Oh please. Well-intented. She was just being your typical "progressive" celebrity who thinks kittening on "the white man" would get her brownie points. If there wasn't a backlash, she would have never tried to clarify her comments. Brie Larson's portrayal is so poor and they want her to be the new focus of the MCU.
BA Alita was infinitely better than Captain Marvel was. So was Shazam. You don't seem to understand that it had a lot of crutches. Captain Marvel had Disney marketing. The weekend it opened, many theaters were only showing that. So normal people who don't follow the news and go to see movies weekly really had no choices. (My local theater that I always frequent included only showed it the entire first weekend.) It was marketed as a MUST SEE to Endgame, but in reality you don't need to see it to know what's going on in Endgame at all so that was false advertisement. Once people realized they were being fooled, it saw a huge dip in sales the second week. There are pictures of sold out theaters with no one in them either. On top of the fact that Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel is one of the most poorly written characters in the comics. She was way better as Miss Marvel and Warbird. TLJ was crap as well and it made money. You don't seem to understand that no matter what, these big properties are gonna make money because they have name recognition behind them.
Shazam was okay. I personally would take Captain Marvel over that one, as she was snarkier and the plot actually had a nice twist going in. Billy Baston got kind of annoying after a while and the final battle was a little bit too goofy for me, even if it did have proper context. But that's just my opinion.
But this is my point. It's one thing to not like Captain Marvel or Brie Larson. It's another entirely to keep obsessing over the movie or her months after the fact, over some dumb comment she made and act like she raped a box of kittens
All because she wanted more diversity in critics. Yes, maybe she could have worded it better. MAYBE she only said it for some kind of woke points, but it's not like we never had celebrities say controversial stuff before, and none of us are mind readers. Heck, I can understand to some degree what she meant. I'm a white dude, but I probably wouldn't be the best person to give an opinion on say a Madea movie. It's not my thing. If I watched one I'd feel comfortable expressing my opinion on it, good or bad, but I wouldn't blame someone if they took it with a grain of salt, because I'm not the target audience.
While you're not wrong about the film getting a boost from Endgame, the notroversy surrounding the film also probably gave it a boost. A lot of people commented on how they were originally going to skip Captain Marvel, but because so many youtubers behaved like the SJWs they claim to hate over it, they decided to buy tickets just to piss them off. I doubt the quality of Carol Danvers' current comics have anything to do with its success or failure either, because if they did, Guardians of the Galaxy should have been a big time flop. NO ONE heard of these characters, but because they had the Marvel name, they became a huge hit. Same thing here: hard-core comics' fans may have a bone or two to pick with the character in the current canon, but general movie goers don't care.
But most importantly, Marvel doesn't make strict adaptations. All their movies are LOOSELY based on the comics, and many things are altered. When the Civil War story came out, everyone hated it. But the Civil War movie is very well-received. As a friend of mine said, at this point Marvel has to make a film of Disaster Movie quality to really start to lose its consumers. And making a film that bad is almost a talent in of itself
......you do know there were empty theaters at captain marvel and disney actually bought out alot of the tickets to make sure it would do well right?
not only that, they changed the way rotten tomatoes does reviews then spammed positive reviews and rigged it in their favor, so all the real reviewers moved to metacritic.
Of course there were some empty theatres at Captain Marvel. Not every showing is going to be filled up; that's just how movies roll. Especially if the photos were taken, say, late at night or in small towns.
But there were plenty of showings that were packed, including mine. I honestly didn't expect it to be so, because I went in on a Tuesday afternoon. I'd figure everyone else was at work or in school. But there was a big line for the movie, including a whole class of kids, and most everyone enjoyed the movie.
However, of all the claims made, Disney buying tickets to inflate the box office is THE DUMBEST ONE EVER. No company does that! It's not even a Zero-sum game, as they don't get 100% of the ticket sales profits. If Disney was buying tickets to boost the numbers, they have lost TONS of money for nothing! Disney has made bombs before (A Wrinkle in Time and The Lone Ranger), but didn't lift a finger to "save" them. If a studio makes a flop, they're not going to spend money beyond advertising to save it, and the execs usually get a free screening to begin with. They're not going to spend money actually buying tickets to a movie they already own and saw.
Except for Solo, but that seems to illustrate a point here. TLJ did great at the beginning due to the hype from TFA, but the negative word of mouth caused there to be fewer repeat viewings and a $700 million dollar frop from that movie. People in the industry generally hold it to have underperformed at the box office, combined with a drop in video and merch sales. Solo then lost Star Wars money in theaters.
Captain Marvel isn't going to instantly kill the MCU. Endgame is going off of Infinity Wars' hype, not Captain Marvel's. BUT considering the reaction to her movie ranges from "it's okay" to "it's bad," makes her status as the new face of the franchise questionable and people do point out how inconsequential she was in Endgame. Heck, the rumors of there being two cuts of the movie based on CM's reception could very well be true here.
BUT if people lose faith in the brand, then it's over. Just look at Naruto. TLJ shook audiences, and people are noticeably less hyped for episode 9. One bad film isn't going to kill the MCU, but if they release more movies in line with CM there could be a noticeable drop in sales. And of course, people could just be done with the MCU after Endgame, seeing it as the final chapter and any further movies would be a step down. Parodies, such as Airplane! and Blazing Saddles, have also ended genres by having it so audiences couldn't take them seriously anymore. Only time will tell what happens with Marvel.
It's also worth noting one film critic has said that sometimes they have to give softball reviews to maintain access with regards to CM, and at least one film director has said the same thing about (and that most of Hollywood secretly hates) TLJ.
The main reason why Solo bombed was because it was sandwiched between Infinity War and Deadpool 2, both eagerly anticipated movies. I imagine having an actor who's not Harrison Ford also was a factor. It still means that the movies with Rey made more money than Solo, so that is what Disney is going to go with in the near future. The Last Jedi may not have pleased everyone, but it is in no way a bomb. The Transformers movies are kitten, but they make them because they make money. The prequels divided fans as well back in the day, but they were made to completion, GL not giving a damn what the naysayers said.
I seriously doubt there are two cuts to Endgame. Marvel had been working on it for over two years (Infinity War and Endgame were shot simultaneously), and moved the release date UP by a month. The movie was intended to be a sendoff for the original Avengers from the start, not CM2. If CM was received that badly, there would have been no time to change the movie so drastically. Again, judging by the BO, if anything Disney would have demanded MORE CM. But again, not enough time to make it so. What we got was what was intended from the get-go. At BEST, maybe we will see a few interesting deleted scenes from the movie. I know one actress was cut from the movie (I forgot her name).
As for how Captain Marvel will affect the MCU going forward, anyone's guess. Marvel typically doesn't like to repeat itself, so the sequel is going to be very different if this trend continues, and they often look for ways to reinvent their characters. If for any reason the sequel under performs, Marvel has tons of characters to profit off of and it just means they'll try Danvers one last time with a different formula before another Team-Up movie where different characters will attract different audiences.
Seriously, the movie was okay at worst, and I found it pretty good. Not the MCU's best, but it's still worth checking out. There is absolutely NOTHING controversial about it. It's a standard superhero/sci-fi movie, and you're either on board with it or you're not. That's all there is to it. If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose between Captain Marvel and any other movie, I'd say a solid 6 out of 10 times I'd pick CM.
