The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
The Marvels Unpacked: An Honest Discussion on Marvel's Latest Movie
Welcome to our latest episode where we dive into the bold and borderline bizarre realm of 'The Marvels'. We dissect the good, the bad, and the confusing aspects of this latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry. From exploring the undeniably unique plotline to discussing the engaging action scenes, we offer a fresh perspective you won't find anywhere else. If you've watched Ms. Marvel, WandaVision, and Captain Marvel, you're in for a treat!
Ever been intrigued by the power of film critics? As movie enthusiasts, we've noticed their influence can either make or shatter a movie's reputation. We take a closer look at this phenomenon, examining how reviews shape audience perception. We also ponder why movie-goers sometimes seem reluctant to admit when a movie exceeds their expectations. This part of the conversation might make you view your next film critique a little differently.
We wrap things up with a bit of a teaser for the Hunger Games fans out there - a sneak peek into the upcoming prequel, The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes. Plus, we have a special message for Brie Larson - Marvel enthusiasts, you won't want to miss this! Join us in this exciting exploration of the silver screen's superhero sphere and beyond.
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough. Together, fun will be had by all. This is Nadie and Katie at the Movies. Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand new episode of Nadie and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, nathan, aka Nadie, of course, and with me is my good friend Katie. Hi, katie, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm good. How many episodes do I have to actually be on with you to earn back my good good friend, katie Satis? I know I lost it, since I skipped an episode or two.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, you have to be on enough for you to earn the fact that your name is in the title of the show.
Speaker 2:That's fair. Well, you know what? I did my due diligence this week and I watched a movie I didn't necessarily want to, which is the Marvels the.
Speaker 1:Marvels. That's right, it's the newest entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I believe it's the 33rd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apparently it's the most expensive one and it's also the biggest bomb in the box office ever, and we'll talk more about that.
Speaker 1:But before, as always, I got to go over the synipsis. Carol Danvers gets her powers entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Monaco Rambo, forcing them to work together to save the universe. The Marvel stars Brie Larson, samuel L Jackson and Zoe Ashton, and some other people that we'll probably talk about. So, like we said before, the Marvels is the 33rd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You probably do need to go back and watch Miss Marvel, wandavision, and I guess if you want to go back and watch Captain Marvel, you can, just to understand who these characters are and where they're coming from. Have you watched Miss Marvel and WandaVision?
Speaker 2:I have done all the homework, actually. I've seen Captain Marvel, I saw WandaVision and in preparation for this movie, I went on Disney Plus and I actually watched every episode from Miss Marvel on Disney Plus when it first came out. I have to be totally honest, the Miss Marvel thing did not capture my attention. The initial trailer I saw and I'm just being completely blunt here it felt like one of the things we talk about, like box checking. It felt very like woke, like okay, we're going to go out of our way to highlight certain things. But then I watched the show and her character, Kamala, is so endearing, her family is so endearing.
Speaker 2:I love the culture integration. It was very much like the Wakanda movie, like the Blue Beetle movie, where you're getting to see a snapshot and I'm sure I would only assume people in the Pakistani or even in the Indian community would be like, oh my gosh, this connects for me. So I really again, that's not, that's unique, that's not something we have seen yet. We haven't seen much of that culture at all in any movie and I think Indian culture is so beautiful. So I loved the TV show and then I found myself being more excited when I went and saw it.
Speaker 2:But to go back to your initial question, and for anyone listening, I don't know how they would expect you to understand this movie without the homework and I think that's one big critique that many people have said. Is this one you're really? I mean, they try to do a little recap at the beginning to catch you up, but you've got to watch Miss Marvel. I think, and you probably actually, miss Marvel might be the most important one out of the three to see, because her whole family is A big part of the movie.
Speaker 1:I would agree and you probably should watch Wanda vision Just to understand the whole powers of Monica Rambo and who she is. I mean, they don't really dive too much into what she went through in the show, but just to understand who she is you should probably go back and watch Wanda vision you could probably get away with the last episode if you wanted, but You're right that it does.
Speaker 2:There's a relationship she has with Carol Danvers and so I do think you, by watching one division, could fully understand that, and, ironically, you could probably of the three, skipsy and Captain Marvel, which is hilarious because it's kind of a part two for her. But let's go into that. I almost want to start with critiques, because I have more of them than positive.
Speaker 1:Shockingly, I don't have that many dislikes. I Went through my notes Before we started recording. I actually have a lot more likes than dislikes, so let's just bomb it right now.
Speaker 2:Get it out there.
Speaker 1:Bring it back out of the rubble after we, you know, demolish it with there. I feel like that's fair.
