Welcome to the first What the F@#K? Wednesday!  Now, don’t get concerned with that title because these posts are not going to be filled with cursing (I steer away from that these days.) or ranting (I don’t care to argue with people unless I’m being paid to do so.) nor anything inflammatory (I’m not writing to get attention any way I can.)  This is just going to be a day I can write about different topics which will cause some of you to wonder WTF is Bookwraiths doing.

This week I’m going to be writing about the upcoming release of the next Marvel Comics movie, Captain Marvel, and why I won’t be going to see it in theaters.  Something which would have shocked me, horrified me even just a few years ago, because I grew up a Marvel Zombie and have seen every MCU not only in theaters but on opening weekends. Yet after all these years I’ve grown tired of the MCU and its direction.

The word “direction” probably will make most people assume I’m speaking about Brie Larson and the swirling controversy around her statements about white men and so forth, but I’m not.  Sure, I’ve read them, heard people talk about them, but they have nothing to do with my decision, because the only reason I go to see movies is if they look interesting, and Captain Marvel just doesn’t.

Let me just go point by point, attempting to explain a few reasons why this film has not captured my interest.

One, I grew up reading Marvel comics primarily in the late 1970s through the mid 1990s.  During those years there was another Captain Marvel; Monica Rambeau.  This woman carried the mantle for years, fighting alongside the Avengers and leading them at one point.  And, no, she wasn’t in any way connected to Mar-Vell of the Kree, but she was a very powerful character in her own right.  So this is my Captain Marvel, which means I’m not really interested in seeing her replaced by another  version.

Two, I don’t really like cosmic films in the MCU.  Sure, I enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy, but that was due to the humor, group camaraderie, and the music.  All the aliens, spaceships, and cosmic stuff bored me to tears.  That is probably why I enjoyed Guardians Vol. 2 less than I did the first, since it focused so much on the cosmic aspects, and it is probably why when I heard Captain Marvel was going to be a “Cosmic Marvel” film I yawned.

Three, I’ve grown bored with the formula for Marvel films in the last year or so.  Ant-man and the Wasp the latest example and probably my least favorite MCU film, rating below even The Incredible Hulk and Doctor Strange, because it was a damn carbon copy of every other MCU movie I’ve seen in the last ten years.  I say this to make clear I’m pretty much tired of the same old same old from Marvel, and from early reviews Captain Marvel is serving up the tried-and-true MCU kool-aid again.

Four, this ret-conning of MCU history.  Sure, the writers might find a way to wedge Captain Marvel into the MCU timeline, explain where she has been, and why Nick Fury never felt a need to summon her during previous world cataclysmic events, but why go to all this trouble.  The MCU has been developed over a decade, seamlessly meshes together, and isn’t riddled with alternate timelines, mirror dimensions, and other strange idiosyncracies which will not work with generic moviegoers. This whole rewriting of MCU history is just annoying as crap.

Five, I’m tired of Nick Fury.  Listen, I’ve always liked this character, enjoyed his cameos, and I can understand why Marvel thought adding a young Nick in as a buddy cop angle might help this standard origin film.  Problem is I don’t care to know any more about Nick Fury.  Part of this guy’s gravitas and mystique has always been not knowing everything about him, so why Marvel wants to ruin that I don’t understand.

Six, I hate to say it, but I view Captain Marvel as the ex deus machina Marvel has pulled out of their proverbial butts to fix the delicate situation Avengers: Infinity War has put them in.  Honestly, we have half of the MCU along with half the universe obliterated with a snap of Thanos’ golden hand, and now this mess has to be fixed in some coherent way to allow the MCU to move forward in a bold new direction.  The problem being I’m afraid Cap Marvel is just being set up to be this overpowered demigod who fixes things, which will be boring.

Seven, I don’t like the soundtrack for this film at all.  I know, I know, the soundtrack isn’t even out yet, but I’m already dismissing it out of hand, but hear me out here.  The simple fact is I really don’t like 90s music.  Didn’t like it then, don’t like it now.  Honestly, I struggled during the 90s to find any bands I enjoyed listening to, and the ones I did follow back then I don’t really like much now.  So the idea of 90s music in the film horrifies me.

Eight, I’m not much for nostalgia.  Simply put, I lived through the last several decades and don’t feel a need to watch a documentary or film devoted to them.  So when I’ve noticed that Captain Marvel tries to play up the 90s nostalgia angle, it has turned me off, since I lived through the 90s.  Sure, I guess they were good in a lot of ways, but they were not perfect by any measure, so I really can’t see what Disney is selling here.

Nine, Captain Marvel‘s trailers have not been very exciting for me personally and have not compared very favorably with another superhero film soon to be released; that film being Shazam, the original Captain Marvel.  No, I haven’t gotten a special showing of the next DCEU film, but it looks extremely funny and lots of fun from the trailers; it’s light-hearted laughs a lot more appealing to me than the rather bland MCU Captain Marvel.

Ten, Captain Marvel has a tough act to follow in the superhero department.  Many might believe I’m referring to Avengers: Infinity War or Ant-Man and the Wasp here, but I am actually speaking about James Wan’s  Aquaman.  This was not only a very good origin story, visually stunning, filled with loads of fighting and more than a few laughs, but it also had some solid performances by Jason Momoa (who made Aquaman cool somehow) and Patrick Wilson (who was a smooth, complex villain whom you hated but also understood).

Anyway, I’ll be eager to read what my friends all have to say about this film, and I do wonder if any of my concerns are felt by anyone else.  I’ll definitely watch Captain Marvel once it hits Netflix or my local Redbox, but I just am not excited enough about this story to shell out $50.00 -100.00 for me and my sons to take this in at a weekend matinee.