Movies

While I'll admit I tend to be really forgiving for superhero films (these are just pure fantastical escapes for my brain), I don't really get the hate for this film. I thought it was a lot of fun. Goofy? Hell yes! Uneven in places? For sure. But I found the first 'team up' movie in a long time to be quite enjoyable.

Iman Vellani was a standout, and Kamala Khan and her family provided a lot of joy in what could have otherwise been a very standard, overly-serious movie. Sure the singing planet was silly AF, and at first I was ready to groan and eyeroll myself out of the theater, it wasn't that bad, and it also showed, like in GotG movies, the Marvel universe is full of weird and truly alien things. I'll agree with @MimicJar, I do wish that they had leaned more into it than they did.

The effects were really good to my eye, and the entanglement related stuff was a fun way to add a lot of energy throughout (even if it wasn't always handled consistently).

The villain was probably the weakest part of the movie; while her motivation was "trying to save my own world", and thus like many MCU villains has some way of justifying the evil deeds, Dar-Benn felt a bit half baked. That said, it ultimately didn't matter to me, as I was in it for the three Marvels which made up for what was a somewhat bland villain.

In the end, I found myself laughing and having a genuinely enjoyable time, and am likely to go back a second time. I'll admit this was not the best MCU film of all time, but for me it was fun. Oh, and the end credit scenes were both pretty rad.

I don't know where any of the positive reviews are coming from. It was awful. Not even for a MCU movie, it was a bad movie, period. Everything is so disjointed and all over the place. There's no explanation for things that need explanations and they over-explain things that are obvious. The villain, while having some motivation, was just weak and forgettable.

Brie Larson was in and out. Sometimes she was decent, but a lot of times felt like she was reading off cue cards. Teyonah Parris was OK, but she's terrible at fight choreography. She kept running up and getting in position constantly and just looked off. Sam Jackson was a clown. I mean I don't think he had a single line that wasn't a joke. I don't even get his characterization at all. Iman Vellani was the best thing about this film. She was a delight every time she was on screen and I love how she's the new 'Fury' in recruiting the YA team. Glad to see references to the other members finally.

The whole singing planet was just...IDK. The flerkin stuff was OK but I felt wore out its welcome, especially the end there. But the mid credits scene was interesting. Beast looked kinda weird, but he seems to be a completely CGI character and not Kelsey Grammar, despite using his voice. So I wonder if the X-Men are only in that universe. It would give an explanation why we haven't seen any mutants up until recently.

I'm still in as a long time Marvel fan, but wow, this movie was a mess.

Movie itself was pretty even keel, not great, not terrible.

Cons: weak uninspired villain, that fucking singing planet

Pros: Kamala and her family, cool explorations of the the Marvels' powers, taking advantage of their quantum entaglement, and probably one of the best real hype post credits scenes since the OG thanos teaser.

Iman deserved better. Hell, I wish Kamala rather deal with smaller stakes instead of throwing her into two save the world conflicts back to back.

Given all the paid reviews and astroturfing by marvel, such low reviews should tell you everything you need to know.

But why though?