More Bad News for Brie Larson
The Marvels had a summer release date of 28 July this year.
It just got shoved back to a November 10 launch. It’s not quite as bad as the January graveyard but that said, it sure as hell ain’t a summer slot either.
There were rumors it was testing badly, I think we can now assume they more than rumors.
Captain Marvel has been a major and self-awarded headache for Kevin Feige.
Feige’s ego got in the way of harsh reality about the time that Robert Downey made it known he was done playing the flying tin man. Feige had pushed through a genuine mega-hit with Black Panther against the wishes of his former boss.
It appears that he came to the comfortable conclusion that it was his Marvel Method combined with a heavy dose of lefty politics that delivered the results. Rather than heavy repeat business from black men who had been starved for a positive father figure movie for decades.
Nonetheless, Feige was clearly convinced that he had the magic touch and could simply order a character to be popular. In this case Captain Marvel.
I’m honestly not sure how much money it actually made. Interest was at fever pitch when it was released, however, there were reports of sold out but largely empty theaters during the first week. Indicating that Disney had “fortified” the first week’s box office when the studio gets 90% of the theater revenue (so there isn’t much of a loss anyway). “Fortifying” Captain Marvel could even have been viewed as a necessary marketing expense in support of Infinity War. The last thing Marvel needed was a ding on their perfect reputation right before their apex movie was launched.
The fundamental problem was the actress he had hired Brie Larson was coming off an Oscar win for best actress in The Room. Which made her an understandable hire, but she turned out to be a problematic fit.
Larson had been a child actress raised in Hollywood by a stage mother from age six. She was home schooled during her childhood. Homeschooling can be a very positive thing if you are raising a child to be a Christian. Homeschooling one to enable a career as a child actress is borderline child abuse. Socialization becomes a major problem, Brie’s most malignant personality traits could have been mitigated by normal childhood bullying, but weren’t. Larson’s social skills are so notoriously bad I suspect she might be on the spectrum. Being trained from childhood as an actress helped her spread a patina of normality over-herself but only if she has a script.
Sadly, she comes across as such a spoiled adult it is difficult to care.
Marvel Studios worked out pretty early they had a problem child with Larson and was clearly sourcing a replacement with Monica Rambeau. But then they struck gold with Iman Villeni. This is what I wrote about her when Ms. Marvel was on Disney +.
“If Bree Larson had put half the effort into being as likable Vellani has, I would have been making excuses for her performance in Captain Marvel. Vellani probably is the only genuine Ms. Marvel fan in all existence. Her story about how she made a Ms. Marvel costume for Halloween and then had to buy a Ms. Marvel comic as part of that costume, (because everyone thought she was the Flash), was adorable. She loves, loves, loves Ms. Marvel. Vellani has no other acting credit other than Kamala Khan. She sent in a video and everyone at Marvel Films fell in love with her. She has her dream job, and it shows. Which is why I can’t help but feel bad for her.
Young Ms. Vellani’s pleasant personality doesn’t make up for the fact that Ms. Marvel is utterly unwatchable.”
And Marvel has pushed out all of the men that made it a box-office juggernaut. Joe Johnston, Kenneth Branagh, Jon Faverau, even the detestable Joss Whedon. Feige has decided he doesn’t need them, it was his Marvel Method that delivered the string of billion dollar hits. These days he just hires a director with a light resume and let him film “the boring stuff” while Marvel’s action and effects units grind out cinematic superhero sausage. The movies no longer have any kind of guiding creative vision. They are just uniform products and they are products with a heavy political message. As a result they are slowly dying.
Or possibly not slowly, we’ll know by the end of this weekend.