Speaker 2:Well, and to be very clear, I Really trying to give my perspective and not what I've researched, because if you go anywhere online On YouTube and critics, everyone's bought like trashing this movie. I had to go out of my way to try to find a video that was saying kind things about the movie. In fact I was like even Looking up interviews because I'm like, well, maybe at least the cast has my and that was few and far between because of the actress strike. So my negatives I'm trying to keep to be personal. Probably my biggest negative was Captain Marvel Herself.
Speaker 2:I just still cannot get on board with Brie Larson as Captain Marvel. I that's a, not a knock on her acting and as a whole she doesn't do it. For me she was the most awkward part of the movie. Every line she delivers is weird. I Didn't understand. I didn't see her character arc. There's this whole side Like thing they mentioned, where she destroys a whole planet, basically and like ruins their planet, and they talk about it in a way that's like, did I miss a movie? Was there supposed to be a movie in between here? I didn't see and I'm like yeah, cuz no one would have wanted to watch it. That that's probably one of my biggest.
Speaker 2:Biggest critiques is her. My other one, just being there, was the women thing. As a woman, I like the concept, but when you try to do a female empowerment movie, you know All three characters are women. They don't need a man. The villains Obviously a woman. If you were to do one of these and you let me pick which women from the MCU I wanted, this was not this team. This was not the lineup. I think that's my other larger critique is team of women. I'm all about it, love it.
Speaker 2:I love the Valkyrie girl. I loved Scarlett Johansson's character. I even liked Scarlet Witch, kind of before one division. All those ladies, great, do a movie, even the girl, the little archer girl hey, bishop, I even liked her more and so like I would have taken any of them. I don't need Captain Rambo. I like her acting, but like her characters is dumb. And then Captain Marvel's characters dumb. So that's one out of three for me. I in terms of the main characters. That's my main critique. So there's plenty of others people complaining. Do you remember what were some of the other big ones you've heard?
Speaker 1:I think the biggest one. People are gonna make a big deal about it being female lead and not understanding why they feel the need to do that. I personally don't think it's that big of a deal. I can't believe you and I are probably gonna disagree on probably a bunch of stuff with this movie, which is crazy, because we both hated the first Captain Marvel movie because mainly Brie Larson as the character of Captain Marvel. I'm gonna come to the rescue of Brie Larson, surprisingly, and say that I actually enjoyed her more in this one and I think it was because it wasn't just her by herself.
Speaker 2:I don't you enjoyed it more because you didn't have her talking, isn't it which?
Speaker 1:I actually enjoyed her performance a little bit more than I did in Captain Marvel and I think it was because, like I said, it wasn't just her carrying the movie by herself. I think having the two other Marvel characters excuse the pun, marvel anyway I think that actually helped bring up her character more. What were their moments that I still was like, okay, she's pretty bad. Yes, of course, because I just like you. I don't like her as the character, but for some reason the fact that this was a three-person movie, I think, helped me be okay with her performance a little bit more and because of some of the things that happened in this movie.
Speaker 1:So, before I go any further on this, one of the few dislikes I have is the villain was weak sauce. I mean, marvel is just having a really hard time after Thanos, coming up with really good villains. I even liked Ultron in Age of Ultron A lot of people didn't. But after the Infinity Saga, all these villains are just lame and they're still trying to do the Thanos thing by giving them a quote, unquote good reason for them to be bad. And it's not the actress's fault, it's just the fact that the villains lame and that was my biggest dislike. I didn't care about the villain. I cared about the other parts of the movie, but I just didn't care about the villain. Another lame part was the whole Monica Rambo Captain Marvel, you needed to be there for us kind of being selfish with the fact that she was literally going off saving people and she was mad because she wasn't there when her mom had cancer. I thought that was lame.
Speaker 2:I feel like their whole dynamic fell flat for me, like the connection you know because one, it's awkward because Captain Marvel doesn't change age, so she's technically Rambo's aunt, even though she acts almost more immature and childish than Captain Rambo. So like it's hard for your brain to be like, oh, but she's her aunt, any part. They tried to get a little emotional, they tried to have some flashback scenes and like tension at the beginning of the movie of like I'm mad at you. Like all of that was just totally fell flat for me.
Speaker 1:I thought it was unnecessary to have those little moments because, especially for people like you and I, who already don't care about this character of Captain Marvel, there's no way you can create a storyline that's gonna make me care more about this relationship. I feel like they could have just left that out of the movie, but they didn't, so it's there. But I also think they did that because you have Miss Marvel, who's like idolizes Captain Marvel, and then you have this other person in Captain Marvel's life that used to idolize her but now she's super mad at her because she went off and saved the world. How dare she. Those are my major dislikes.
