Board 8 > Board 8 Ranks: The Marvel Cinematic Universe (PHASE 1)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tag, was considering participating but just couldnt really care to rewatch some of them

hoping the next is gotg2

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He's never actually called that in the movie so most don't know him by that name,, and since his final fight is fairly tonally at odds with the rest of his character, the "Iron Monger" ends up being used more for the suit than Obadiah himself.

Calling him the Iron Monger makes it sound like Obadiah during that fight is who Obadiah is overall, which feels wrong.

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CoolCly posted...

I said earlier that while the "Iron Monger" sucks, Obie is totally awesome. I don't think that title really applies to him at all. He kind of becomes not a character in the third act and it's not reflective of his role in the movie

I never really thought about it before, but I think you nailed it. Its not just that hes wearing a suit in the final part of the movie, its that he seems like a less nuanced and interesting character when he wears the suit.

Next one's definitely gonna be Captain Marvel, and I'll basically be 5 for 5 in my predictions so far since I had it in the tie although I had it one spot above Age of Ultron (which might be the first time I'm wrong, I'm not sure yet, there's a couple of movies that could be in that spot)

CoolCly posted...

I said earlier that while the "Iron Monger" sucks, Obie is totally awesome. I don't think that title really applies to him at all. He kind of becomes not a character in the third act and it's not reflective of his role in the movie

I always thought it was weird how unaffected Tony was by the whole situation afterwards. Like Obie had been helping him since he was a teenager I think? Eh.

And while Obie putting on the suit did feel like a bit of a leap, I did like how Iron Man handled having a villain. I think it can be hard in an origin story to have a villain that's neatly woven into the story. Sometimes it's easy - Cap and Wonder Woman are set during war so there's built-in opposition - but 2002 Spider-Man has Osborn becoming conveniently super-powered separately to Spider-Man and roughly at the same time, Batman Begins has a comic-booky character like Scarecrow running around right around the time Batman appears... and I like both of those movies btw, it can just be difficult sometimes and you can see the contrivances. But IM handled the plot well there I think.
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19. Captain Marvel
Total Score: 533 (TB29)

Eddv - 7
Johnbobb 8
VengefulKaelee - 9
HanOfTheNekos - 12
StifledSilence - 12
Jesse Custer 13
Illuminatusbubu - 14
Maniac64 14
Cybat - 15
MetalDK 15
PrinceKaro 15
Sheep007 - 15
Snake5555555555 - 16
Anagram 17
NBIceman 17
Paratroopa1 - 17
XIII Rocks 17
Lopen - 18
Mega Mana - 18
Corrik7 19
MetalmindStats 19
Mr Crispy - 19
ZenOfThunder 19
BetrayedTangy 20
CoolCly 20
Red13n - 20
GavsEvans123 - 21
Inviso 21
Raka Putra - 21
Whiskey Nick 21
ScepterOfLove 22
TomNook - 22

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Eddv
I honestly wasn't wild about this one but I will give it this - it tried to actually be a movie that said something and made a point. It didn't get there and succumbed to Jon Favreau shortcuts to its detriment, but it could have been a good movie, which puts it ahead of the pack.

Johnbobb
HEY YOU FUCKERS ON TWITTER BRIE LARSON IS WAY BETTER THAN YOU'LL EVER BE AND CAN KICK YOUR ASS WITH OR WITHOUT MARVELABILITY AND THIS IS JUST A DAMN GOOD SUPERHERO FLICK THROUGH AND THROUGH.

VengefulKaelee
Captain Marvel has essentially the same basic story beats as almost every other MCU origin story movie, but it just does it better and far more engagingly than any of the Phase 1 stuff ever did. Nothing spectacular overall, but Brie Larson gives a great performance, as does Ben Mendelsohn, and the '90s aesthetic is fun without being overbearing. Goose is also a highlight one of the great cat characters in a movie, with single-handedly more character than the entire cast of Tom Hooper's Cats adaptation combined.

HanOfTheNekos
People are going to say I overrate this one. Maybe theyre right! I thought it was a very standard origin movie, but one that was refined in a way to be better than the rest.

The supporting cast was dynamite. Fury of course was stellar... learning why he got the eyepatch in the first place was amazing too. On that note, Goose was amazing and I can't understand anybody who wouldn't enjoy him. The main Skrull was super likable, especially once you hit the middle point of the movie. I LOVED that Korath was in this movie... his first appearance got me really hyped because... what a throwaway guy from GotG to bring back. Yes.

AND MY MAN PHILLIP J COULSON WHAT A HUNK OF HOT AMAZING EVERYTHING SO FUCKING GOOD YESS

Other little things I loved... Danverss original Kree uniform... LOVED the colors.

Now for the issues. The climax was too long. I get it - they needed to show just how badass she was and her powers, specifically to give audiences hope in seeing her come to Endgame. Ronan was pointless in this movie... but having Danvers blast through the ships and fucking his shit up was important because we all got fucked over by Infinity War and even Ant-Man and the Wasp ended on a dark note.

And then the post-credits scene where shes just fucking there in Natalie Rushmores face? Yes.

