Movie Review: Captain Marvel

3/11/2019

[No spoilers, just my impressions.]

Every once in a while, when I'm watching a movie and a line of dialogue is especially wooden, cliché, on-the-nose, or just plain stupid, I say "gross" out loud. It's a reflex. I don't know I'm doing it.

I said "gross" a lot during this movie.

I'm usually not one to throw stones about dialogue, because Lord knows it's not like my characters belong in a Tarantino movie. But there were a few lines in Captain Marvel that...stood out in an unfortunate manner.

That's my least-important observation out of the way. The bulk of the movie was just forgettable. It's a bland sandwich. I can't picture myself ever watching this again, and I can't imagine a reason to do so.

There were some fundamental story issues I had with it; for instance, the film pretends that the heroine goes through an arc, but she doesn't, which robs the ending of all tension or emotional weight. She's the same person in the first scene that she is in the last, barring only superficial changes.

That's an example, and I could go on, but there's really no point. The underlying story structure of the movie wasn't as broken as many others, and that's too much of an intellectual argument anyway.

Let's get to the heart of it: it was boring. I was bored.

Most of the action sequences are chase scenes with no stakes. If the good guys fail to catch the bad guys...so what? I'm not led to believe that something terrible is going to happen. Just that the chase will go on. So the chases feel pointless.

Carol (Captain Marvel) is the strongest person around from the very beginning, so I'm never afraid she's going to lose a fight. In fact, there are a few times where the movie pretends she's going to lose, but it's contradictory to the powers she already has--she gets physically restrained by ordinary humans at one point in the middle.

Whenever we watch any solo superhero movie, we know they're going to win in the end. In that sense, there should be no tension. But there usually is, because the story is told well, and emphasizes what's at stake and how the heroes might lose if they don't dig deep and evolve beyond the person they were.

Here's the bottom line: my sister was really looking forward to Marvel's first solo superheroine movie, and she was excited to buy a Captain Marvel cosplay to wear to conventions this year. She usually goes as Wonder Woman, or Belle, or Rey.

When she walked out of the theater this time, she said, "Man, I'm glad I didn't buy that costume."

-Will

56 Comments

Clint

3/11/2019 10:24:14 am

Did somebody say "Will Wight movie review streams."?
I did.

Arch

3/11/2019 10:56:04 am

press F to pay respects

Davis

3/11/2019 11:31:40 am

Yeah I agree the movie was boring and I think it was just meant to be an intro to Captain marvel so they don't have to do so in avengers. Honestly the whole thing could have been a 30 min tv special or something. One nitpick of your review we see her get restrained by humans and two things could have happened A she just didn't want to hurt them or B they pulled her off balance and took away leverage. As someone who does jui Jitsu I can tell you a strong person can't do shit without leverage and because she doesn't have the weight to anchor herself she could have been restrained.

Patrick

3/12/2019 08:43:57 am

She can fly, right? I suspect that leverage is a lot less important when you can fly. And can't she just hover a few feet off the floor and wait for them to let go?
Side question: Are there any Paths in Cradle that focus on grappling techniques?

Avinash

3/14/2019 02:05:40 am

Well she only learned to fly at the end after she fell from space.

Stephen

3/12/2019 06:10:54 pm

I don't remember her getting restrained by humans, when was that

Marlon

3/16/2019 03:51:58 am

On the train, a few humans tried to restrain her when she was trying to fight the old lady scroll.

DDued

3/17/2019 12:28:12 pm

a normal human might not be able to do anything if they don't have leverage but captain marvel isn't exactly a normal human. also, she could have gotten away without hurting them

April

3/11/2019 02:48:10 pm

I would t say I was bored, but I won’t be eager for a rewatch. The lack of growth was the biggest letdown. They didn’t hint at the “twist,” they used a sledgehammer. None of the most interesting points have to do with the main character or the main plot. Definitely toward the bottom of MCU ranking.

Will link

3/19/2019 02:35:45 pm

Yeah, I didn't think this movie was a disaster, but it's definitely down there with Thor: the Dark World and Ant-Man 2 for me.

Fellow Daoist Ji Ning

3/11/2019 04:30:54 pm

Amazon studios pays 55k for a TV script and 200k for a movie script. If you want to take a break from writing books Will you could toss them something!

Captain Spaulding

3/11/2019 04:34:40 pm

I'm actually ok with this. I'd love to see a, faithfully done, movie of the Cradle series.

