Marvel's Secret Invasion

Ok we can skip right past the fact that this has little to do with the story found in the comic book evet of the same name except for Skrulls being the focal point. It feels this is the epilogue to the Captain Marvel movie, which might have worked better than the story the Marvels is going to try to tell. Rhodes and Fury are the only two superheroes that are involved three episodes in and it is evident that this is not the story they were meant to support. They do bring up why they are not involving the Avengers, and while the real reason is budget and contracts, the in story reason makes sense as well., But what does not work is suggesting that the Avengers are the only super-heroes in the universe. This could have been a good spot to bring in Nova or other New Warriors. How would this effect the Winter Guard?  The Secret Invasion could bring up Secret Avengers, though really what this feels like is it should have been a season of   Agents of SHIELD. 

Instead we are having the character discuss a civil war amongst aliens with an action to discussion ratio that adds up to the most bring thing Marvel has put out so far. The writing is better than when it comes to dialogue, but the over plot pacing is at a crawl that makes it hard to watch. The interesting elements is the fact that this gives a clear cut example of what it might look like for reptilian shape shifters to pull the strings on the world from the background, but we already see enough of that on CNN and Fox, we watch Marvel shows and movies for the escapism of it.  Watching politicians argue and Russia threatening to launch World War 3, well that is everyday life these days, and it bores me when it's one the news now day, we have already seen Skrulls so trying to set an entire series on their shoulders, feels like what we have already seen on the various incarnations of "V".

This series is only going to be six episodes long, so it is more of a mini-series, there is no time for a slow burn, we are half way through it and nothing has happened. Marvel is releasing another clunker, when they need a win more than ever. Sure Guardians was great , but that is another chapter closed . It is unlikely the new Captain America movie without Steve Rogers is going to help the big picture, This us putting all the chips on Fantastic Four and X-men. Why is another failure such a big deal? It is time and resources that could have been better invested in bringing to life characters that matter more. Daredevil could have been fast tracked. The Punisher could have been invested in. Where is Ghost Rider?   A actual Hulk show ? More Were-wolf by Night? But as I have said all eras of a genre come to an end 

   

Film Review : "Captain Marvel"

So when I reviewed "Black Panther" there was the out cry that comes when you say the Emperor has no clothes of people saying "That movie is not for you" . To which I replied "You mean a comic book movie isn't for someone who reads comics?" That is what this is coming to now. So I will first give you the review of someone who this movie is for ... a 9 year old girl. After all they are making GoFund Me's for this movie so they can go see it. Or perhaps that is all in the hype , and if you can sell this as something that a cultural even rather than a super-hero movie then perhaps we don't notice when the movies take on the same formula. But I digress here is what a 9 year old girl thought of it.

First she has seen other super hero movies in theaters ... Spider-man, Wonder-woman, Ant-man, and Avengers. She did not make it through Aqua-man,got bored fast. She loves Suicide Squad and I think if you ask her will tell you she prefers Harley Quinn over Captain Marvel, a fact also substantiated by the fact she has watched Suicide Squad multiple times. So she can sit through a super-hero movie. Another point is considering she is my daughter she has grown up around comics. She knows who the Sentry is as well as Satanna, so might even be more well versed in them than many of today's fair weather Marvel movie fans. Since she knows the comics and not just the movies,  Today she asked is Captain Marvel the greatest super hero ever before we watched the movie and I told her well...probably not, but that can be a matter of taste.  So the heavy sci-fi shoot outs at the beginning between the Kree and the Skrulls , began to lose her, she wanted super-heroes not star wars. Then 30 mins later she was falling asleep.  When I asked her how did she like what she saw she liked Ant-man and Wasp better.

I think that is a fair assessment of where this movie falls. I was surprised the girl power was not more heavy handed. There was only one montage like scene where she gets up after being knocked down that put it in your face. I will also say , the cgi was not as bad as what they showed in the commercial. Not on Infinity War level or even Dr. Strange. I like the fact that it felt more like a super-hero movie than Black Panther and more fluidly flowing into the Marvel Universe. That is the movie's strong point. There was a lull midway into it, but it was not as slow going into as I had expected. So points for that too.

Where the movie was a train wreck was doing things like making the Skrulls good guys. I went in thinking it would make for a great entry point for the Fantastic Four. Boy did they fuck that up. I did like the little Kirby looking servant skrulls though. Visually they were handled pretty well. The Kree have appeared on Agents of Shield before which is part of the cinematic universe. Anette Benning as Mar-Vell was another place they dropped the ball. Mar-vell as a conspiring bad guy? Give me a fucking break. Ronan was hardly used. The cat everyone was talking about, underwhelming. I agree that the 90s thing seemed forced. Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, lags behind Scarlet Witch or Wasp in terms of convincing me, though she was better than anticipated, but my expectations were pretty low. I am all for female super-heroes...She-Hulk could carry a movie better. Mantis could be a bad ass instead of a Pokemon. Where is Tigra? If they left an easter egg for Kamala Khan it was buried. Decormick kinda killed Danvers for me in the comics, I think I prefer the yellow and black suit.

As a movie stripped of any Trojan Horse agenda, I liked it better than Black Panther , the Andrew Garfield Spider-man movies and think it has a better ending than Wonder-woman. But if they try to sell us The Eternal with this same hype machine, Marvel is going to have ruder awakenings in store.