Captain Marvel (2019), dir. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

it has an orange cat in it apparently so I'm 110% going to see it this weekend

enjoyable mid-tier marvel. i'll always love Brie

more of a stilton man myself tbh

*changes username to Brie en crüt furiously*

I loved this!

the Kree orgy scene was a little much tho

second favourite air force-related movie featuring a cat named Goose

watching Mississippi Grind on Kanopy

I'm sorry, I haven't been interested in this movie (apart from a general "hey, good for Brie Larson") and haven't read this thread -- but this was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck??

well, some of it was

what about the rest?

Harmony Korine

sounds sick

the real answer is that the action sequences in MCU movies seem to be outsourced to Disney/Marvel's....in-house crew, whoever that entails. I'm still waiting for a decent tell-all on how their production process works.

Do you have a source for that? I've definitely seen Ryan Coogler geek out about all the small intentional stuff he put into one of Black Panther's fight scenes.

I think it depends on the director

But Lucrecia Martel said this recently

I received an e-mail from Marvel for a meeting,” Martel said. “So I went to the [Marvel 10th Anniversary] reunion. I actually signed this thing where I can’t talk about that reunion. Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers…What they told me in the meeting was ‘we need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson’s character.'”

Martel continued, “They also told me, ‘Don’t worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.’ I was thinking, well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences.”

Yeah that's the intvw I was thinking of. (also, I'm quite sure she wasn't supposed to disclose that, but gives zero fucks)

I remember reading, or discussing here, around the time of Iron Man 3, that they send the directors to some intensive CGI action sequence boot camp. Certainly at the time there was no indication Shane Black was capable of an over-the-top CGI spectacle, for example. I do think the quality of the action sequences in these movies boils down to the quality of the writing, and that a lot of them are driven by quips and personal interactions and that is what sticks out. It's why the airport fight in Civil War stands out as a highlight, or for that matter why Spider-Man Homecoming worked so well.

and this is the relevant Coogler piece

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNHc2PxY8lY

oh shit i didn't know this was the condorman thread

i too was enthusiastic about condorman as a child, though admittedly it was more the concept of condorman then the actual movie, which was fairly unwatchable (though there are, i am certain, many worse films in the world)

character of maria rambeau clearly inspired by arthur rimbaud, i don't know how chaw missed this

I am glad for this Condorman appreciation.

Anyway, just got back from seeing CM and yeah, solid midrange Marvel film with some sharp moments. Came in with lowballed expectations and it all turned out fine.

I enjoyed it a lot, I was wondering if there was a bit of "Okay, we're going to have the first female lead in a Marvel film, we should make sure that Samuel L Jackson is on screen for 85% of the film" - which is progress I suppose!

I thought it was pretty great. Started slow & I was concerned that it would be alien-world nonsense at first but that was only momentary

Solid fun

This was better than I was expecting, although it suffered a bit from clunky pacing. Larsen was just kinda ok (although she played off of Jackson well), Annette Bening was wasted, Sam Jackson more or less carried the movie. Mendelsohn has some fun. Jude Law is Jude Law.

Of course the real MVP was Goose the “cat”.

Liked the *spoiler*villain reversal*end spoiler* which I should have seen coming but somehow didn’t.

Despite their house visual style being pretty bland and uninspired (with a few notable exceptions), for the most part Marvel has established a fairly consistent baseline of entertainment value that is pretty impressive.

i think it's high time we moved on from having spaceships be varying shades of brown and bronze and shadow inside. it's very annoying and you can't fkn see anything that's going on

^yes

I kinda don't get the backlash. I don't mean the "incel" backlash but the backlash from everyone else who is like "ok we can admit this isn't very good".

I can get how Marvel fatigue could negatively impact a viewing, since by now, these things have familiar beats, pacing, and occasionally homogeneity sets in. But I can't grok how someone who likes other Marvel origin flicks would find this one a cut below.

Yes, the 90's refs were very smack-you-in-the-face, but were mostly innocuous. I felt like they kept the scope appropriate, the ties to Endgame were managed well, and I enjoyed Brie as a sassy but grounded hero.

I really hated this. Felt like unending exposition and then uninteresting action sequences even by Marvel standards. Had no interest in the plot, such as it was.

