Finally saw Captain Marvel!
Mar. 15th, 2019 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
killabeezIt was good for me! Maybe not great, but after Into the Spiderverse, my comic book movie standards are very high.
As an origin story, this was pretty successful, I thought. As an epic host of fan-types before me have noted, origin stories are hard. My primary takeaway from the movie is that I wanted more, which I consider a good sign. Younger Nick Fury was cute. Young Phil Coulson (in awe of younger Nick Fury) was super cute. I'm sorry that I got spoiled for what happened to Fury's eye—Goose was a delight in general.
AND OMG THE LESBIAN CODING. I mean, I was also sort of spoiled for that? But not to this degree! Maria has my ♥, and Monica was probably my favorite character of the entire movie. (Please to bring me all the fanfic about grown-up Monica!) Annette Bening can do no wrong in my book, so that casting was aces. Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn were, as promised, amazing in their roles. Most of all, I felt that Carol was, as a character, a bit young for me, but also relatable as a character because of the 90s setting. If I have one complaint, it's that I found a bit of a disconnect between my experiences as a young woman (almost exactly Carol's age, actually—I was 25 in 1995) in the late 80s/early 90s. Her particular experience resonated more as someone from an earlier era? (70s/80s). I'll probably need to see the movie again to process that—but I will, definitely, be seeing the movie again. In general, it was very successful for me, and I was excited by the prospect of seeing her interact with the older Avengers.
I fully approve the bits that were left for viewer interpretation/further comics research. It was nice not to be told everything. And my takeaway was that I really liked all the characters (including Fury, whom I never cared about before, TBH) and want to know more.
[Full disclosure: I'm not really a superhero comics person. There was one particular run of Uncanny X-Men that I loved, but other than that, my favorite comics are not at all Marvel/DC/superhero related. That doesn't stop me from reading them! But I'm just not that girl. (For the record, my two all-time favorite comics are Promethea and Strangers in Paradise.) I've become a reluctant, Cap-centric Marvel fan only through duress and attrition. Other than Winter Soldier, the only other MCU movie I got excited about was Guardians of the Galaxy.]
As an origin story, this was pretty successful, I thought. As an epic host of fan-types before me have noted, origin stories are hard. My primary takeaway from the movie is that I wanted more, which I consider a good sign. Younger Nick Fury was cute. Young Phil Coulson (in awe of younger Nick Fury) was super cute. I'm sorry that I got spoiled for what happened to Fury's eye—Goose was a delight in general.
AND OMG THE LESBIAN CODING. I mean, I was also sort of spoiled for that? But not to this degree! Maria has my ♥, and Monica was probably my favorite character of the entire movie. (Please to bring me all the fanfic about grown-up Monica!) Annette Bening can do no wrong in my book, so that casting was aces. Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn were, as promised, amazing in their roles. Most of all, I felt that Carol was, as a character, a bit young for me, but also relatable as a character because of the 90s setting. If I have one complaint, it's that I found a bit of a disconnect between my experiences as a young woman (almost exactly Carol's age, actually—I was 25 in 1995) in the late 80s/early 90s. Her particular experience resonated more as someone from an earlier era? (70s/80s). I'll probably need to see the movie again to process that—but I will, definitely, be seeing the movie again. In general, it was very successful for me, and I was excited by the prospect of seeing her interact with the older Avengers.
I fully approve the bits that were left for viewer interpretation/further comics research. It was nice not to be told everything. And my takeaway was that I really liked all the characters (including Fury, whom I never cared about before, TBH) and want to know more.
[Full disclosure: I'm not really a superhero comics person. There was one particular run of Uncanny X-Men that I loved, but other than that, my favorite comics are not at all Marvel/DC/superhero related. That doesn't stop me from reading them! But I'm just not that girl. (For the record, my two all-time favorite comics are Promethea and Strangers in Paradise.) I've become a reluctant, Cap-centric Marvel fan only through duress and attrition. Other than Winter Soldier, the only other MCU movie I got excited about was Guardians of the Galaxy.]
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Date: 2019-03-15 07:03 pm (UTC)But the little glimpses of Nat and Steve (Steeeeeb) in the mid-credits scene with Carol was delicious, and even though I thought the CGI was terrible on the final tag, any cat owner has to love that whole thing.
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Date: 2019-03-15 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-15 08:09 pm (UTC)I loved it. I was so happy, in particular, for all the things they *did not* do. They did not shove a m/f romance into the story. They did not have Carol in a low-cut tank, in her undies, in the *shower*. They did not make her a bitch. They did not have her and Maria talking about men or relationships, they did not make her and Maria have this super-bitchy 'frenemies' relationship. They did not make Carol being single and not a mom some kind of failing or 'lost chance' or regret.
It was awesome. I loved Fury utterly losing it and being cat-daddy silly all over Goose at every possible moment.
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Date: 2019-03-15 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-15 08:46 pm (UTC)But I watch these films because everyone does. And I really liked it! Younger me would have LOVED it. It's interesting because I was a teenager in the 90s but this movie brought home how 'outside' I felt from 90s culture.
AND OMG THE LESBIAN CODING.
I did not expect this at all but it was great! A breath of fresh air! I totally expected there to be a Carol/Jude Law thing and then there wasn't and it was great.
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Date: 2019-03-15 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-15 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 03:57 pm (UTC)Yomz & I were trying to figure out afterwards when grunge fashion was popular (80s or 90s?), and the 80s feeling makes sense considering the bar seemed to be frozen in that decade (as well as the stuff on the spaceship, etc).
For me, the 80s & 90s kind of blur together, anyway, (mostly cause my 20s & 30s kind of blur together :-) ), so I it's kind of all the same to me. heh.
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Date: 2019-03-15 09:05 pm (UTC)I liked the film and, after I talked with my friends' 13 yo daughter, I liked it even more. She was inspired by the scene where young Carol stood up after every fall. She spent all day saying "I have nothing to prove" and I think we can't hear that enough as women in our culture. I'm looking forward to seeing Captain Marvel in the Avengers in May.
Also, the music was a giant walk down vid-memory lane and my earliest days in fandom. So, that was an unexpected additional win. <3
Going to see it again this weekend.
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Date: 2019-03-15 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-15 10:53 pm (UTC)I am so hoping that 1) you write & put some up at AO3 & 2) you are not the only one!!
heh
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Date: 2019-03-16 08:37 am (UTC)Goose was amazing! When she was floating around in zero-g my friend and I were just clutching at each other and making little squeaking noises :D
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Date: 2019-03-17 03:16 am (UTC)ALSO, I could just relax, because new canon always makes me on edge *frazzle*.
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Date: 2019-03-18 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-19 04:55 am (UTC)I continued rambling on about CM on tumblr here, basically just having a conversation with myself lol.
psst secret to you -- I am about half way through the last part of my steve/thor! I'm on a deadline! I am going to post this thing before endgame if it kills me!
hm I should get a thor icon yes.
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Date: 2019-03-19 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-21 10:54 pm (UTC)