StifledSilence
More Nick Fury and shapeshifting aliens set in a lovely time warp to the era of my childhood? As Sam Jackson said in another movie, Shit, negro, thats all you had to say!

Jesse Custer
Captain Marvel was a good movie overall. As someone with plenty of nostalgia for the 90s, I enjoyed the setting and all the 90s references. I also really liked young Nick Fury being a central character (with some impressive de-aging technology that was far more convincing than other movies like Gemini Man). And although I feel like Carol Danvers may be a bit overpowered for the MCU, it was fun watching her eventually go Super Saiyan and easily destroy all the bad guys. Oh yeah, and Goose. Cant do a write-up of Captain Marvel without mentioning the true star of the film. I wouldnt have expected to appreciate a gimmicky pet character, but they really made it work and I kept wanting to see more of Goose.

I dont have much in the way of criticisms about this movie, and the only reason I couldnt rank it higher is I like a bunch of MCU movies more.

Illuminatusbubu
Serves as an appetizer to the much more looking-forward movie in Endgame. A basic storytelling that sticks to the standard backstory in a superhero movie.

Maniac64
Persoanlly I really enjoyed Brie Larson's take on the serious and seriously strong Captain Marvel. I also really liked the twist of having the Skrulls, a race of villains fans had been speculating and predicting for years, not be evil. I do hope we get some evil Skrulls eventually but I like that we arent' making the entire race evil. This is a multi generation war, there isn't going to be clear good and bad guys. Going so far back in time was a really interesting choice and getting young(er) Fury was a lot of fun and kind of sets him up to become the guy who would start the Avengers and be ready to deal with all the crazy shit that SHIELD has to deal with.

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Cybat
Unlike the Mandarin twist in IM3, I absolutely love the canon-breaking twist in this movie. The reveal that the Skrulls are the unambiguous good guys in the Kree-Skrull war (for now at least) was totally unexpected and incredibly well done, down to the fake typecasting of Ben Mendelsohn. And the implications of having Skrulls as allies set up some very intriguing possibilities that of course we started to see pay off in Far From Home a few months later.
Unfortunately, not everything in this movie was as well done as that. The other twist involving Jude Laws character was painfully obvious, and the flashback setting was underutilized. Yeah, there were some 90s references and stuff, but they had a real chance to give some interesting depth to characters that most people had met and forgot about like Korath and Ronan and there was still just nothing there. And it was fun to see Coulson again but they easily could have made even the slightest reference to anything from Agents of SHIELD and they just didnt. Unfortunate.

MetalDK
From when she crash lands onto Earth back into the final act, I thought this movie was actually pretty good. Decent "who can you trust" type movie, I thought the 90s nostalgia was there but not thrown constantly at you like the trailer kinda did. The final act though felt very rushed and kinda comedic more than anything.

PrinceKaro
So an extraterrestrial woman falls to earth after being kidnapped from earth and having gotten cosmic powers from an alien due to a science accident while trying to prove herself as a soldier and wow really are we gonna put every superhero origin ever into this character.
The film plays out a lot like Thor 1, where an alien comes to earth and doesnt understand earth culture but defends it from other aliens. It is extremely formulaic and filled with too many cheap gotchas in an attempt to keep things interesting.
It felt like I was interested in everything going on but the story of the titular character. I liked the idea of fighting against the Kree supreme consciousness. I liked the idea of Skrulls being oppressed good guys. I liked Nick & Phil's excellent adventure. But all of these things play very little into the main plot, which is just Carol going around earth arbitrarily and occasionally beating up grandmas until the anticlimactic final where she turns super saiyan and curbstomps the overmatched villains in what seems more like an afterthought.
I was hoping that with a female headlining a marvel movie we would get a female hero that was interesting, and well, that is not really the case. Carol is like this inoffensive protagonist from a western video game that you are supposed to like just because, and everything about her is quickly forgettable. I struggle to name any defining characteristic of her other than her arrogant streak.
Nothing really to marvel at here, I've seen it all before.

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Sheep007
I enjoyed Captain Marvel well enough. Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson basically doing a buddy cop routine is the clear highlight, but the vibes of a lot of the film are just a little off? Its quite a visually appealing movie, and I like the 90s aesthetic, as well as the idea of the whole Kree/Skrull thing, which, while a little convoluted and not handled perfectly, was engaging enough. I felt like the characters were entertaining and had decent enough motivations. The plot, however, got a little messy, and probably either needed trimming or just reworking entirely. Ive seen a lot of complaining about Carol, but shes fine, nothing special and generally an inoffensive character, a bit like Steve. She has an arc, and its okay, but nothing that I personally care about all that much, plus it feels like it comes more from her memories than any action she takes in the film itself, which is a little unsatisfying. One of my bigger problems is the militarisation of the film I understand that Marvel need to have good relations with the US military in order to shoot most of their films the way they do. Despite this, it feels a little crude to have what feels like a ham-fisted commercial on how strong women join the armed forces slapped in the middle of what is meant to be an emotional movie: its really reminiscent of shitty adverts for the royal navy that we get in the UK. When Carol regains her memories, I get We need more strong female CEOs and dictators! vibes. I know thats a personal thing, but I cant bring myself to care as much about the character because the most emotional moment we see for her is portrayed in that way. The MCU has run into a few issues where it sometimes tries to critique militarism, but cant go all that far because itll either alienate its base or miss out on using military stuff for filming, and I think that cheapens the messages in its own movies (Captain Marvel isnt the only one with this problem, but its the one which feels the most blatant when watching it). Overall, its fine, they could have done far better or far worse and I feel like they didnt take some risks which they could and shouldve in part because of corporate worries about the whole female lead thing (although that bit is pure speculation). Also, its not as funny overall as the higher up movies especially, which is a shame given that literally everything I saw Brie Larson in before this was a comedy. At least Samuel L Jackson steals the show, as always.