Cool Person

3/11/2019 06:19:49 pm

That would be awesome... if it were done faithfully, and in a way were you could see there core. I think the biggest problem with a movie would be showing madra, but I'm sure they could think of something.

Theophilus

3/11/2019 06:09:07 pm

What’s the cover of Underlord?

MitchyGoodness

3/11/2019 06:18:14 pm

Heaven drop (or an o'ree'oh)

Dude

3/11/2019 06:20:12 pm

Go to willwight.com

scott pike

3/12/2019 01:29:12 pm

Thanks for the review. I won't waste my ten bucks seeing this in theaters. Mayber Red Box for 2 dollars. Also Underlord is out on Audible now.

Madeline

3/13/2019 05:16:06 pm

It's decent for what it is. The problem is mostly that stories about amnesiac characters which involve them discovering their past always waste way too much time in flashbacks. The point is always for the character to discover some meaningful thing about their past that explains/justifies what they're doing now, because after you consider the time that's spent on flashbacks, there isn't any more time for the character to move forward in addition to that Monumental Discovery.

I mean, the Kree are supposed to have very, very suppressed emotions. For most of the movie, outside of the flashbacks, she's got an implant in her neck that makes her be Kree. Then she tears off the suppressor, then she wrecks stuff, then she leaves. That doesn't leave much room for character development at all.

3/19/2019 02:34:43 pm

I agree with you, Madeline. I know my review was pretty much entirely negative, but I didn't hate the movie. It's not like I walked out of the theater angry. I just thought it was...bland. And I was disappointed in it because I expected them to do better for Marvel's first female-led film.

3/13/2019 12:03:26 pm

Regarding eithan
In blackflame cassius said that the aurelius family artist life artist swore that when he arrived 6 years ago he was not far past 30 , meaning at least 30+, underlord is around 2 years from blackflame so eithan is around 40 now , but he tells yerin that he is 34 🤔 and he has to be max 35 for uncrowned?

Phlinn

3/13/2019 01:45:51 pm

Dang... I just reread the entire series after reading underlord and I missed that. I was under the impression he was just over 30 at the time of Blackflame, but the context does imply it was at the time he came to the empire.

It's possible that was just an upper bound without them knowing his actual age.

Bill

3/13/2019 06:43:29 pm

Pretty sure that was a retcon by Will. No big deal though. If it improves the story than I'm all for it. I probably wouldn't have even noticed it even though I've read the story beginning to end 4 times if not for the fan subreddit.

I'm sure Will will come up with an explanation for it though. A simple "I fooled the life artists into thinking I was six years older than I actually am so nobody would realize I was eligable for this tournament until it was too late! Mwahaha!" Would do the trick.

mailmindlin

3/20/2019 12:09:27 am

I think Will said somewhere that Eithan was just over 30 when he became an underlord (which was some time after he moved to the BFE)

3/20/2019 04:33:25 am

@mailmindlin
Yes they use the same it was mentioned by will , saying that creating new time system serves less purpose and creates more confusion.

3/20/2019 04:42:53 am

Ignore upper comment it belongs lower in the chain

Diego

3/13/2019 11:00:54 pm

My argument to your statement is that it doesn't say WHEN he wasn't far past thirty. Cassias could be referring to Eithan not being past thirty at that exact point of time in Blackflame. Remember in Underlord he's 34. That means in Blackflame he would likely have been 33.

3/14/2019 02:03:05 am

The whole paragraph was in the past tense which means at that point of time when he just arrived.
See when he came , they confirmed,that created . All at the same point when he arrived.

Eithan Arelius until six years ago, when the man stumbled through a portal to the other side of the world. Already an Underlord. Life and blood artists beholden to the family had confirmed that he wasn’t far past thirty. That was partially what had created such an impact in the Blackflame Empire:

Now it might be a retcon or you can say it was never clearly specifued but it is an inconsistency
It's easily fixed like bill suggested that he fooled the life artist
Or it might be the age limit for uncrowded is 35 but this being a special/emergency occurrence the age limit might have been relaxed to 40, cause this one happened too soon after the last one so the younger generation might not be ready
And so on
But on the basis of info provided eithan is above 35 , most likely 39~40

3/14/2019 05:02:31 am

Or another possible explanation, the Blackflame branch of the Arelius family doesn't seem to know much about their main family. Given Eithan's manipulativeness, it's also conceivable that he walked through the gate, already an Underlord, younger than thirty, and, knowing that he LOOKS much younger than most Underlords of the Empire, told them he was thirty.

