RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2019-03-09 03:36 pm
ratcreature) wrote2019-03-09 03:36 pm
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Captain Marvel
I've watched Captain Marvel last night, and I had a really good time. And the theater was completely sold out too.
I have never read any Captain Marvel comics (well, not with Marvel's Captain Marvel, I have read some with the DC character), and only had the vaguest idea about the Kree-Skrull stuff, basically just knowing by osmosis that Skrulls can shapeshift and impersonate people. (The convoluted Marvel space mythology leaves me kind of cold -- my faves in the comics are Daredevil and Spider-Man.)
From other reviews and reactions I've read since, I gather that they changed a few things for the MCU, like apparently the Skrulls don't have a tragic refugee backstory of fleeing Kree oppression, and being labelled "terrorists" in response in the comic version?
Even without any expectations, I liked that they didn't turn out to be evil in the movie, and that the Kree viewpoint was then countered from the other side, though I figure as far as ripple effects on MCU Earth are concerned Skrull impersonation would still be rather bad, tragic backstory or not. But it didn't seem a big twist to me.
The movie worked well for me as origin story to introduce a character I didn't know before, and I appreciated that the tragic death in the backstory was limited to her mentor Dr. Lawson/Mar-Vell. Carol (re-)discovering herself and her powers was great, though with the final power level she reached at the end it looks like she's one of those Superman-level characters that are really a narrative problem if you want them to work well in an action plot with lower level powered characters, like Captain America. Though I appreciate that they lampshaded it by basically making the loss of her as a one-woman planetary defense system Fury's impetus to create the Avengers as a group in the first place, and that he gave them her call sign.
I also very much enjoyed seeing Nick Fury at the beginning of his career in a more sidekick role, which really allowed a different side of his character to show. Though him being this smitten with a cat (alien) seemed a bit over the top for me, but then I'm not that much of a cat person. Still Goose worked as comic relief for me. I obviously suspected that he wasn't a regular cat, but didn't know what kind of alien he was.
I'm a bit torn about whether or not I would have liked a bit more worldbuilding explanations, because like I said, I'm not too fond of Marvel's space mythology and I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed the movie as much if it was bogged down in that, OTOH the Kree were a bit confusing for me. Like, were they one kind of alien species, even though they came in different colors, with some looking less completely human, and being "Kree" is a biological thing, or is it a cultural thing, like the name of their inter-planetary Empire, and it is like being "Roman" or such, that the Skrull didn't want to join.
I have never read any Captain Marvel comics (well, not with Marvel's Captain Marvel, I have read some with the DC character), and only had the vaguest idea about the Kree-Skrull stuff, basically just knowing by osmosis that Skrulls can shapeshift and impersonate people. (The convoluted Marvel space mythology leaves me kind of cold -- my faves in the comics are Daredevil and Spider-Man.)
From other reviews and reactions I've read since, I gather that they changed a few things for the MCU, like apparently the Skrulls don't have a tragic refugee backstory of fleeing Kree oppression, and being labelled "terrorists" in response in the comic version?
Even without any expectations, I liked that they didn't turn out to be evil in the movie, and that the Kree viewpoint was then countered from the other side, though I figure as far as ripple effects on MCU Earth are concerned Skrull impersonation would still be rather bad, tragic backstory or not. But it didn't seem a big twist to me.
The movie worked well for me as origin story to introduce a character I didn't know before, and I appreciated that the tragic death in the backstory was limited to her mentor Dr. Lawson/Mar-Vell. Carol (re-)discovering herself and her powers was great, though with the final power level she reached at the end it looks like she's one of those Superman-level characters that are really a narrative problem if you want them to work well in an action plot with lower level powered characters, like Captain America. Though I appreciate that they lampshaded it by basically making the loss of her as a one-woman planetary defense system Fury's impetus to create the Avengers as a group in the first place, and that he gave them her call sign.
I also very much enjoyed seeing Nick Fury at the beginning of his career in a more sidekick role, which really allowed a different side of his character to show. Though him being this smitten with a cat (alien) seemed a bit over the top for me, but then I'm not that much of a cat person. Still Goose worked as comic relief for me. I obviously suspected that he wasn't a regular cat, but didn't know what kind of alien he was.
I'm a bit torn about whether or not I would have liked a bit more worldbuilding explanations, because like I said, I'm not too fond of Marvel's space mythology and I'm not sure I'd have enjoyed the movie as much if it was bogged down in that, OTOH the Kree were a bit confusing for me. Like, were they one kind of alien species, even though they came in different colors, with some looking less completely human, and being "Kree" is a biological thing, or is it a cultural thing, like the name of their inter-planetary Empire, and it is like being "Roman" or such, that the Skrull didn't want to join.