Snake5555555555
What is Captain Marvel but an unsatisfying mix of decent ideas with the shakiest of executions. It has Skrulls, the Kree, a 90s period piece setting, an early Fury appearance, themes of finding where you belong, and Captain Marvel is just keen to keep everything at arms distance without going in depth on any of them. The Skrulls are the closest to being pulled off correctly, portrayed as victims of genocide in a storyline that has a lot of emotional weight. Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, I think she really brings all shes got to the role and infuses the first titular female character in the MCU not only an admirable strength but also a vulnerability and a struggle to search for who you really are on the inside. Yet these are only two pieces of an otherwise extraordinarily bland film. MCU films are rarely bad in the traditional sense. Every MCU film is almost laser-cut to perfection, designed to be good, but ironically when no deviation is taken from this cutting you have a very generic film on your hands with forgettable locations, action scenes, and villains that all just excuses to get to the next plot point. In this sense, Captain Marvel is a huge let-down for its first lead female hero despite some otherwise gleaming potential. It all feels just a bit too little, too late.

Anagram
I felt nothing while watching this movie.

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NBIceman
Even in the comics, Carol Danvers is not a very interesting character, and this movie really doesnt do a whole lot to challenge that perception. Brie Larson does what she can, but most of the instances where some personality shines through are just very brief moments like her mockingly hissing at a Skrull or the oh, shit, its on now grin after her powers get unlocked. Unlike another Phase 3 Marvel movie, though, the rest of the cast actually does manage to make up for it here. Young Fury brings great Buddy Cop energy, the Rambeaus contribute some legitimate emotional depth, Talos is immensely likeable (I actually love everything the MCU has done with the Skrulls so far), and its always good to see Coulson. Im also a huge fan of Fury being inspired to name the Avenger Initiative after Carols call sign - its a small detail all things considered, but it still somehow feels really momentous as a piece of the lore. Even with all those great individual moments, though, it does feel like the collective film is missing something with how dull its main character is. Hopefully she can build off of her Endgame portrayal in the future.

Paratroopa1
I really wanted to like this movie more than I actually did. After all the dumbass discourse that this movie went through, it would have been really satisfying if it was one of the best movies in the MCU, and if Brie Larson had one of my favorite performances, but she didn't, and it wasn't. It's fine, but it fails to elevate itself above fine. Carol Danvers just isn't an interesting character in this film. She's like... sort of vaguely tormented by not being able to remember her past life, but it doesn't really affect her that much, and the performance doesn't really elevate her to anything more than normal person who is kind of sarcastic sometimes - she doesn't really have any sort of growth from the beginning to the end of the movie. Which is a shame, because after the boring first act, the movie is a ton of fun and has some high peaks. I like basically every other character - Talos is cool, young Fury is cool, Mar-Vell is cool, Maria Rambeau is cool (little wonder that Lashana Lynch got the 007 role). The Skrulls are probably more fun as enemies than as allies, but I think that was a sensible direction for the movie to go in since, well, the Kree are pretty awful, but all of the mistaken identity stuff is fun in both roles regardless. I liked the scene where they go through Danvers's memories through the POV of the 'bad guys' and I liked all the scenes with her and Fury together at SHIELD and everything at the end is pretty fun, I just feel like there was missed opportunity to give Captain Marvel herself some actual depth here instead of feeling like a faceless protagonist. It's a fun movie that feels like it has no meat to it.

XIII Rocks
I like the 90s stuff, even if it was a particularly American brand of 90s and slightly too early for me (I was only 5 in 1995), so not all of the references clicked or got the nostalgia going. This is a superhero origin movie told in reverse, which is an interesting way to structure it, and there is an appreciable upgrade in Danvers' powers once she uncovers all the information so it still works. Something about this feels like a phase 1 movie - maybe it's the focus on the tesseract, or maybe it's the fact it feels like such a "basic" superhero movie, I don't know. This movie is kind of aggressively "fine". I think there's a lot of good to it and some laughs but it's not a particularly remarkable one. That said, one particularly cool thing it did was the casting of Ben Mendelsohn and Jude Law. Noted villain actor Ben Mendelsohn (see Rogue One, Ready Player One) is playing a guy called Talos - which just sounds villainous - on the side opposed to the protagonist. Jude Law, who often plays charming and/or heroic characters (Dumbledore, Watson), is her mentor. But soon enough things are revealed and there's a double turn. Nice touch! I think Brie Larson does a good job, she has some great moments of attitude. I love her read of "...ok," when that guy says "don't make me do this", for example. Solid movie, unspectacular, but a good watch.