3/14/2019 06:26:01 am

Personally i believe a simple fix of Will adding Cassias specifying Eithans age to be 33 at blackflame a much better excuse. The idea that Eithan could fool Sages, Heralds and Monarchs about his age is ludicrous. I doubt they wouldn't check the competitors.

3/14/2019 10:44:21 am

@madeline
Eithan didn't tell his age himself
Life artist of his clan found/calculated it.
@diego
A simple fix would indeed work but most likely it would be along the line that the life artist were wrong because of the veil eithan used for hiding his path
Or in extreme case increasing the age limit to 40.
I agree that he couldn't fake his age in front of monarchs unless what someone suggested about him being a monarch or a former monarch was true (which I think is highly unlikely).

4/5/2019 03:09:25 pm

I read that as the life artist guarantied he wasent older then that, but he might be younger. That they couldent say the exact age.

He was already an underlord when he came back to blackflame thou. so he might have been that since he was the same age as lindon/yerin.

Rob

3/14/2019 10:43:45 pm

This response really belongs lower in the thread and basically agrees with Phlinn's second theory.

Technically saying he "wasn't far past thirty" applies equally well to anyone younger than their mid thirties. So 26 or 27 year old Eithan "wasn't far past thirty" when he arrived.

Also has it really been 2 years since Blackflame? I was under the impression that the last 3 books took place over maybe a year at most. I don't remember there being much time between them joining the skysworn and the Dreadgod attack, and only a few weeks, maybe a month on Ghostwater and several months in Underlord. Where am I off?

3/15/2019 12:44:29 am

@rob
Not Far past 30
Past 30 means 30+ and not far means early 30s like 31 or 32
Also the duel was after 11 months of them reaching serpents rest.
So dreadgod attack happens atleast 1yr ago
Also the event of underlord takes place over 8 months 2month for people to assemble and 6 months till selection.(a large part of it was over in a few lines so it feels less but the valley was open for 6 months roughly)
And the rest change was during skysworn and ghost water
Ghost water was 2~3 months , don't remember how long skysworn was.

3/15/2019 08:40:54 pm

What you're saying is the normal interpretation but not the only one or the strictest logical one. Think of it this way:
P = "far past 30"
Not P or ~P

P is true for 33+ and ~P is true for anyone younger than that (adjust for whatever arbitrary definition you have for "far" since that's relative)

Looked at another way, if someone asked me (29) if I was "far past 30," I'd tell them no, because I'm *not* "far past 30" And that's a normal English response.

This is the same type of thing that makes me say and/or instead of just or because people use or and mean xor most of the time. I'm a programmer and all human languages are ambiguous in ways like those compared to code.

Only a couple of those 11 months are in skysworn right? Where Eithan kept breqking in to keep training. Most of that 11 months is in blackflame iirc. And I could swear there's a line in Ghostwater about how Yerin and Mercy had been crossing the island for 2 weeks and add an additional week or so for travel to ghostwater and events right before Lindon got stuck and after he got out and I don't think he was in there for more than a month tops which is basically the whole book.

Forgot about the quick time jump in Underlord, so yeah probably at about a year. But maybe your Cassius quote happened in the beginning of blackflame so you were counting all that time and I was only counting post blackflame?

3/15/2019 11:14:11 pm

@Rob
Yah the Cassius line happens on the day they started the black flame trail and it was 11 month to the challenge date half of which is in skysworn.
Regarding ghost water I thought it was 2months but it's been a while so I may be wrong but didn't he send some time at the first well to prepare and then again at the second one .

By ur line of not far past a 10 yr or a 100 yr old could be said to be not far past 30.

But the matter is past 30
If ur 31 and I ask are u past 30 u say yes
Now english is not my first language
And I agree that all language is arbitrary
But if u tell me u have a sibling who's not far past 18 then I would think 19 or 20 not 16 or 17

3/16/2019 01:30:49 pm

@Avinash

Yeah, if that quote was at the beginning of Blackflame then it's definitely been at least 2 years from then to the end of Underlord. As for Ghostwater, I remember he spent a week or 2 at each of the Dream and Spirit wells, and very little time anywhere else. I don't remember him actually sleeping/resting anywhere that wasn't one of those wells, so each time he traveled, from the entrance to the dream well, from there to the spirit well and from there to the life well/exit took less than a day I think. Meh.

"By ur line of not far past a 10 yr or a 100 yr old could be said to be not far past 30."

