Shoulda been better

Rating: 1/10 (29 September 2019)

One day I'm gonna look back, and wonder just how did this movie make a billion $$ at the box office. Sure, I can speculate and even write a thesis on that, but for the life of me, I am just baffled that this rotten egg from the MCU sold that many tickets. But that's the power of marketing. Now on to the meat - why do I think it's bad?
First of all, let me say that I wanted CM to be good; I was sincerely looking forward to a female MCU protagonist, who'd be kickin Thanos' infinity laden into err.. infinity. Especially after DC's well-made Wonder Woman. And this was also after watching the wonderful but criminally under-appreciated Alita:Battle Angel. So I wanted a CM that was right up there with these other movies that had great female leads.
Instead, we get
1. A poor script. Was it deliberate, so muh so that an Oscar-winning actress ends up giving a wooden performance? She plays tough, giving one-liners reminiscent of Dirty Harry; BUT - where was the emotive connection to Brie's CM? All we got instead was a cocky, tough talking lead. I don't even recall the comic/cartoon CM being like that. Even so, look at how RDJ's Tony Stark comes off as cocky, but still makes you care about his Iron Man. Not so with this CM. As a result, Brie the Oscar-winner stayed at home, and Brie-the-let's play-it-by-numbers showed up.
2. The actions scenes were dull. After the high of Infinity Wars, you'd thought that the directors would have made better use of CGI and camera-work; I doubt budget would have been a constraint! Instead, the actions scenes, especially the finale, are shown at close range, so much so I can hardly make out what's happening. Plus, it must be the worst idea, in a year filled with some, to have No Doubt's Just A Girl play at the background of a fight scene. Come on MCU, do you have to be so-in-your-face with your feminist msg?
3. Editing was poor. Eg, the scene at the bar wt Fury.
4. The rest of the actors looked like they were just going through the motions; when you have the range of Law, Jackson, Mendelsohn on your roster, but your script ends up giving them parts that coulda been executed by any thespian from Hallmark channel, then you wonder - why?
With Endgame, Disney completed the first cycle of storytelling of the MCU. There were hits + misses, but for the most part, audiences had both heroes and villains that they equally cared about, and that explains the enormous success of the first run.
With CM, I think what James Cameron predicted would happen - superhero fatigue would set in.