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Lopen
I went into this one expecting the worst of self-congratulatory "rah rah girl power" especially seeing Endgame first, but what I got was a decent enough film. Captain Marvel is a lot more interesting and personable here than in Avengers: Endgame, and the throwbacks to the 90s are pretty fun and give this movie a slightly different feel from other MCU stuff. BUT the villain is wasted and everything from the movie that isn't dealing with happenings on Earth is kinda dull and unmemorable. I'll take Asgard over whatever space tripe Captain Marvel comes from every time.

Mega Mana
First Scene That Comes to Mind: The flerkin revealed.

I just watched Captain Marvel for the first time yesterday, and I thought it was good. It's a day later, and I've already written a novel about the first Iron Man, but I cannot come up with much to say about Captain Marvel. The action and humor were good, with Carol Danvers' and Nick Fury's instant camaraderie the best part of the movie. The Kree/Skrull plot and trickle-in of backstory was well-handled. I quite enjoyed the early training and Earth happenings through past the Pegasus base. The Skrull memory-device was a startling and cool feature. As an Agents of SHIELD fan, I loved what we got of Coulson. I thought Brie Larson was wonderful. It was a Phase One origin story in some of the best ways.

Then things started falling apart a bit right about when the Skrull showed up in the house drinking a juice box. Best friend Maria Rambeau felt very wooden, neither shock nor familial chemistry ever vibing. The Skrulls turned from dangerous spies and terrorists into plucky comic relief far too casually. Jude Law and his Kree team were forgettable at best, and the ship fights rather boring. The cat/flerkin had too many points of acknowledgment before the reveal that it lost a sense of surprise or anticipation for the reveal. The stakes both felt way too dramatic and were done away with far too easily, especially in the case of the Accusers' portion, though the Skrull family-in-hiding was excellent and hit perfect emoitonal buttons. And the Supreme Intelligence stuff was easily the worst, with off-putting casting and absolutely hackneyed nothing story beats (SI: "You are a failure who fails." CD: "I am a human who gets back up!") that actually began to detract from the story.

It was good. Not great. I will remember it for Brie Larson's great dialogue with Sam Jackson, maybe some Coulson, but I don't think much beyond that.

Corrik7
This movie is decent. It leaves me with questions though. Why did a blast of energy create this hero of this power magnitude? Like, she basically becomes the strongest person in the entire universe almost from a random blast. Why isn't everyone out there doing this to themselves? I mean, there is some cool stuff as far as shapeshifting and mind erasing and so on. Honestly though, I hate that they created a hero in which nothing tangibly seems to possibly be able to defeat her. The movie isn't that fun when you know she can't lose. It also makes the usage of her questionable all throughout the universe also later on.

MetalmindStats
An uneven movie stitched like a patchwork quilt around a strong cast topped by a magnetic central character. Sadly, it tends to meander in a pacing-independent way whenever Carol Danvers isnt front and center, and too often even when she is.

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Mr Crispy
The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochy Show of the MCU. Now, I think this movie definitely gets a lot of unwarrented hate from nasty people. But it's definitely the MCU movie that feels the most designed by committee, focus group tested, etc..

I don't think the idea of skipping over whatever doofus was originally Captain Marvel in the comics for Carol was a bad idea on paper. MCU versions of characters don't necessarily need to be the same as the comics, and the MCU made people who know nothing about comics like and become invested with Marvel characters they knew nothing about (...basically every Marvel character except Spiderman? and maybe the Hulk?). Carol isn't really one of them.

Marvel Studios leeched the popularity off of Infinity War with the Infinity War teaser and putting Captain Marvel in the schedule between Infinity War and Endgame, but she was pretty much wasted in Endgame. Marvel tried to imitate the success and popularity of Guardians of the Galaxy, by trying to make the same thing but with 90s nostalgia and music. Also bringing back Ronan, only for him to get completely clowned as soon as he showed up and immediately sulked away with his tail between his legs because Carol was more powerful and unique than even an Infinity Stone (well, that's paraphrasing a bit). Fury thinks highly of her, and credits her as what inspired him to come up with the whole Avengers Initiative. The scene where Carol is trying to choose the colors of her suit seems a bit like premature celebration on the part of Marvel. "Remember these characters that you like in movies that we made that you like? Captain Marvel is the next one you'll love!"

