Reviews

On the positive side: The Flash is an over-excited fanboy now, rather than being a pathetic crybaby. Jared Leto has moved up in my ranking of Jokers. Before seeing this, I wouldn't admit that he had played the Joker. Now, he's the worst Joker. And the biggest plus to this version of Justice League is that the story mostly makes sense.

As for the negatives, they are plentiful and powerful. Zack Snyder still seems to think he's a great creative storyteller, rather than being a poor man's Michael Bay. Because of this, he doesn't play to his strengths - action sequences. The action in the movie is a lot of fun, but barely 10% of the time was spent on action. Most of the time seems to be spent on interminably slow exposition, faux-artistic shots, and pointless conversation. But the aforementioned slow exposition has a partner in crime: some of the worst music ever recorded. And the worst part. It's 2021, why isn't this widescreen? Didn't the studio give Snyder an extra $70 million to make this release? And he couldn't make it widescreen?

In short, in general, it's mediocre. For an action movie, it has too little action and too many boring bits. For a superhero movie, it's pretty good. It's better than most of the MCU, but that's a pretty low bar. For a Director's Cut, it's pathetic.

1. With a plot directly lifted from Eric Banana's Hulk, Marvel actually manages to plagiarise from itself. 2. The writing is both lazy AND stupid. It was obvious who the antagonists would be from the first moments they appeared on screen. 3. The ending, where 'they will never know where you gave up for them"? Idiotic. she gave up a few imaginary friends. 4. (The only one I was surprised by) Paul Bettany, one of my favourite actors, really phoned it in for the first couple of episodes. He found his feet by episode 3, and Liz Olsen put in a solid performance all the way through. She didn't look like the 'young' heroine anymore though (for those who, like me, think of Scarlet Witch as the teenage, X-Men character.) 5. Kathryn Hahn. She was the biggest problem with the whole production. I'm not sure if she couldn't handle the acting task of switching her character's personality once she was found out, or if the director told her to stay acting campy the whole time, but she was unlikeable as Agnes (who was supposed to be the loveable best friend) and unthreatening (like an Adam west-Batman villain) as Agatha.

For an adaptation of a beloved cartoon, this misses the mark in almost every way, and for the dumbest of reasons. Completely removing the visual style of a school for magical fairies in another dimension because it's 'not realistic' is insane, especially when one of the cartoon voices was provided by Ariana Grande.

Instead of shopaholic tweens bound by the power of friendship, we have angsty late-teens (I think, they looked older though,) about half of whom were high on drugs at any given time, while the rest were having sex.

They also did away with everybody's favourite character Flora in favour of a token fat girl, Terra. Now, Terra was possibly the most compelling character in this show; however the facts remain. She's there for 'realism' (again, in a fantasy fairytale kingdom) as the DUFF.

People seem to have been complaining about the series 'whitewashing' the old cartoon. Honestly, I didn't notice that characters in the cartoon were supposed to be different ethnicities. They all seem to be fairly different in Fate though, unless you ascribe to the notion that 'white' is an ethnicity, in which case, I can't help you. I'm not sure anybody can.

I enjoyed the show well enough for what it was. As a fan of Winx Club, I was sorely disappointed.

While this was an ordinary action movie, it is (I think) the 21st outing for the MCU. If you like the MCU, you'll watch it. If you don't, you won't. But if you're on the fence, this probably won't encourage you toward the series.

Brie Larson was fine; maybe a touch wooden, but she was a military type, so that could have been stoicism (whatever you feelings on stupid statements she has made, she didn't bring the movie down.)

Sam Jackson was Sam Jackson - coolest BAMF in Hollywood. Being that the movie was set in the past, the visual effects of de-aging him were amazing. His plot twist that you've probably already heard about is probably the biggest disappointment of the movie. This is not a reflection on Sam, but lazy, inept writing. Don't get me wrong, by Hollywood standards the script was about average. But the character deserved better.

The backstory was a lot like Green Lantern, only it made less sense. For what it's worth, it's fairly true to the comic, but even for Marvel Comics, Captain Marvel has a weak story.

The villain/s? Garbage. I'd say what I really think, but I don't think that kind of language is allowed on IMDb. Without spoilers, I will say this - you will hate the villain. I know you are supposed to hate the villain, but you will have an extra reason to hate this one - this one make the movie less fun to watch.

We've been hearing about how feminist this movie is. I don't recall much issue being made of gender. I most definitely AM anti-feminist, I am an egalitarian. Ant this movie wasn't particularly feminist.

So in short: Weak lead character, weak script, weak plot, and a villain that brings the movie down. Average action sequences, some laughs. Amazing supporting character, fantastic special effects. A solidly ordinary movie.