3 Thoughts on Captain Marvel

*Spoilers ahead*

1. It felt forced - First, I felt forced to even watch it. The trailers were God-awful, and I dreaded every moment of watching this movie, but I felt like I had to see it before I watch Endgame (which I have not seen yet, and I probably wont for at least a few weeks). Second, the movie, itself, felt forced. The dialogue is really unpleasant. Is Captain Marvel supposed to be witty or something? The dialogue between her and Fury is obnoxious. It certainly didn't feel natural. And can we talk about the music for a second? Because it really took the whole obnoxiously forced feeling to the next level. I just *knew* that they were going to play "Just a Girl" at a big moment. While part of me wanted to yell out "FUCK YES!" (it's one of my favorite songs of all-time - I was a teenage girl in the 90s, it can't be helped), another part of me just groaned at the predictability of it all. To their credit, there weren't a whole lot of female-led alternative/grunge bands in the 90s, and since that's what they were going for they had limited choices (related side story - a few years ago I became irate at the Pandora app because when you set an "alternative" playlist, it will literally play only male artists for hours on end. When I complained out-loud, I was challenged to name female alternative bands and I could only name No Doubt, Garbage and Hole. BUT, there are many female solo artists that still fit the bill in my opinion, like Alanis Morissette and Patti Rothberg.).

2. Was I supposed to be surprised? - Was this movie made for non-MCU fans? We already know who the "good" guys are and who the "bad" guys are, so why are we pretending like it was a shock to know that she's working for the wrong side? Why not establish that from the beginning, and then base the story around her own realization? Why does the audience have to play along? Also, I'm pretty good at avoiding spoilers, so I didn't really know much about this movie - aside from the fact that a cat named Goose is heavily featured, but I was well aware that Jude Law was playing the "bad" guy. Nothing about this movie surprised me in the least bit, so much so that I question the point to any of it. Couldn't they just introduce Captain Marvel during one of the Avengers movies? Save us all two hours? The more I think about it, the more annoyed I am at this movie, but I will say one positive thing. I think they did the whole "human" moment really well - with the flashbacks of her getting back up after getting knocked down. It was nice. The end.

3. The stacked cast - I've pointed out before, that I would prefer to have stronger actors like Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, etc. over someone like Chris Evans (sorry, even after all these movies, I still just see a pretty face), so I thought I would LOVE the casting in this movie - Brie Larson, Jude Law, Annette Benning, Ben Mendelsohn - all actors that I am incredibly fond of (particularly Jude Law. I didn't realize how much I missed his smile. Where has he been? Just that Young Pope thing?). Unfortunately, it didn't work for me. All of these actors seemed like they were just wasting their talent on a pointless, mediocre film. I do really like Brie Larson (she's been in two of my favorite films of the last decade - Room and Short Term 12), but she's about as dull in this as Scarlett Johansson is as Black Widow (i.e. extremely fucking dull). I also really don't like the whole de-aging thing - it's just super fucking creepy - especially for the amount of screen-time that Samuel L. Jackson has in this. And we know what Jackson looked like 20 years ago (his performance in A Time to Kill is burned into my memory forever - "Yes, they deserved to die, and I hope they burn in Hell!"), and he looks....almost...the same as he does now?! Certainly nothing like what they did to him for this movie. He looked plastic.