Speaker 1:Let's get to our likes, because I think this movie obviously we already know is not doing well in the box office whatsoever. It's Marvel's biggest bomb of all time and I don't know if all of it's justified, because I stated before, I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought it was going to. I went in with very low expectations because of how I felt about Captain Marvel, which I believe was one of our first one out of six whatever's we've ever given to a movie. So I think we should go into our likes to you know, to help this movie out a little bit. So one of my first likes in this movie was the action.
Speaker 1:I think they bumped up the action a lot more than they did in Captain Marvel. My favorite one was one of the first fight scenes when they first realized that they're switching with each other and they do this epic fight scene where every now and then they switch back and forth between the three Marvels, and I think that's when they used the Beastie Boy song. I could be wrong, but they had a really cool song with it too, and I just thought that was a really cool way to kind of begin the movie and introduce us to what is going to be happening. Katie, what did you think of the action scenes in this movie? Were they good? Were they bad? Were they forgettable?
Speaker 2:I'm watching Loki right now on Disney Plus and I feel like coming off of that was just so cerebral. It really was nice, like you're saying, to just have boom, boom, big action, and I really did like it. It didn't feel some people might say it's too much and oh, it's just Marvel being Marvel, just like doing generic, boring action stuff. That's what I've read from some people, but I liked it. I thought it was great, like you said, and I agree that entanglement was a really cool angle that they did. I thought those scenes were great. I enjoyed that little storyline or like the concept of they're entangled. It's very confusing. They can't use their powers, they're going to like learn to bump that up. It kind of gave me Charlie's Angels vibes, a little bit like they're fighting or they work together to fight, and I really liked that a lot. I'll tell you one of my likes that it was only an hour and 45 minutes, which I'm not trying to be petty, it's true Like that's, it was actually very nice. I felt like, oh good, finally they got a movie, but at the cost of some of the plot, feeling a little rushed, where I'm like am I just supposed to accept that and what? I have so many questions about this, but whatever, like she's just low key, stole someone's son. I'm like you're going to explain all that? And then they mentioned AI, some kind of AI computer that she destroys on the planet, and there's no explanation for that or how that's going to be related.
Speaker 2:I would say my biggest like and it was probably because I was primed, having just finished Miss Marvel like days before Anything with Kamala and her family was my favorite part. I watched some interviews of the actress and she sounds exactly like her character. Like she was talking about celebrities that she got to meet and she was fan growing out just like she does in the movie. She nailed that and I think it was a really cool concept to like get to have her meeting her hero, kind of like the Spider-Man, tony Stark, and then see the reality of like okay, it's not always sunshine, rainbows and maybe fighting crime does have some hard things and you can't always say like there was a really cool line where she's you know you can't save everybody. So I really liked Kamala and I liked her family. I thought they were funny. They played some of that. They played up some of the Indian culture of like the family aspect and her mom being like no nonsense. And speaking to Nick Fury Look, she's her, his mom suck. All that was great.
Speaker 1:They did a good job at transitioning from the TV show into a feature length film. Their scenes were really nice, really fun. Like you said, the family aspect. They were able to put that into the to the movie and translate it well from the TV show. Another one of my likes is weird, because I remember when I went to go see Ant-Man and the Wasquantimania and that movie was so random I that's one of the reasons why I didn't like that movie because of how just weird and random it was. That's like the complete opposite how I felt about the Marvels. This movie also had some completely random parts in it but because they were kind of theater related randomness, I absolutely loved it. So one of the scenes they go to this planet where everyone's language is they speak through singing and it's so ridiculous I absolutely cracked up laughing because I loved it so much.
Speaker 2:And they had the like a K-pop guy.
Speaker 1:That was one of, like one of the big, big cells of this movie is that they had this famous K-pop singer. My sister loves Korean dramas and so she knew who this actor was and so she was really excited that he was in it. Spoiler alert he's only in it for, like it feels like five seconds. He's not in it that long, but I will say that whole scene on that planet was one of my favorite parts, and because of how random and silly and just weird it was, another one of my favorite parts is also another very random, over-the-top weird, and it's when Goose has kittens and the way that they're going to evacuate the ship is by having these kittens eat all of the people on the ship. But they decide I don't know who did this behind the scenes to decide to play the song Memories. Katie, I don't know how into the theater world you are, but as soon as that song started playing, I died laughing, because the song Memories is from the famous musical Cats.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I found it so funny, but the whole time these cats are eating these people and they're playing that song, the entire time I was cracking up laughing. I don't know if anyone else in the theater understood that, but me, as a big old theater nerd, I highly appreciated the cleverness of using that song during that scene, and so that's one of the biggest reasons I enjoyed this movie so much is because it was so random, but it wasn't Quantumania random because that movie was dumb.
