Now hold on a minute, I have my reasons.
1) I have to admit, the Brie Larson backlash has gotten to me. I take backlash against famous women with a grain of salt, but enough of what I've read about how difficult Larson is to be around has seeped through the first few layers. It sounds like she takes playful bantering with co-stars in interviews and makes it overly competitive and a little distasteful. It sounds like she let playing such a powerful character go to her head, and she felt like she was the character. It sounds like maybe winning an Oscar also went to her head. Is this fair? I doubt it. Has it created a real wariness in me? It has.
2) I didn't get to finish the Ms. Marvel series on Disney+ because my kids didn't like it. I think we watched two episodes, both of which my wife and I liked. My kids couldn't care less. And it's not that they are anti-Marvel, though I haven't seen them clamoring to watch any of the recent movies. We're watching Loki and they like it, probably more than I do this season. They just didn't go for it. I feel like it would be ideal to have the connective tissue from that series when coming into this movie.
3) Marvel fatigue. It's real, even for (especially for?) a guy who has seen all the movies. The third Ant-Man stinks and I was ultimately mildly disappointed by the final Guardians of the Galaxy. There's nothing that states I have to be a Marvel completist, especially when it's getting to the point where their first 40 movies are already planned out.
However, I should mention the pros:
1) The movie is only 105 minutes long. If I'm correctly remembering what I read somewhere, that makes it either the second or third shortest Marvel movie. And it's about half the length of Avengers: Endgame. (Then again, that was one of my favorite Marvel movies.)
2) My favorite use of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury was in the first Captain Marvel movie, Captain Marvel. He's seemed like a bit of an add-on in the other movies, but he felt fully integrated in that movie and was funny as hell.
I think the real issue is that I feel compelled to watch it because of a perceived interest by my readership. Not this readership, but the ReelGood readership. I have of course missed reviewing my fair share of tentpole movies in the nearly four years I have been running this site, but each time I do, I feel like it erodes the site's credibility just a little bit. Is that fair? I doubt it. Has it created a real wariness in me? It has.
More than anything it creates a tangentially related crisis, which is that I don't know what my readership really wants. Theoretically this is an Australian review site, meaning that at least some heed should be paid to films of Australian origin. Also, the site was started with a real indie sensibility, pitched to readers with the same aesthetic values.
Do those readers care about -- checking the actual number now -- the 33rd Marvel movie?
Maybe I just won't see it and find out.
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