I like Marvel. I’ve always enjoyed the way they were able to create iconic comics that made me feel like I was feasting on a story with real implications. I read though Secret Wars and all sorts of Crisis by other names. I love the arcs. I love so many of the characters. I also recognize that the translation to the screen has been rough and often difficult for a very key reason: It is hard to please fans who are already so intimate with a character that they have great expectations of what is going to unfold on screen. This is why the phase one formula targeted B-characters. Cap, Iron Man, Thor… all of these guys were behind the core stories of Spiderman, Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, etc. So while we had expectations they were much lower than we would’ve had the start of the new MCU been wrapped around Parker, Logan, and the X-men. This is all preamble to what I suspect is going on with the newest phase of the MCU. They ‘re ending this phase with Cap and starting new with the FF. This is them saying we are ready to hit the big stories now.
You should’ve remembered how to get the little one’s right first.
Brave New World is all about wrapping up loose ends. You get the sequel to the Incredible Hulk film. You get to close the loop on the Thunderbolt Arc by showing us his full rise to the top and… no spoilers here though. You get introduced to a next arc villain in the Serpent Society (maybe… they aren’t really big enough for Secret Wars level stuff). What you don’t get is a good film.
I’m sorry. I like the director. I’d like to go back and watch the Cloverfield Paradox again–it was super interesting (if almost entirely unrelated to the series). I like what he was trying to do, even if it felt like rehashed material from Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It just didn’t do enough for me to feel like the blockbuster I expected. Narratively, there was ZERO arc for Cap. Same applies to side characters like Sabra (who may or may not be a mutant in the MCU). It felt like a gigantic setup for the introduction of Adamantium and tying up the pesky loose end of a dead celestial in the middle of the ocean. Of course, how the frack do they know it is a celestial or even what that is? Did Cap Marvel tell people? Did Starlord?
Sigh. That’s the emotion that followed the ending. I left the theater alongside a crowd of silent people. That in of itself is a review.