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying with this but yes, both could be said. What I meant about "far" being relative/arbitrary, is that to someone who is 1000 years old, a 40 or 50 year old is not far past 30 and for someone 10000 years old or more, a 100 year old is not far past 30. It's all about scale. But that's beside the main point.

It's not so much that it's arbitrary (though it sometimes is), it's ambiguous.

The issue is, does the negation of the "not" apply only to "far", which is your interpretation, or to the whole phrase "far past 30". Both are equally valid but yours is the more normal everyday view in when it's in the form of the quote.

Turning it into a question without the not, "are you far past 30?" like I did in my last post shows that it other circumstances, the latter view is the normal one.

But adding the negation back, brings the ambiguity back. If someone asked me "Are you not far past 30?" there are 2 or 3 ways to interpret or answer that.

I could say yes, I am not far past 30. which applies the not to the whole phrase and is consistent with the original version without the not.

I could even say no, I am not far past 30 and mean the same thing which is stupid, the same way when someone asks "do you mind?" and if you answer no, you usually have to clarify that "no, you don't mind" not "no you can't do that", and yes should mean "yes, I mind" but most people think it means, "yes you can do that". smh

A 31 year old could say the same things, except in his case, he could apply the not to either far or the whole phrase and both would work as true. He's past 30 but not far past it (explicit way of applying not to just the far), and he's not 100, ie not "far past 30".

There's also the rhetorical style questions like "Are you not human?"
Yes I am human or No, I'm not "not human". You could apply the latter form and get (for 29 or 100 year old) No, I'm not not far past 30 or for only 100 year old Yes I am far past 30. Fun.

This is all just fun discussion to me and mostly irrelevant in every day use because it's usually obvious in context or extra clarification is given when needed. I just like talking about stuff like this.

So long story short, yes, I would never tell you my 16 year old brother is not far past 18 (though I'd never tell you he's not far past 15 either because really who talks like that in everyday conversation anyway, partly for this reason and it sounds awkward).

Totally random discussion to have in Will's blog comments, especially on a post about Captain Marvel, haha.

3/16/2019 02:12:30 pm

Rob
As I mentioned english not being my first language I can use it but not teach it.
So I thought negation was only for the word succeeding it unless separated by a comma, then it for the whole of sentence

The line was also in the statement form and not question so I interpretated it as such.

Going through your post I can see how I could be used as such (not gonna lie had to go through 2~3 times and am still not 100%), but yeah it could be.
The 10 and 100 yr old line was as u said it, where people live 300and above (daishou was 300 ,and northstrider was legend before malice came to power which was before the black flames ruled the empire), so yeah it's relative.
Totally agree with ur do u mind point
And yeah I agree this chain got weird real fast , I mean now we are not even talking about eithan but on negations and the nature of language. :-)

For all we know when will comes back he'll say yes he was not far past at the time of black flame and the line was an editorial mistake or was supposed to be interpreted as you said leaving him younger than 30 or 26 at the time of his arrival.
He is 34 now which is pushing the limit as it is , since around a year is left for the tournament and he has to be max 35 then.

Retro

3/19/2019 05:16:06 pm

@end of comment chain - Avinash's 3'rd comment

Wait... do we know that they use the same 24 hour, 7 day, 12 month calender?

3/20/2019 04:35:02 am

@retro
Yes they use the same it was mentioned by will , saying that creating new time system serves less purpose and creates more confusion.

Michael

3/15/2019 08:14:36 am

Thats a fair point. But another explanation could be the difference in perceived ages. Lindon believed he was 17 according to SV standards but the Empire used his biological birthdate making him 18. It could be that the tournament isn't using a biological date or something along those lines to account for age discrepancies.

3/15/2019 10:20:36 am

Maybe but i think the life artist would have found his biological age , and pretty sure the contest ent would be checked on biological age itself as its a worldwide event

Also the example of age difference due to custom can be true for 1 or max 2 yr
But eithan should be atleast 30+6+2= 38 at the very least

3/19/2019 02:32:57 pm

You have had a very long discussion about this, and unfortunately the explanation is very simple: the line in Blackflame was poorly phrased.

What I meant to say was that Eithan was, at the time of Blackflame, currently just past 30. But he had gotten inspected six years before. Unfortunately, my phrasing implied the opposite. I never, at any point, intended for that to be the case.

However, I wasn't aware that this would cause a problem until after the Blackflame audio was released, which means I can no longer change the text. So when I was writing Underlord, I went to my beta readers and asked if we should change Eithan's age to line up with the ill-phrased Blackflame line, making him 37-38 and changing the Uncrowned requirement to 40.

