Jack of Harts

I watched a new movie this weekend and liked it over all. Of course, as a lifetime DC fan, I did go in wearing my Captain Marvel (the original one that says Shazam) T-shirt and my Green Lantern baseball jersey in honor of the blue aliens that give people superpowers. Yes, I do have a little troll in me. 😉

The long and the short is…it was fun. I liked it. And I loved seeing all the old school stuff like…Blockbluster…and a telephone booth. Yes, the titular character did suffer from a serious case of “resting bored face,” but Agent Fury saved it from being a dry movie with Jackson’s famous wit. Which gave the hero of the hour chances to retire her bored face at certain strategic times that worked well. No, she’ll never be mistaken for Captain Marvel, the Big Red Cheese, but I did pick up at least three expressions from her during the movie. Which is better than the previews led me to expect. And the story is perfectly serviceable with twists that I honestly did not see coming.

But in the end the movie actually felt derivative to me. I’ve never read much Marvel comics, so the MCU has always been fresh and new to me. Every movie has been without preconception to me as I’ve learned who these people are and I love that.

But when they got into the “Superman/Captain Marvel/Green Lantern cuts loose” part of the movie, complete with Christ-like action pose as enemies and friends alike look on with awe and wonder, I got a serious case of “been there, done that.” Now I don’t mind derivative. I’ve watched all of the Superman movies and shows. Everything Green Lantern I can find. Captain Marvel stuff that is twenty years older than the Marvel Comics that now controls the name. I don’t mind derivate.

But it’s not something I’ve seen in an MCU movie before. And it’s rather strange to be watching an MCU movie and thinking that I’ve seen this before, in a DC movie, and it was better over there. It’s not a bad movie. It’s not the best or worst movie I’ve seen. It’s not the worst of the MCU movies. And it’s not the best of the MCU movies.

In really short, it crossed my threshold of entertained, but not my threshold of awesome. I give it one Shazam, shouted to the heavens. Oh…wait…