Watched: April 20, 2019

Kegger Rating: 4 Star

MM Rating: 4 Star

Kegger’s Review:

While slow in the beginning, I really enjoyed this movie. 

It took me a while to remember backstory that seemed to float between Guardians of the Galaxy and the main Avengers stories – while I loved that movie (so funny!), I’d never really paid that much attention to the politics behind the cavorting of Chris Pratt’s, Bradley Cooper’s, and Vin Diesel’s characters.  So maybe that was why it took me a while to get the characters and motives straight. 

After that though, I found the humor to be understated but well played, I enjoyed the nostalgia (though I’ll admit that I’d just finished reading Ready Player One for the third time, so maybe I was primed for it), and I loved seeing the early versions of Nick Fury and Agent Coulson. 

Short aside – I have favorites in the Marvel movies.  Actually, I don’t – I love pretty much all of them (review about Ant-Man and The Wasp notwithstanding).  But my all-time favorite non-superhuman/super-smart character?  Hands down that’s Agent Coulson.  Maybe it’s the character, or maybe it’s the actor.  I don’t care – I love them both! 

The soundtrack made me happy as well – lots of 90s hits, including some I hadn’t heard in a while, and which really fit the film.

But most of all, I loved the protagonist.  She’s a strong, female soldier type, who has enough heart to make her human, but not so much that she falls into the “I’m gonna be strong until a man comes to rescue me in my darkest time, or the desire to have children takes over my life” trap.  (I cannot tell you how much it pissed me off during the Wonder Woman movie to see Diana coo over a baby in a carriage in England.) 

This woman was fierce, funny, with feelings that in no way diminished her – and it was certainly refreshing in a land of women who are typically only brought out as love interests. 

As prequels go, this has to rank highly for me.  I foresee watching this movie almost any time it comes on the movie channels or Netflix (if it gets on Netflix – this new Disney streaming service may be the way to go, but I’m not going to be willing to spend a ton on it, despite my love of Disney, Pixar and Marvel.  Oh, who am I kidding – sign me up!). 

Go see it!  Go!  Go right now!  Get yourself geared up for Avengers: Endgame!  MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!

MM’s Review:

Man am I glad to finally get a decent female superhero!

I don’t think it will hold up well to repeated viewings, though. The opening scenes, even the action ones, will end up being slow the next time through. The truly interesting stuff comes in two flavors:

(1) Brie Larson being badass and witty. She felt like a lower-key Starlord, more capable of handling herself.

(2) The intrigue. Not common for a Marvel movie, I think, but since we’re in the future we have the ability to recognize future bad guys. Usually I find that annoying, because I’m waiting the whole movie for the other shoe to drop, but the payoff on this one was worth it. Especially if you’re comic-aware

(Bonus) FLERKEN

Sammy L was a little smarmy, but had some really great moments too.

I struggled with a lot of logic gaps. Skrull memory powers were really spotty, for example. Space travel oddities. The list isn’t short, but the protagonist and the surprises raised it above.