I don't actually hate Carol, or the movie. It's just a bit facinating how blatant it is, and maybe a bit sad. I don't pretend to be an expert on comics, but they definitely seem to struggle when trying to produce comics that actually appeal to female readers particularly compared to anime/manga (as a significant amount of anime/manga series directly aimed at/made by girls/women get made, instead of targeting them indirectly while trying to check off as many differnt demographics as possible)

Well, getting back to Captain Marvel for a final summary. The movie is just average overall. It lacks a good opponent on about the same level for Carol to actually fight against. The space police are doofuses, Ronan is a laughing stock as already mentioned. Though that's a problem with a lot of Marvel movies. The story of how Fury lost his eye is amusing, and how he lies about how he lost it. I actually like how they tried to humanize the Skrulls and make them more sympathetic, with families and who just want to live quietly and - particularly since the original concept is clearly intended to promote paranoid right wing fearmongering about COMMUNISTS!!!! ILLEGAL ALIENS!!!!!! etc. are secretly hiding everywhere in America trying to destroy the American way of life exclamation mark. Retconning the story into the timeline in the first place is a bit of a bad idea. Carol has to get written out to explain why she's not around when Earth gets attacked, but her defending Earth is also used to explain why aliens didn't attack sooner despite knowing that the Tesseract was there. Even though she wasn't there.

ZenOfThunder
It's fine but it made me fall asleep. Brie Larson is kind of a shit actress, I don't know why everyone was so crazy about Room. Monica Rambeau should just be Captain Marvel going forward.

BetrayedTangy
I really wish I liked this one more, because theres some good stuff in here, I just cant get past its flaws. A lot of people have pointed to Larsons performance as the chief issue; I dont think this her fault though, I blame the writing/directing. I liked the plot they were going for, but they failed to remember the most basic rule of storytelling. Show dont tell. They had some really good setup with her toxic relationship with Yon-Rogg, but instead relied far too heavily on the corny flashbacks once she got to Earth. Which leads to my next issue, Carol wasnt the only character ruined by bad writing. Fury and the Skrulls got dunked on pretty bad too, I dont want to really get into it, because I think theyre going to fix a lot of my issues in the Disney+ series, except for how he lost his eye. Theres no redeeming that. Also fun fact, in this movie Fury says he cant eat toast if its cut in half, but in Age of Ultron hes seen doing just that, hinting at Far From Homes post credit scene. Easily one of my favorite easter eggs.

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CoolCly
This movie has all the pieces of a good movie maybe even a great movie. And it executes them all with mediocrity.
The overall main problem comes from Captain Marvels character arc. Its the opposite problem of the first Thor movie, which Ill get to later. Captain Marvel at the start of the movie is a somewhat brainwashed soldier of the Kree empire, and by the end, shes seen the lies shes been fed and where she came from, and chosen to stand against the empire she believed in and fought for before, choosing her humanity. This is a great character arc, and there are many moments in the film that contribute to this, like exploring her homeworld and forging her partnership with Fury, meeting her old friend, learning about her past and how she got her powers, and discovering the Skrulls real goal. This all good stuff that shows the path she takes to where she gets by the end. Except.. Danvers doesnt actually change. Shes exactly the same character at every point in the movie. She makes all the same wise cracks, she doesnt take anything seriously, and tends to do whatever she wants. I think this is a somewhat conscious choice to show her as an empowered woman who doesnt take shit from any of the male characters but it really destroys her growth as a character. The revelations of her origins and the Kree empire should be really ground breaking and challenging for her, and compel change. And the structure of the movie kind of hinges on this. But. I dont feel like it had any impact on Danvers at all. Learning about the Krees motives wasnt emotionally impactful for her it was just new information that caused her to change sides. This REALLY brings down the movie to me if the performance of Danvers had grown along with all these revelations, this could have been a really great movie.
Theres a lot of other things that I thought could have been executed better too. Furys scar was a weak throw away joke, and the cat turning out to be dangerous was telegraphed WAYY too many times and the actual moment where it happened felt SOOO generic and poorly timed I couldnt believe it. It was a scene in a hallway set up JUST for this to pay off, the shot held for awhile on the victim and the cat for a while and made it very clear what was about to happen and then it just happens. The FX wasnt even that good. And then the scene is over and Fury moves on. Imagine if they only hinted at it once or twice, and then in a critical moment for a characters well being for the plot, the cat steps in. this could have been so much better.
The song montage didnt feel like it flowed that well with what was going on. I dont mind it as an idea at all, but it didnt really work, and Danvers doesnt feel like shes operating at the right power level at that point, which is always a problem. Movies like this should always have a good bead on the strength of its characters and how they should be performing in a situation, and I dont think they handled this well. Its very tough to do this with Captain Marvel since her upper end is sooooo high which makes it even more important they do this well.
I thought the final confrontation with YonRogg was a good idea conceptually but the really hammed up way he tries to get her to fight him and her just owning him didnt feel like the I dont need to take your shit moment they want to it to be just a deflation of the tension between these characters. They didnt take the impact of the revelations in the movie on Danvers seriously earlier in the movie, and they cemented that here.
Theres a lot of good things though. Coulson is used just right, and Fury was awesome. The Skrulls were fine (though a bit generically used at times in the first half of the movie). Talos is great.
Overall this is a good movie, that I think could have been GREAT if things had been executed better.

Red13n
Marvel celebrates having their first female superhero movie by...making sure she has as little character as possible. Unfortunately Vers is stuck in this near permanent limbo, a character that was a poorly developed Kree soldier and the human that apparently they were for much of their life. We end up with a fairly generic story, generic underdeveloped villains where the threat becomes a recycled villain that gets little more than a what amounts to a cameo appearance. The whole 90s gimmick unfortunately doesn't really amount to anything beyond evoking a bit of nostalgia and letting a couple characters have an appearance.