I usually like Larson a lot but she's miscast in this. Her flat affect just comes across as bored/boring here.

The 90s stuff is such a red herring too because this could have taken place at literally any time at all...it's like *cue 30 seconds of Come As You Are...oh yeah this is the 90s...cool*

A full on 90s homage would have been preferable, I think, because there might have been some attempt at establishing a definite time/place which isn't some anonymous spaceship.

Also....(last one I promise)...this felt so weirdly underpopulated. All the settings were so empty and bland and boring.

But other than that you loved it.

A full on 90s homage would have been preferable

No

Also it's not like they drove wind-up cars in the 90s and houses were made of mud

It didn’t fully hit me until later at how reasonably self-contained it was. Everything that’s a direct connective element to all the other films functions just as is in this one; only the mid-credits scene acts as a direct tie-in. Otherwise they’re just Easter eggs and the like if you’re looking for them.

This was pretty good + fun. Mid-tier MCU but that's nothing to shake a stick at (scroll upthread and review the laundry list of past comic movies which were almost uniformly Not Good). I do think we've reached a point, though, where going all-in with this franchise pays way more dividends than just sampling here and there. Everyone I saw it with (my gf and her fam) enjoyed it but there was some confusion among the older folks.

I havent formulated a full thought on this but maybe Guardians & Ragnarok pushed the bar too high & now everyone’s disappointed if it’s not wall to wall crazy fun timez?

i love both those movies (and this movie) so idk maybe i am barking up the wrong tree

or maybe just

captain marvel going 🚀 $1B pic.twitter.com/M4W1EHyS3t

— saddy 🚀 (@sapphicaptain) March 11, 2019

marvel fatigue is definitely a thing. the later ones that dont suffer from it have taken steps to avoid the generic mood/message of the general run

ppl who raved about efforts as poor as black panther and dr strange should also perhaps not rush to judge the reasons behind audiences not turning up for more of the same just sayin

I do think we've reached a point, though, where going all-in with this franchise pays way more dividends than just sampling here and there. Everyone I saw it with (my gf and her fam) enjoyed it but there was some confusion among the older folks.

I'm curious about this, because I'm definitely with Ned - apart from the scene at the end, this was a very self-contained movie.

eh? nobody liked Dr Strange. everyone liked Black Panther. there's a major difference on those two. not aaaall of these films get loved.

Y'all just straight-up inventing reality itt. 'Nobody liked Dr. Strange', gtfo.

happy to go on record and say that dr strange was absolutely adequate

The problem, I think, isn't that this film isn't mostly self-contained (which it is) but rather that if your engagement with the MCU is somewhat casual it's probably a little confusing to figure out how this fits into the larger tapestry.

I have to hope that they at least tried to get 'Supernova' on the soundtrack.

Dr. Strange was the rare Marvel movie all four of us saw at the same time in the theaters, and all four of us were like eh. Black Panther, my wife and one kid loved, but that might have been opening weekend excitement, while me and the other one thought it was fine. Kids and I thought both Ant Man movies were meh, but enjoyed the last Thor. Half of us saw the last Avengers, half of us had no interest at all. Everyone loved Spider-verse. Which is to say, yeah, for being so consistent and occupying very similar ground these movies definitely exist in some sort of hierarchy, and just first person anecdotally some degree of Marvel fatigue has def. affected my family. For example, my two girls haven't said a word about Captain Marvel.

both were bad

one was lazy and didnt get great hype in the longer run but plenty of first takes were zomgggg amazing

one was ambitious but messy and fell apart after an amazing setup and the ongoing consensus was that it was robbed of an oscar of best picture which i mean

xp response to jamiesummerz

Which is to say, yeah, for being so consistent and occupying very similar ground these movies definitely exist in some sort of hierarchy, and just first person anecdotally some degree of Marvel fatigue has def. affected my family.

think meself that marvel fatigue impacts a lot less on those that strive for different ground, in particular the stakes and scope not being yet another alien-threatens-continent/govt shut down supergang repliplot

it's probably a little confusing to figure out how this fits into the larger tapestry.

Okay, I thought you meant were confused at the movie.