They said "No, most people won't care, just explicitly state his real age in Underlord."

And here we are.

3/19/2019 05:23:37 pm

As someone above pointed out, do we know that we have the same calender as they do? we know that sacred valley has a different one from the 'biological' one, but even that one would be subject to the calendar that the practitioner used.

3/20/2019 04:41:17 am

@coolperson
Yes they use the same it was mentioned by will , saying that creating new time system serves less purpose and creates more confusion.
Sacred valley as I recall had a different meaning to birthday as IRL too in some countries every one gets a year older on new year day and not on their birthdate
(So a 2day old child could possibly be 1yr old if he was born on 31dec)
But the time cycle is same

Cradle as a whole has a time dilation effect but thats wrt to other iteration and not for different locations in cradle itself

But this comment is more in the way of time measurements as will has already clarified the eithan age issue

3/20/2019 04:59:28 am

@Will
Ya halfway along the chain I did realize that it most likely was an editorial error but I thought someone else might have an interesting view about this and it was good to engage with fellow fans as no one in my circle is into the wuxia genre.

ALSO did u get my question regarding Markuth by any chance
Cause I was really confused about his level
I took him to be abidan level at first seeing as how he could travel off world and dare to talk about taking on the dreadgods.
But then I was told by people that he was sage level max (I did find out about anudan archives due to this and boy that's what dross must have felt while trying to integrate the Aurelius library)
I mean I get how he could travel off world by using portal or stargates. But fighting dreadgods , when the 4 of them together killed off a generation of monarch seems absurd.
Also what happened to the remanent of the lost generation of monarchs
And do people really need to die and be reborn to ascend / touch the way.

As always ans what u feel like and leave any u don't with a cryptic riddle designed to keep me up at nights wondering.

4/5/2019 03:13:11 pm

Not a big deal. But frankly, I took it as the Aurelius life artist not being able to pinpoint age that exactely, and since the interesting part was max age, they stated the highest age he could be. That they said "he is at most alittle over 30"

Paden

3/13/2019 01:37:18 pm

Savage

Harry

3/14/2019 09:25:34 am

Yeah, it's one of those disappointments that seems to always happen in hundred million $ films that try to have a strong female lead. They're afraid to give her any flaws so there's no character growth.

Mike O

3/17/2019 05:34:28 am

I was wondering why there are so many "meh" reviews of this movie, and now, having seen it last night and read this blog, I understand. It's too subtle for most Americans. It's a classic problem resultant from the dumbing down of our society. As some have pointed out, in 1942, Bambi's mom killed off-screen was enough. By 1994, Simba has to paw over his dead father for a few minutes to get the same effect.
Case in point- Carol is not "restrained by ordinary humans." You missed how easily she shrugs them off moments later. Most on this thread clearly missed Brie Larson's subtle chirps of joy as she discovered new aspects to her powers. No development? When she experienced her origin moment, she knew nothing about what she had.
I guess you missed Brie Larson's slight changes in facial expressions. There were several moments where she displayed just the hint of a smile, of a "bring it on" kind of badassery. The interplay between Carol and Fury is likewise subtle; like two good friends who have a running "in-joke" understanding of the events around them.
I understand that Marvel must play to the masses. I'm sure End Game will return to the "hit them over the head so they get it" style.

3/17/2019 10:46:06 pm

Ha! And you're one of the enlightened few, huh? Your interperetation is made of nothing but hot air and patronizing guesswork.

3/19/2019 02:30:01 pm

I'm fairly certain Mike is baiting us, Bill. We have a disciple of Ken M among us.

Sarah

3/19/2019 01:05:53 pm

Shh, Mike is just trying to mansplain the movie to us.

Joe

3/19/2019 05:19:39 pm

I agree with the fact that she was overpowered, after all, she did go through, like, 20 nukes and come out completely fine, and she completely destroyed an entire ship in about 5 seconds, but I do want to point out that this isn't the movie makers fault, she was even more overpowered in the comics.

Corin

3/19/2019 05:27:57 pm

Andrew Rowe has commented multiple times on your books, including when underlord was reased, Will, and stated that you were 'friends', yet I've never seen a mention of him(Andrew Rowe) or his books. I'm sensing a unfair relationship here.

Chris

3/21/2019 05:21:14 pm

Easily explained by the fact that Corin can only wish he was cool enough to get into one of Will's stories >.> ;p

3/22/2019 09:13:20 am

I'm not asking for a story, only a blog mention.

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.