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GavsEvans123
This was the only MCU film I hadnt seen prior to this project, so its completely new to me. Its a shame then, that I found it to be quite unremarkable. Theres nothing terribly wrong with it, and at no point did aspects of it actively annoy me, but at the same time nothing really sticks out positively either.

Perhaps its because there isnt much to Carol as a character that is unique to her? She has the brash, hotheaded personality weve seen from several previous MCU protagonists. She is often mocked and dismissed by others, but refuses to give up, which is a trait she shares with Captain America before he was given the Super Soldier Serum. She does have amnesia for a lot of the film, which is unique to her in the context of the MCU, but its difficult to give that too many points because the amnesiac hero trying to discover the mystery of their origin is one of the biggest storytelling cliches out there. That said, the Kree exploiting that to recruit her and have her fight for them deserves some credit, and blasting Jude Law mid-evil-monologue is another creative way of skipping the final battle. How unfortunate for him that he should face the one hero for whom talking isnt a free action.

More than anything, I think this film suffers from coming too late in the MCU. It would have fit right into Phase 1, with its simpler story, smaller cast, and being a prequel to most of the franchise (Only Captain America: The First Avenger is ahead of it in the timeline), but in Phase 3, alongside the more ambitious Black Panther or Spider-Man: Homecoming, it doesnt compare favourably. Then again, those films had the advantage of their protagonists having already been introduced, so the comparison isnt entirely fair. We got this film when we did so that Carol wasnt too much of a deus ex machina in Endgame, but with only the post-credits scene tying into that, which feels pretty inconsequential here and could have easily been placed at the start of Endgame, did we really need this film before Endgame?

On the plus side, Nick Fury has his biggest role in a while here, and its an entirely new side to the character. Prior to this, hes always been the stern authority figure who manipulates everyone because he operates on a need-to-know basis, and as far as hes concerned, nobody needs to know most of the time. In this film, hes much more mellow, a fresh-faced relative rookie who hasnt been conditioned to distrust others by default yet. I never would have guessed that he, of all people, would be a cat person. Where is the cat now anyway? Its in Furys office at the end of the film, but did he take it home at some point? Maybe its died of old age by the present day?

Its also a bit weird that Ronan and Djimon Honsou return from Guardians of the Galaxy, despite them being one-off villains who are long-dead and had few clamouring for their return. I guess theyre there because as mentioned earlier, this is a prequel, but nothing new is revealed about their characters, so the opportunity isnt taken advantage of. Im now imagining the next Ant Man film having a flashback of Rumlow and Sitwell carpooling to work when Luis cuts them off in traffic, and theyre both so outraged by this flagrant disregard for the rules of the road that it makes them join HYDRA.

Inviso
This movie has a LOT of flaws. Like, first and foremost, it FEELS like a complete filler movie in the grand scheme of things. It comes in that brief period between Infinity War and Endgame, and seems to serve entirely to introduce a character who is all-powerful and vital to the solution of Endgame. And the thing is that Captain Marvel herself is really, REALLY boring. Were introduced to her in the worst possible way, with her story in medias res, so shes already an alien super soldier, completely detached from every man status. And from minute one, with the exception of her initial capture by the Skrull, and her eventual capture by the Kree, Carol Danvers is perfect and the strongest character of all time. Shes witty, but not charismatic; its like someone being written as a lead in a Marvel movie, rather than an actual character. And then shes clever and strong and there never feels like a real moment of danger she faces. It makes for a very boring plot. Really, the main saving grace of this film is literally EVERYTHING involving Nick Fury. HES great, because HES the everyman that has to deal with all the random crap going on as a result of aliens on Earth. Also, that final scene with Jude Law was great, and its a shame that it took until the end of the movie to see it.

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Raka Putra
Eh. I dunno if it's because the movie comes so late in the canon, but I find Captain Marvel to be perfectly forgettable. The main character herself, 'Vers', was among the blandest of them all. I also feel her powers are poorly explained. Though I do like the mystery and twist of her identity. That was cool.

Whiskey Nick
(No write-up.)

ScepterOfLove
(No write-up.)

TomNook
It gets points for having a lot of Nick Fury, which counts for something. Otherwise, it suffers from Captain Marvel as a character being both boring and unlikable. Her origin story is laughably nonsense given how powerful she actually is because of it.

