Captain Marvel

Thanks to Jacob Smith for featuring this review on his site! If you're interested in movie reviews, news, and opinion pieces from a conservative perspective, you should definitely check it out -- society-reviews.com!

Spoiler-free!

The MCU's latest origin story is also its first solo film for a female character. They put their absolute best effort into touting the movie as such, and after seeing it, I understand why all the emphasis was on pre-hype. One of Marvel's safest and least-daring films, Carol Danvers' introduction to the universe doesn't do much that's spectacularly irritating -- mostly because it doesn't do anything spectacular at all.

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck but written by three additional people because all MCU movies all have to be camels at this point. 

We start out with a brief glimpse of the Kree world where Carol (Brie Larson) is serving in the Kree/Skrull war under Yon-Rogg (Jude Law). There's one shot of the Kree city outside her widow that looks like a magnificent scifi scape leaning towards noir-ish, cyberpunk-ish vibes, but we never see it up close. She does some training, she goes on mission, and eventually winds up stranded on Earth circa 1995 where she meets a younger, two-eyed Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Coulson (Clark Gregg) and goes on a hunt for some people of her forgotten memories (Annette Bening) and (Lashana Lynch), all the while the Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and his crew are on her tail.

The Skrulls are shape-shifting aliens and shape-shifting is an easy harbinger of fun. And the movie touches on its potential. It's the mid-90's which means grunge and kind of wonderfully cheesy music; and the movie touches on that, too. Carol wears band tees and ripped jeans, and the computers are super slow. Otherwise it could be set anytime. Style only seems to cross the movie's mind is when there's cool CGI effects to show off. Even the worst of the past MCU films have had tonal style and the dampener of the Marvel Brand isn't excuse for the blandness we get here. I wish they had fully embraced the grungy 90's and low-key cheesy spy thriller aspect it was all crying for. It could've been amazing with relatively little tweaking to the core story.

One thing I loved with all my heart: her helmet mohawk. 

The central heart of the story -- getting up when you're knocked down -- had a solid foundation, but I hesitate to call it a theme because the movie's attempts to present it as theme were grasping. Visually it had impact and you can practically feel them scrambling for a verbal iteration to match in the moment. The set-up for Carol's development is weak, and the part about her needing to control her emotions was left hanging. That didn't make sense to begin with as Larson's acting style is so reserved that her being overly emotional as the script says doesn't fly. And I'll will readily defend Larson's acting abilities. She can work wonders in indie films where everything's understated. But as a blockbuster-action superhero, her internalizing emotions gets lost in the total lack of nuance.

There were moments she made me laugh with her delivery and times she made me smile just by being happy and laughing with Fury. On the other side, I think she was miscast. She does look the part and all MCU actors give better performances elsewhere, but ultimately her inexpressive style only adds to the bland feeling that brings the movie down. The only person who seems committed to having fun here is Ben Mendelsohn. Samuel L. Jackson's natural charisma works so well for him that I can't tell if he was phoning in or not. He's also better elsewhere with better scripts. This script actively attacks him, making one very significant thing happen that does its level best to ruin his character with its abject stupidity. (Hint: it's to do with his eye.) Just another day at the old MCU!

Larson and Jackson had fun chemistry. The movie could've leaned hard into their dynamic and been better for it. But it could've leaned into anything and been better for it.

Fan-favorite Goose the cat was great -- when he was being played by a real cat. The disgracefully rendered CGI cat that he was half the time seems to have been animated by a person who has never seen a cat before. It moved like boneless dog. Other random things that bothered me was how Carol's hair was always curled. I felt like her stylist was sitting behind me with a hot iron, waiting for the camera to cut so she could run in and fix the falling waves. There are the expected Marvel Brand jokes to make me die inside. And they only play three era songs for a decent amount of time. One is horribly matched to a fight scene. The fighting overall was shot lazily to negate the need for good choreography. The good action beats came from special effects and infused drama instead.

Despite all this, I did somewhat enjoy myself for the most part. Perhaps simply because I expected a dumpster fire, and instead it was like watching the garbage truck come by your house; something vaguely loud to look at that isn't impactful in any significant way. They did manage to lose me eventually though, with a later twist. To "subvert expectations" is required in every movie now, and appropriately this subversion throws a wrench in the plotting. It flounders for a while before it settles into a new groove, no better than the original. Overall the whole thing feels like the result of cutting corners and skimping on budget -- but if anyone can take a slight risk and make a decent film for girl protagonist, it's Marvel! ... Right?

At this point, I'm not particularly interested in the supposed future Avengers line-up, and if nothing changes for Marvel it won't be hard to quit.

