Worth Your Time: Captain Marvel

With the brand new superhero movie on track to reach 1 billion in theatre sales, it’s no surprise that it has had it’s fair share on controversy. Trolls on Rotten Tomato were giving the movie terrible scores without even seeing it. It used to have a whopping 33% until it erased the fake reviews, making it jump up to a 60%. The 29 year old Brie Larson plays the role of Captain Marvel, also known as Carol Danvers. Set in 1995, Danvers lives with her best friend Maria (played by Lashana Lynch) and Maria’s daughter. Both want to be Air Force pilots but unable to due to the ban on women being able to enter the air force. Instead, Danvers opts to be part of an experimental test flight, nicknamed Pegasus and conducted by Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening). After both are pronounced dead after the failure, the government shuts it down. 6 years after that crash, Danvers, now known as Vers, works as a soldier for the Kree civilization in space. Because, why not?

Anywho, this movie was pretty good. I wouldn’t call it amazing though. A problem I had with the movie is the production itself. It felt like Marvel blew a lot of money on its up and coming movie Endgame. The setting of the movie felt extremely closed in. For example, the beginning takes place in Los Angeles, but there’s no flair to it. If it wasn’t for a sign that shows a highway in Los Angeles, you wouldn’t know. Nothing about the setting screams ‘Los Angeles’ since there was nothing that is special to that area shown. This happens again when they go to Louisiana. There was nothing that screamed Louisiana to me. You could’ve told me that it was set in Front Royal Virginia and I would have believed it. They should have focused on making the setting they were in more alive like in other movies.

Another problem is the theme. The idea that she is too sensitive and not yet ready for her powers is not really explored. You don’t really see her having any major problems with her power, the whole spiel about her being to sensitive is never talked about again after she hang outs with Nick Fury, and I never really felt like she grew from what happened. Duh, I won’t spoil it, but at the end, she didn’t seem to grow from her experiences. She didn’t mature or “became less sensitive”, she more or less stayed the same.

All in all, I think this was a good movie and monumental for women superheros. It’s inspired many young girls, even my own little sister. Representation is extremely important now that the world is more inclusive. Yet, as the first superhero with a female lead, it could have been better on the writing and production part of it. Hopefully since times are changing, it won’t be long until we see Muslim, Latino, Indigenous, and many other types of superheros representing us on the big screen.

Overall:7/10

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Worth Your Time: Aquaman vs Into the Spiderverse

Two movies have been released this winter season as the new blockbusters for not only december but for the beginning weeks for January. I was fortunate enough to watch both movies without any expectations. They’re both good movies in their own respective ways, but hopefully this review will help you decide which one to watch.

Starting off with Aquaman, it was a pretty good movie. It follows Aquaman, played by Jason Momoa, going back to reclaim Atlantis before his evil step brother wrecks havoc on land. Pretty standard stuff for a movie about a supernatural character. Regardless, watching the movie, it felt a little bland. It had some nice scenes in it, but the overall feeling of the film felt like every other generic movie. Not only that, but sometimes the effects used underwater looked muddy and sometimes completely blurred. But overall, a nice watch if you really want to go out of your way to see it. 7/10 for me.

Now whenever someone sees an animated cartoon, they automatically assume it’s for kids. Even though Into the Spiderverse has the target audience of children, it’s still an amazing watch. Art and comicbook fanatics would be able to fall in love with the stylised 3D effects that look as if someone drew all the scenes. Spiderman fans will also be able to enjoy small little easter eggs and details found in the movie relating to other films. Not only that, but the story of an up and coming hero in the midst of pure chaos is an interesting concept. Surprisingly dark for a kids movie but with an inspiring message that everyone can be a hero, I give this movie a 9/10 since characters like Noir and Peni Parker would be better with more development. Not only that but some scenes in the movie can cause eye strain do to the strobing effects.

Now, I think Spiderman; Into the Spider Verse is more worth your time. It’s an amazing movie and not bad for a company that made The Emoji Movie.

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