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OUTLIERS:

Eddv - 54
PrinceKaro - 29
Johnbobb - 24
BetrayedTangy - 23
Lopen - 18
Mr Crispy - 18
GavsEvans123 - 17
TomNook - 17
VengefulKaelee - 17
Illuminatusbubu - 15
Snake5555555555 - 15
HanOfTheNekos - 14
Jesse Custer - 14
Maniac64 - 14
ScepterOfLove - 14
StifledSilence - 14
Raka Putra - 13
CoolCly - 11
Inviso - 11
Paratroopa1 - 10
XIII Rocks - 9
Anagram - 8
Cybat - 8
Corrik7 - 7
Red13n - 7
Mega Mana - 6
MetalDK - 6
MetalmindStats - 6
Sheep007 - 6
Whiskey Nick - 6
NBIceman - 2
ZenOfThunder 2

Awwww, NBIceman finally loses his perfect record and drops, only to wind up in a tie with ZenOfThunder, who is apparently also have a very good run thus far. Plus weve got a solid five people in the running for third place down there. Meanwhile, Eddv extends his lead with his second-highest outlier score yet, and Johnbobb also passes Tangy en route to the top three outlier spots.

Spoiler for Number 18: Thus far, weve eliminated films from the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, and Captain Marvel franchises. Now a new franchise loses its first (or perhaps only) film.

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i rewatched Captain Marvel just yesterday as I only saw it once in theaters and slept thru a half hour of it (which sounds bad but at least it didn't make me physically groan at any point unlike everything I ranked below it; boring is better than cringey) and I don't think I'd change my ranking but it's better than I remember it

there's kind of a surreal quality to old samuel l jackson with heavy age makeup and CG acting like young samuel l jackson, like he watched pulp fiction every day before coming to set to remember how to be young again.

EDIT: Brie Larson still is the worst part tho literally everyone in the movie gives a better performance

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No one ranked Captain Marvel last! Good thing we're above all that dumb drama regarding Brie Larson not wanting white men to see her movies or any such ridiculousness.

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Which of course is not even in the same ballpark as what Brie Larson said! Boy its almost as if shes a totally fine and reasonable person who gets hate from online weirdos for one very obvious reason!

Okay, obvious bait aside, Captain Marvel is a little better than fine. It is somewhat interesting in that it is just an edit away from being a standard Phase 1 style Marvel origin story, but they make some really smart decisions to bring it above that level. The structure is a bold choice and mostly works. There is also a great use of Ben Mendelsohn in a way that really makes sense if you know the directors. Overall I liked it a good bit, and if it had come out in 2010 wed have all been totally blown away. Its low ranking is mainly a factor of Phase 3 just being really, really great.

In retrospect, I did it a small disservice in my non-submitted ranking. I should have put it above Age of Ultron and frankly Im disappointed that thats not next!

Sadly it seems like its Ant-Man, despite part of what impresses me so much about Ant-Man being how much better it was than the giant film that had released just three months before!

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It's really funny seeing so many people be 'Man I wish they wrote Carol Danvers better and/or picked a more interesting actress for her' knowing that Carol Danvers being the most boring part of everything she's involved in makes it the most accurate portrayal of the character possible.

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I'm always surprised by the amount of people who don't like the way in which Fury lost his eye. To me, the mystique had been built up for so long that any attempt to make it epic or even just a big moment at all would have run a big risk of falling flat or disappointing a lot of people anyway. I think they handled it perfectly considering the overall tone of the MCU and so forth.

I'm gonna stick with my prediction of AMatW and CM being tied and then shamelessly count those both as being correct guesses in my own mind if I'm right.

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I'm actually thinking it's GotG2 next.

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If it's not AoU, I'm hoping it's Cap.

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HanOfTheNekos posted...

If it's not AoU, I'm hoping it's Cap.

I agree it should be one of these two.

I know, all Brie Larson said is that she would like to hear from others besides white men, not that she does not want white men reviewing movies. She even clarified in a later interview it was just about a desire for more seats at the table.

Funny how these anti-progressives complain about people being so easily "triggered", and yet you have whatever this is. Only thing I can think of is their personal buttons are pushed by anytime white men are made out to be "the enemy"...which I'll just say, is basically an indication of bigotry, or at the very least a victim complex which once again makes their disdain for so-called social justice warriors ironic.

I was going to say Captain Marvel is my least favorite of the MCU movies I've seen, except Thor is easily worse IMO. Mostly CM's problem for me is its storytelling feels jumbled and it's hard to get invested in it as a result. I do find the Captain Marvel character to have a compelling background but I swear she's given like nothing interesting to say or do in the MCU so far. Thankfully there's time to make up for that, so I hate it when MCU Captain Marvel is just lumped in with Rey and live-action Mulan.

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i rewatched Age of Ultron after Wandavision episode 5, and the scene where Black Widow tells Bruce I AM INFERTILE, STILL THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY MONSTER? and i spat up my fucking water cuz I forgot about that awful awful scene and subplot and honestly if I had remembered it i probably would have knocked it down on my list. joss whedon is a hck

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

Thankfully there's time to make up for that, so I hate it when MCU Captain Marvel is just lumped in with Rey and live-action Mulan.

Yeah I think Carol is way more fun than both of those examples. I actually audibly laughed when she growled back at one of the Skrull. They just needed to give her more plot than the typical amnesia bullshit.

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10. Captain Marvel
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. Thor
19. ???
20. Thor: The Dark World
21. Iron Man 2
22. ???
23. The Incredible Hulk

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Lightning Strikes posted...

Which of course is not even in the same ballpark as what Brie Larson said! Boy its almost as if shes a totally fine and reasonable person who gets hate from online weirdos for one very obvious reason!

well this is a take.