The temptation to pander and squeak by on as little effort as possible was simply too strong. And why not when you can trust the brand and the hype to sell the resulting painfully average product regardless of quality? A handful of genuinely enjoyable moments and splashes of shiny CGI among long stretches of middling boredom is all we are rewarded with for our loyal patronage. Captain Marvel isn't a terrible movie; nor is it good, or a waste, or a success, or hardly anything resembling a movie at all. It has more in common with an extremely competent exercise in running down a checklist. The soulless Marvel assembly machine grinds on.

Crazy Rich Asians

When a movie of the rom-com persuasion is crafted with genuine care. See, this isn't a great movie that just so happens to be a romance and a comedy -- like, say, About Time is -- it's a full-blown, classic-recipe, rom-com; complete with a finding-the-perfect-dress montage. It follows the template to a T and leaves nary a trope unused. Thus proving, once and for all, that rom-coms can be traditionally romantic, funny, and cute, and seriously good movies at the same time.

Are we entering another golden age of rom-coms? 2018 is rich with them so far!

American-born to a single Chinese mom, Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) worked hard all her life to get where she is now -- a successful economics professor with a loving boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding). Life is good. But when Nick invites her to go with him to Singapore where he's agreed to be best man for his friend's wedding, she has no idea how much the trip will challenge her. Because she has no idea that Nick's family is super-duper, stinking, crazy, rich. Turns out he's is a bigger catch than she thought he was, and his family and friends might not be as okay with her as she hoped.

As I said, this is a traditional rom-com in every way. Rachel never really makes a mistake throughout the story, but has her beliefs and confidence in herself challenged as she gets the Cinderella treatment. But whether people are kind or cruel, there's always genuine motivation behind their actions and the movie takes good time to set everything up. I felt like we were introduced to all the secondary characters twice, but it was worth it as it's a giant cast. Since we get to know them all before the main plot gets going, it's easy to keep up later.

Explaining things visually helped me too, with flashbacks and that texting sequence!

But yes -- Cinderella treatment. Rachel's friend from college (Awkwafina) acts as her fairy godmother, lending her gorgeous dresses and informing her tidbits about the Young family. Then she attends lavish extravagant parties and events and acts like a champ as other people act passive-aggressively (and worse) towards her. Most importantly, "Auntie Eleanor" (Michelle Yeoh) Nick's mother. She makes it clear that she doesn't approve and therefore there's no chance of Rachel being with Nick for much longer. But Eleanor isn't mean for meanness' sake. She's the film's most fascinating character, and as she's slowly revealed the fascination doesn't lessen.

Michelle Yeoh also turns in the film's best performance. She simmered beautifully with detailed, refined, and subtle emotion. Comic-relief characters hit some awkward delivery one or two times, but otherwise the whole cast is magnificently on-point in a way that speaks of the great dedication to this project. There's so many characters and they all feel important because of how well-defined and confidently performed they are. Constance Wu makes an excellent lead who's easy to cheer for and sympathize with, and Henry Golding is a classic Prince Charming, who borders on being a blank slate but gets a few great moments and comes through in the end.

It focuses more on romance than comedy, but it had me laughing several times.

What really sets this movie apart is the culture. It's like Great Gatsby-land was in Singapore this whole time and no one knew. And it allows for the themes to come through clearly without being preachy or narrow-minded. All the characters have their intricacies, and no one comes out as full-blooded evil or as Mary Sues. There's complexities, and characters to explore -- but in the background, the craziest, most lavish parties you've ever seen and brilliant, rich landscapes and locations. It's wild and electric, and boy, that wedding scene was stunning. All good rom-coms need some wish-fulfillment too, remember.

And maybe it has its unrealistic parts, but the movie makes it feel real and grounded all the same. The real-life drama that happens inside those amazing parties. Drama that isn't fabricated out of nothing either, but is organically involving, drawing you in to the character's plights. It all comes down to dedication. This movie could've easily fallen into any number of holes. Eternal soulless partying. Sappy, unrealistic romance. Paper-thin straw-men characters. It's based on a book and that was a good starting point, but even then, when a movie is assembled in a familiar way it's easy for the repetition and unmotivated tradition to replace the desired heart and soul of a story.

A real charmer, all around. 

Here -- like Rachel playing a mental game of chicken with her boyfriend's mother -- a story that has meaning, a purpose, and a soul is playing chicken with the rom-com rules. Rules that have grown cold in their long years. It's Heart vs. Tradition. But in the end, instead of one defeating the other, the best of both worlds survives, gets married, and lives happily ever after inside this sweet and lavish movie.

Crazy Rich Asians may have endless supplies of wealth, but it still works hard to earn that happy ending.