This was the first Marvel movie where I actually thought about leaving the cinema. It was 2h37 and it felt every minute like it.
(No time to die was about that runtime too, but al least there was some spectacle on the screen there, even if it was only to
deconstruct demolish the 007 franchise).
Long, tedious, boring, with talk scenes that were either repetitive or so cliché I actually yawned, and when there was a fight scene it felt like any other cgi fight of the past decade.
And you have Rob Stark and Jonn Snow both wooing a woman named Cersi. I shit you not.
I'm a fan of Salma Hayek, but here her talent was wasted. And Jolie... was in there too somewhere.
The rest of the cast were a bunch of (to me) lesser known 'stars' that recite their bland lines
(Ma Dong-seok was good in Train to Busan but I don't know him from anything else;
Kumail Nanjiani I don't know; his character was always halfway between entertaining and then again failed jokes (and Karun is a weak copy of Happy);
Lia McHugh is young, so I'm going to cut her some slack, but again her performance felt forced:
Barry Keoghan specialises in not-emoting; I completely forgot he was in Dunkirk, disliked him in Green Knight, and found he was good but still the weakest actor in Chernobyl);
Lauren Ridloff is deaf so she gets to play a deaf character; we can't have actors playing against type or representing minorities they're not really part of; until the final part I even forgot she was in the intro;
Gemma Chan I should know from other roles she played, but here I didn't feel she was the right actress to play the lead role;
and Brian Tyree Henry also disappears from the movie after the first act, only to return for the finale; not sure if he represents a minority he's part of in real life).
According to some YouTube commenters this is a deep, meaningful movie with lots of symbolism, so I'm probably a rube who doesn't get it. Or just maybe those edgy artist should try and do their own thing and keep it out of our action blockbusters.
Ok, on a positive note,
some of the visuals were impressive (Arishem rising). But the rest looked like an enhanced level from Prince of Persia or taken from Gods of Egypt or any other Marvel City Mayhem movie.
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Also, to get rid of the bad taste, I just watched Free Fire
And though it has Brie Larson in it, and though it was just a 90 minute shoot'em-up in one location, I enjoyed it very much.