Captain Marvel began screening for critics tonight. Reviews are embargoed, but social media reactions are allowed. It sounds like Marvel Studios has hit it out of the park yet again! Star Brie Larson is receiving a ton of early praise.
See critics’ first impressions below!
Critics share ‘Captain Marvel’ reactions: Brie Larson soars in latest win for Marvel Studios
17 comments
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LMAO
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This was a no-lose situation for D-ney. Add to that a cat for everyone that watches youtube and that spells instant hit. So sad we cant get an unbiased review of any Marvel movie. According to all, this is the best one yet. How can there be any room for improvement after the superior BP?
Is this the greatest film ever made? What can possibly be added praise wise to End Game??-
These are just initial reactions which are almost always over the top. Once the movie comes out it will get plenty of reviews both good and bad. There is always a few who don’t like any particular movie if that is what you want to read.
Marvel makes fun movies that people enjoy. It is not rocket science.
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honestly though it really does make you wonder. How does marvel have such consistent success? What are they doing that always guarantees quality? There has to be some other factor than just finding talented directors. James Wan is a talented director. And while Aquaman got okay reviews and was a fairly fun watch, the script was VERY lacking. Even Wonder Woman, despite its great reviews, had issues coherently communicating its message(r/movies absolutely hates that film for this reason it seems). Perhaps I answered my own question. It would seem DC needs better writers.
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My take has always been quite simple. Normally Hollywood only cares about the money. So when someone says ‘Hey if we add a little X we can make another $25 million’ the response is always ‘Do it’.
Marvel makes one kind of movie. And sure money is the goal and they don’t just ignore that. But I think fundamentally what they want to do is make good movies out of Marvel characters. They are not just some characters invented by a screenwriter. They are not just one more movie this year. Make fun movies that bring the characters to life with enough comic book accuracy to please fans but not too much to turn off the normal audience.
WB just wants to make a ton of money from their DC characters. Which means they try things that don’t work out because they are reaching for the magic $1 billion every single time;
Maybe the differences are small but in the end they are the difference between an unending stream of successful movies and a bunch of hit or miss ones.
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all companies want to make money. Its all about figuring out the best way to do that though. Its hard to pinpoint what “exactly” WBs problem has been lately. Imo it could quite possibly be their more artist driven approach which the studio is known for that leads to their inconsistency.Directors and writers are given so much creative control that it can either lead to problems like we saw with Snyder, or potentially massive success as seen with the Nolan trilogy. One day you will get a super wacky fantastical Aquaman movie and the next you might get a much more grounded Birds of Prey film. It all depends on who is making the movie and what their vision is. There seems to be no system in place that guarantees a baseline level of quality and now, a unified vision and continuous aesthetic for all of their films. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. I want creators to be unshackled and be able to execute their vision properly. WB just needs to hire better talent I think. I mean the guy who apparently did the initial script for Aquaman also did Venom. Admittedly I never saw that film but from everything I have heard,it would explain a lot. And Christina Hodson? I know she did Bumblebee, but prior to that she had done to two critically panned movies I believe. Not saying I have zero faith in her, but its like….why is WB hiring these people?
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The whole ‘director driven’ idea is frankly a load of crap. Pure Hollywood PR BS. The level of involvement of the studio in $100 million movies is extremely heavy. Marvel is at least honest about how involved they are.
If WB actually hired Directors and let them do their thing we would get movies that were at least interesting in some sort of fashion. But just take a look at Suicide Squad. WB hired a company that makes trailers to edit the freaking movie just because they made a trailer that people really liked.
WB produces movies in the traditional way. Marvel does not. You really don’t need to look any further to understand why one has done so well and the other so badly.
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nah I don’t think so. I am not sure how you can even say that tbh. The director driven approach is why we got the Nolan trilogy. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, it is also why we got BvS. Love or hate the movie, I would classify it as “interesting” tbh. Its certainly not what I would call generic at least. Even Suicide Squad. Despite the studio interference, there is still a lot of Ayer’s DNA in that film. Like the whole gansgta bling bling joker. The problem with Squad was that it got heavily reedited apparently after BvS was eviscerated by critics and WB allegedly went into ultra panic mode. But see, there are plenty of creative decisions in made in some of these films that I just don’t think you would see in an MCU movie. Like Superman killing Zod. Or Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Or killing off Superman in his second film. Or just the darker/more somber tone of BvS in general. These are all things that I just don’t see Kevin Feige allowing. Marvel has a formula and for the most part they stick to it. Even if some directors like Gunn or Taika Watiti have their own vision, they still have to abide by a general blueprint I feel. DC doesn’t really have a blueprint. Not anymore at least(and even then, it is hard to say if other directors were going to follow Snyder’s aesthetic and the sort of Nolan like tone or just do their own thing entirely). The movies are just going to be the product of whoever the creatives involved are I think.
