Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel. First things first, the tribute to Stan Lee at the very beginning introduction was absolutely lovely. It pulled at my heartstrings. The Marvel Studios opening theme, but instead, it shows clips of Stan Lee's cameos.

Do you need to see it to understand End Game? Doubtful. First end credits scene is from End Game and the second one at the very end is not important.

With that out of the way, it is a lot better than I thought it would be. I am glad to report that. Ending fight scene was visually cool. De-aging CGI of Sam L. Jackson was spot on. You couldn't even tell it was CGI. The CGI overall is pretty good. Overall, the acting was sufficient. This is more of a fresh faced Fury than the one we know, but that is gonna happened due to the fact this is his first encounter with aliens. Ben Mendelsohn was great and the show-stealer, Jude Law and Sam L are great as always. And that is all I really have to say about that.

There are a plethora of plot holes that could have been explored such as how did so and so get this item. A big plot hole is that this is the first time Fury dealt with aliens, so how does that explain him saying the events of Thor was the first time he knew of aliens? This movie has plot holes that affect previous installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is as if the writers and directors haven't watched a single MCU film prior to making this. The comedy was mostly a miss. It wasn't cringe bad; I just didn't laugh for most of it, from all the characters. The audience in the theater did laugh at many of the jokes. They cheapen how Nick Fury looses his eye. It was a joke on the internet about how he loses his eye and that's exactly what they did. They cheapen how the Avengers got their name. It would make sense, in universe, but disrespects the legacy of the Avengers. They seem to be retconning previous story elements to shoehorn Captain Marvel to lead the Avengers post Endgame. Soundtrack was decent, but then the song by No Doubt in a fight scene made it worse. The fight scene itself was good though.

As for Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, honestly, she was great in the beginning. Snarky, quick witted, funny, and actually had a personality that we didn't see in the trailers. It, then, just stops and she becomes that character in the trailer. She has character development and is not good at every thing right off the bat. She learns how to control her powers so when she goes OP in the end, it's not out of nowhere. She does get her ass handed to her. There is hope for this character, just not in this one. As for Brie Larson's acting, I think she phoned it in for most of it. She was Kirsten Stewart level wooden. Thing is, she had flashes of great performances during this film so I know she can perform, but then it goes bye bye. Russo Brothers may be able to fix this, but Brie Larson just doesn't fit the character well.

Here we go, the politics. I didn't want to look at it through that lense, but the movie marketing kind of forced me to. Yes, there is feminist drops everywhere, but it isn't a constant beating over the head. Captain Marvel herself doesn't seem to be a feminist, well, at least, amnesiac Captain Marvel isn't. She was born in the 1970's, so obviously, I can see some of that being true, but I will say they were cringe. Smile more, etc etc. It was the stereotypical sexist men, but I can overlook that since doesn't affect the movie. What does affect the movie is when you dumb down or belittle the male characters to make the female characters look strong. Spoilers...For instance, how is a 90's earth woman gonna lecture a technologically advanced alien on astrophysics? How is calling a woman a young lady an insult? Not even taking it into account that is said by an alien. It is that kind of stuff that affects the movie. You don't need to sacrifice other characters to make the women look strong. Every male character suffers from this.

Overall, it is below average. Not bad, not good, nothing spectacular, nothing we haven't seen. Despite the length of the bad over the good, I stand by my opinion of the movie is better than I thought it would be. It has times of greatness and for the most part I enjoyed it, even with the many eye rolls. I am not gonna recommend or not recommend. If it interests you, go see it. If you can't stand politics in movies, then I suggest sit this one out. 5/10.

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day: Resurgence tries to recreate the magic of the first film, but ultimately falls short. They tried too hard and forced jokes to capture the charm of the first film. The unnecessary jokes in situations where jokes shouldn’t be said left you with no sense of danger after serious situations. During some dialogue, I caught myself thinking, “That’s so cliché.” They do give back story, but you never had a connection to the characters and when some characters inevitably die, there is no emotional impact. It’s hard to recreate what Will Smith did in the first film without having Will Smith.

There were many positive things about the film. I absolutely loved the concept and execution of the story, probably because I’m a fan of alien invasion movies anyways, so I’m biased in the regard. It got me excited to see the next installment. The visuals of the film were amazing. Everything about the alien ship was visual eye candy. The destruction was superb looking. The action sequences were done well. As much as I criticized the corny dialogue, more often than not, the jokes worked and gave everyone in the audience a good laugh.

Bill Pullman, who plays the President Whitmore from the first film, was decent. I have seen him put on great performances in his other movies, so I know he can be better, but he doesn’t quite have the charm he did in the first film. They attempt to recreate his epic speech, but it falls short. Something was missing from him in this film that was a little disappointing.

Maika Monroe plays Patricia Whitmore, the daughter of Bill Pullman’s character. She actually did well in the beginning of the film, but when it got to more dramatic scenes at the end, she was weaker in her performance. Overall, she was solid.

Jessie Usher plays Dylan Dubrow-Hiller, the son of Will Smith’s character. He does have a few scenes where he is fine, but his overall performance was, well, let’s just say there is room for improvement. He just wasn’t that good.

Liam Hemsworth, Thor’s little brother, plays Lieutenant Jake Morrison, a pilot in the ESD (Earth Space Defense), puts on a pretty good performance and gave one of his better performances.

Brent Spiner plays Dr. Brakish Okun, the guy in the first movie that was possessed by an alien and you thought died, which gives me hope for a Will Smith return. He was funny and brought a lot of energy to his scenes.

Jeff Goldblum does an excellent job in reprising his role. William Fichtner was great as usual. Sela Ward is good for the limited time she has on screen.

The highlight of the movie was Travis Tope who plays Charlie Ritter, a pilot and Jake’s best friend. I can’t think of a single scene he was in that he didn’t do a great job. He was able to play the comic relief and was able to do the more dramatic scenes.

Overall, Resurgence was an enjoyable movie. Will Smith was obviously missed and I would be happy with any excuse they make up to bring him back if he wants to return. There are things that it got wrong, but when it got things right, it got it right. The positives outweigh the bad and if you enjoy the movie, then it did its’ job. I do recommend seeing this movie. Score: 7/10.