@JadeOwl Where's your reaction? You always have great insight. So can't wait to read them.
Had a bit of things to do yesterday over the holiday.
I really liked the movie quite a lot (I need to see it again because I missed the the first few minutes because I got delayed by some construction that wasn't flagged on Waze).
I will add my voice to all those who say that it feels like a return to form, in that it seems more focused than other outings in the more recent phases. It tells its own story and can be understood and enjoyed as a standalone film, while at the same time, knowledge of what has happened in the other outings in the MCU enrich and expand the experience.
That is how a film or TV show in a cinematic universe should work!!! That is how the earlier,
better phases of the MCU used to work.
One salient example of this, is the fact that
they did not try to shoehorn in the multiverse aspect of the overarching MCU arc into the movie's plot and wisely left it for the post-credits scene.
The movie also greatly benefits from the acting skill and charisma pouring out of every pore from the cast and the great chemistry they have with each other. I can't think of anyone who did a bad job.
On that note, I'm not familiar with the source material with regards to Sentry, so I cannot comment as to the quality or lack thereof of the comic's adaptation. However, speaking as to
@Dragonlordxxxxx's opinion that Alexander Skarsgård would've been better fitted to play Sentry, going exclusively by the way the character was written for the film, I would disagree, in that this was a Clark Kent / Superman or Bruce Wayne / Batman situation. They needed to cast
Bob, not Sentry. I can see Skarsgård playing Sentry, but he would've been too old, too tall and too handsome to play
Bob convincingly.
As it is, they were kind of pushing it, because one of the few weaknesses I found in the film is that Pullman didn't quite sell the unstable loser aspect of Bob that would drive someone to volunteer for that kind of experimentation and already looked kind of too old for the character's backstory. I think the film would've benefited from at least one scene or flashback of pre-experiment Bob showing Pullman
before he received the MCU Muscle Upgrade Package©, or at least CGI'd him into a skinnier messier, look.