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I can say it because it is true and always has been.
Directors earn a free hand via making financially successful movies and adding the extra gloss of critical acclaim. Nolan was given a free hand because WB had no idea what to do with Batman. Nolan had 3 solid movies. Profits. Critical acclaim. Multiple Oscar and other noms and some victories too.
That is a far different situation than how they manage a hot franchise. The studio is investing hundreds of millions and they are involved every step of the way. The worst things they do we hear about like SS. But they are responsible for far more movie badness that we don’t hear about.
What Marvel does is a working structure that makes sure the movies fit together and are always entertaining. They have not hit it out of the park every single time but they have done better and better. The big ones crack $1 billion and the smaller ones makes solid healthy profits.
Their structure is understandable. You can work with that. WB, like all normal movie studios, is highly over-reactive. They can, and do, decide to make radical changes to a project at any point. Often without the time to do things properly.
“BvS. Love or hate the movie, I would classify it as “interesting” tbh.”
No I would call it the most tragic waste of two of the most beloved SuperHeros of all time. It is beyond terrible. It is horrific. Not saying it does not have any moments or even any good parts at all. Overall it is just kinda a meh movie.
But who cares about that? It should have been the most * E P I C * movie in cinema history. Batman vs Superman? The title fight of the century! That fight has never been anything less than amazing in the comics. How could the movie fail so hard? This is fail in a way that the word fail just does not even begin to cover.
“… creative decisions in made in some of these films that I just don’t think you would see in an MCU movie. Like Superman killing Zod. Or Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Or killing off Superman in his second film. Or just the darker/more somber tone of BvS in general.”
You are very correct. Cause they are all bad ideas. Which you clearly disagree with but I know you know how many people agree with me.
Movies like those from the MCU and the DCCU are made to please people. To bring them into the theaters. When they fail at that they resort to talking about their artistic merit. But these are not art house films. They are thrill rides.
I love creative movies. If someone wants to make some weird take on somebody fine. But when it comes to the mainstream characters a little consistency is nice. The history deserves some respect. The idea that this consistency inhibits creativity is over-blown at best.
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im so confused. You just said BvS was “beyond terrible” and “horrific” but then right after that you said it had some good moments and was mostly just “meh”. Anyways, I never said I liked BvS. My feelings towards that film are irrelevant in the context of my argument. But when I said it was “interesting”, I didn’t mean in a good or bad way. So maybe that wasn’t the right word to use. Which is why I also said it was “not generic” which I thought would maybe be a better way to describe it. And no, good or bad, I don’t think the movie generic at all. It at least “tries” to be something more.
But you are saying a lot of things that I already know and/or stated before in previous comments. Im pretty sure I said that I felt one of the reasons DC lacks the consistency of Marvel is because of their director driven approach and lack of a unified vision. You seem to be misinterpreting my comments as applauding them for their decisions. When I made those examples about the things that I felt would not happen in a the MCU, I wasn’t defending those decisions, I was just making a point that those things happen because WB operates on a different system than Marvel Studios.
I also never said that these movies needed to be best picture nominees or something(though wouldn’t that be neat?). I am fully aware that these movies are meant to entertain mass amounts of people. Thats why they have big budgets and are considered blockbusters. That being said, once again on the opposite side of the spectrum, there are also many things in the Nolan films you wouldn’t see in an MCU movie I feel. And again, this is because of the more unorthodox and artist driven approach that WB has. You might get one thing or you might get another. And again I am not arguing that this is somehow a better method. Its totally up to personal preference, and personally, I do happen to prefer that the directors/writers of these films not have to be creatively shackled in any way because of the blueprint set by the rest of the universe. Thats not an excuse for bad decisions, but it can potentially allow for ,what I consider at least, to be more interesting and unique movies from both a storytelling and filmmaking standpoint. Not saying all the marvel movies are generic in these regards, but I haven’t seen any that gave me quite the same feeling that The Dark Knight or Logan or Days of Future Past(to name a few) did.
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I actually don’t think most Marvel movies are well written at all. The reason they get passes is because they’re almost always at the very least crowd pleasing. But I haven’t truly enjoyed a Marvel movie in years.
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well they seem to be good enough that most people don’t feel the need to claim that they are written poorly.
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They’re serviceable. Which is enough because most of them have the same tone/style. Like I said, they work because even if they aren’t particularly great they’re always mildly entertaining. Which is why most people don’t care. But most of the movies are forgotten. It’s not random that no one ever talks about more than half of them nowadays.
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so true, Marvel built an amazing Brand such that the general audience knows that if its a marvel movie, it well at a minimum be fun and entertaining even if they dont know anything else about the character. Disney 101, make entertaining movies and people will always come no matter the quality
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So in other words Aquaman has way more quality than Spiderman Homecoming? Ok.
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Yeah, it does.
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So this is one of those sophisticated movies only the critics like?