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BetrayedTangy posted...

Yeah I think Carol is way more fun than both of those examples. I actually audibly laughed when she growled back at one of the Skrull. They just needed to give her more plot than the typical amnesia bullshit.

I liked Rey a LOT more than Carol. For all the claims of Rey being a Mary Sue, at least she felt like she had to grow and learn (perhaps too fast, but still), whereas Carol is just fucking perfect from the word go.

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

well this is a take.

It's a completely correct take.

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TotallyNotMI posted...

It's a completely correct take.

it's actually a completely bullshit take but ok.

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Blaziken posted...

I liked Rey a LOT more than Carol. For all the claims of Rey being a Mary Sue, at least she felt like she had to grow and learn (perhaps too fast, but still), whereas Carol is just fucking perfect from the word go.

Oh don't get me wrong Carol's only 'development' was realizing she's perfect from the beginning, but I still felt like there was more life to her than Rey.

As far as the Brie Larson takes go, she seemed pretty actively hostile during that time. I distinctly remember an interview with her, Chris Hemsworth and Don Cheadle where Chris was joking with her saying Thor's stronger and she looked and acted genuinely angry about it. Like I get fans being annoying, but if that's how she was with fellow cast members that's kind of ridiculous idk tho.

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I like Brie Larson /shrug

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First thing that comes to mind a month or two after watching the movie? Nick & Carol doing the dishes.

I really have to say their dynamic and building of trust over the course of the film is so, so good. Like, it's up there with Steve/Bucky, Tasha/Clint, T'Challa/Shuri pure connections.

I still groan thinking about a lot of the Supreme Intelligence generality, lots of the Kree stuff, and the five or six "That's not a cat" bits before it was revealed it wasn't a cat because it's such a surprise when you point it out every ten minutes before it happens.

I didn't like Rambeau that much and thought her scenes with Carol lacked heavily, but that could change on a rewatch. I felt Carol+Fury's bond, but Danvers+Rambeau was empty that sisterly bond both pre- and post-trauma of your best friend dying in a plane crash. If the many flashbacks had a good chemistry at all, I'd have probably come out more favorably as of course current Rambeau would be in complete shock this whole time with her amnesiac partner. But same in past as in present, and I think that's part of a lot of the knocks people are giving Brie Larson.

Also, personally frustrated how much of the negative side of the chart didn't touch on the awful Supreme Intelligence. Was that just me then?

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The Supreme Intelligence stuff sucked, but I feel like it does a lot less to detract from the movie than Danvers being boring does.

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Ah, Captain Marvel dropped.

I will say that I find most Marvel plot forgettable, so I put a probably disproportionate consideration on the characters. And the heroine here just didn't do anything for me.

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NBIceman posted...

The Supreme Intelligence stuff sucked, but I feel like it does a lot less to detract from the movie than Danvers being boring does.

Danvers doesn't have much to work with when the big bad's MO of recontrolling Carol is, "You failed a bunch. Remember when you failed?" without even understanding or acknowledging with her supreme intellect that those events were followed by immediately getting back up. Like, that's the button of the big bad. Oh noes.

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ZenOfThunder posted...

i rewatched Age of Ultron after Wandavision episode 5, and the scene where Black Widow tells Bruce I AM INFERTILE, STILL THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY MONSTER? and i spat up my fucking water cuz I forgot about that awful awful scene and subplot and honestly if I had remembered it i probably would have knocked it down on my list. joss whedon is a hck

Wasn't the context there that she thought of herself as a monster because she willingly made herself infertile for the sole purpose of becoming a better emotionless assassin?

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Ive always maintained that Captain Marvel would have been much better viewed as a marvel movie if it had dropped in that period between the end of phase one and the middle of phase two

the storytelling had gotten so much more advanced by the time they actually released this one that it just didnt fit well with its contemporary films

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Fairly predictable that CM would go down I guess.

16. Iron Man 2
17. Captain Marvel
18.Thor
19.
20.
21.
22.Thor: The Dark World
23.The Incredible Hulk
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Okay y'all need to stop predicting GotG2 anywhere near here

Too many people have Ego high on their villain rankings for it to be at any risk of appearing until like 14

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Or Mantis high on their waifu list.

(Me.)

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I love Mantis

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Mantis is a treasure. Thats just a fact.

I expect original GotG to place highly - and GotG2 isn't like that much worse or anything so it'd be weird if it was low
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The real villain of GotG2 isn't Ego though, it's whoever wrote Drax's dialogue

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Mantis is only second best mcu waifu tho

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Hmm Mantis could possibly be my favorite. The MCU doesnt really have a ton of female characters I care too much about though sadly. Most are just kinda there for the most part to me.

Unless Im really misreading it, it can only be Ant-Man, Black Panther, or Doctor Strange because of the first perhaps only comment, and Id be shocked if it was either of the last two so soon.

Im here for everyone going damn I ranked Age of Ultron too high, because in retrospect that is absolutely one of the weakest MCU films and if its higher than Cap 1 I may cry.

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