My rule these days is not to watch more than the first trailer for a given MCU movie, but I do sometimes watch Youtube on my TV and am therefore involuntarily subjected to the first five unskippable seconds of whatever trailer they care to throw at me. Friends, the marketing for this movie got real weird real fast. I caught footage from Endgame, and what appeared to be new (or unused) voice lines from Thanos implying a connection between this movie and his plan where none exists. I know you can't necessarily trust a trailer, but there's a difference between using a different take in the final film, vs. positioning your largely inessential fluff movie as being the end-all be-all lynchpin of destiny. Marvel seems to be getting kind of desperate in the face of the increased backlash against them, but this kind of deception's only going to work once, guys. Take a step back and really think about what you're doing here.
Anyway. The real draw here is the characters: Iman Vellani is irrepressibly adorable as Kamala and I enjoyed every bit with her and her almost equally adorable family. I think the main trio bounce off of each other well, and their growth into a team feels natural, as expedient as it is. I'm sure a longer cut of this movie exists that we will never see, and that's a shame: I would have liked to spend more time with these three and give their scenes some more room to breathe. Kamala getting to play Nick Fury at the end was wonderful.
The central conceit of the movie, that every use of the Marvels' powers swaps them in space, made for some fun and chaotic sequences but also seemed incredibly inconsistent in practice. Also, if it's the bangles which cause this effect, shouldn't it just be Kamala and Dar-Benn switching places? I don't quite understand how Carol and Monica got looped into it.
The villain didn't do much for me. Where is it written that every Kree Accuser must be dull as dishwater? Ronan left a proud legacy.
Real dick move for Carol to fly up into the stratosphere early on, knowing it would cause her to switch, without first making sure the other two can also fly. But that led to Fury's casual "Oh it's cool, it's just Carol" line upon the landing, which got a big laugh in my theater, so I'll allow it.
Tessa Thompson is always welcome on my screen, but her cameo felt oddly dry and perfunctory. It also raises some difficult questions: she shows up to take the Skrulls "somewhere safe." If that means Earth, the end of Secret Invasion already established it as being in planetwide open season on Skrulls. If it's not Earth, that means she's found someplace else that Skrulls can live... which renders the entire conflict in Secret Invasion void. Awkward!
I think it would have been hilarious if, when the final jump gate started sucking up the sun, it also brought out Ikaris' corpse.
Loved the S.A.B.E.R. escape sequence. "Attention all personnel. Please stop running and let the Flerkens eat you." (I've already forgotten what S.A.B.E.R. stands for but it was very clunky.)
When Monica woke up in the hospital bed I immediately thought "I bet she's in the X-Mansion," because I'm an ultra clever lad. This really is the year of Kelsey Grammer.
