellani/Ms. Marvel, admires Captain Marvel’s fighting skills she utters breathlessly “Oh Captain My Captain!” Captain Monica Rambeau gives her a funny look. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!! I don’t know what is funnier: Thinking of it as a semi-erotic statement or a good-bye to Lincoln. (No I’m laughing and yes there might be something wrong with me.)
- Camaraderie. They cast and director all seemed to really like each other. I think they were having a good time. I think they all worked together, even if they were at times unsure of each other and the “team” aspect.
- Iman Vellani/Ms. Marvel. She is PURE JOY! She love Marvel comics and her character and enthusiasm shows. She is adorable. Please note: The Men in my life liked her show and her. So that rules out boys, fans or not.
- Dar-Benn. I wanted more of the villain Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) and yes I saw her point. Still had to be stopped and frankly my respect for her planet went down the tubes for me in this movie. If that is how they behaved after a big catastrophe, then good grief. Still wouldn’t mind seeing her again and maybe with some new found intelligence and experience.
- Black Girl Magic. Fury inspires Captain Monica Rambeau by shouting “Black Girl Magic.” She flies! Yes, yes. A thousand times yes. Oh yes.
- Park Seo-joon. Oh FUN to have a Korean star on set!!! I hope he comes back. He and Brie Larson were quite the pair!
- The Trio. Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani were a joy to watch. I would have been happy watching a scene where they drank tea together and just talked. I could watch those three for hours as their characters and never get bored. I liked ’em. May I have more please?
- Samuel L. Jackson. Samuel L. M-F Jackson is a gosh darn national treasure and should be treated as such. He is also supportive of the women in the cast and calls out sexist nonsense. Love that man. Go Sam, Go!
- Kevin Feige. This is the man, the brains, behind the MCU. I AM SICK AND TIRED AND UTTERLY DISGUSTED WITH THE HATERS FOR THE MCU POST ENDGAME. GET OVER YOURSELVES AND JUST GO ENJOY! Kevin to you I say “Oh Captain! My Captain! Do not let the haters get you down!!!! You rock and never forget it!”
So with that I say, go watch this utterly enjoyable, smile proof movie and have fun.
LINKS:
* Huh.
Chick Flicking Reviews 