Speaker 2:I did like it. I saw some before I saw the movie. People were complaining about the side quests being kind of dumb, like unnecessary side quests, like the singing planet, but yeah, I really liked them. I didn't feel like there was anything that didn't need to be in there with the side quests and I thought they were funny. Like those big Goofy things were very funny to me. I don't know if I could fully Say that this movie was funny for me, though, like I didn't laugh out loud and there was a lot of lines that were meant to be funny, mostly from Brie Lauchin, that just fell so flat for me, like just not funny at all and they're supposed to be. But I thought some of the really random stuff was Hosterical and and I'm glad like because I do think she was trying to be a little bit like Thor 11, thunder, just like totally wacky, wacky, and I would say she succeeded at some of that. My final thoughts, really on this movie. I'm with you, I liked it more than I thought it would. I will admit that.
Speaker 2:But I had still not sold on any of these characters being Strong enough to like continue in MCU, even Kamala, like I really like her character and I thought I liked the show, miss Marvel. I don't think she's strong enough again, maybe even just her age. I don't know that she could do a movie as the lead by herself, so this was a perfect avenue for this. What are your thoughts, or maybe what have you read in terms of the future for these ladies? Because, like, for example, some of the strong women that do well, like, valkyrie pops in and out of like lots of movies and it's because she was a Brock star and everybody thought she was super cool. So she keeps showing up. These girls again. I love the feel empowerment. I want that movie. These girls weren't doing it for me. Do you think that the three of them? Will we get closure on their story? What's next for their storyline?
Speaker 1:It's funny you should say that because I don't know if you stayed long enough to see this part of the movie but there is a little mid-credit scene before the mid-credits of Kamala trying to form spoiler alert the Young Avengers. She meets up with Kate Bishop from Hawkeye and she is trying to get a quote-unquote team together of Super people, so we're getting a younger version of the Avengers. I will say I love Haley Steinfeld as Kate Bishop, so I'm looking forward to that. But the one part that I cringe is when Kamala says and I heard that Ant-Man has a daughter she was the weakest part of Quantamania, please they're gonna be female only, junior.
Speaker 1:Well, no, because they're gonna introduce Wanda vision sons at older versions of them. They're supposed to be on the team Hawke son that they introduced at the end of she hawk, is supposed to be on there. I Really don't care. The big big part I cared about Was the true mid-credit scene, when they reveal that Monica Rambo did not die when she went to the other side of the Multiverse, but she ended up in another universe. And I was probably the only person in the crowd that actually Clapped my hands and said yeah, because I had already seen a picture of this person who made a cameo.
Speaker 1:But I was hoping that someone in particular would be voicing this character, and I was correct. So let's just go ahead and spoil it for everybody. Kelsey grammar Returns as the beast from the Fox universe X-Men. I don't care about any other character in that scene. So apparently they show that Monica's mom is a, a character in the X-Men called binary. That'll be interesting where they go with that. Oh my gosh. But so yeah, so there, obviously there's going to be more stuff. We'll see how. What happens with the box office being so bad for this movie, let's go ahead and rate it, but before we do that, I want to give everyone a little sneak peek of what we're going to be reviewing for our last movie of November. So take a listen. I've never seen those birds before. I'm Jay's we call him. You seem like a good man. Koelina Snow, it would have been nice to meet you under different circumstances.
Speaker 2:Your role is to turn these children into spectacles, not survivors.
Speaker 1:We're live.
Speaker 2:Good luck with that poor little song, Grif Run.
Speaker 1:I am going to get you out of here. If I'm going to risk everything, tell me is this real.
Speaker 2:If you can trust anyone in this world, you can trust me.
Speaker 1:There's a natural goodness born into us all. We can either cross that line into evil or not. Loosen ground the.
Speaker 2:Hunger Games ready PG-13, november 17th.
Speaker 1:The Hunger Games are back. We're going to be watching the prequel, the Hunger Games, the Ballad of Songbird and Snakes starring Rachel Zegler, which everyone hates right now in Hollywood. So let's go ahead and rate the Marvels. Katie, what would you give the Marvels one to six stars?
Speaker 2:Well, for the sake of our old Marvel season, I will do one through six Infinity Stones and this one's going to get a whopping three Infinity Stones for me, because entertain me and I laughed a little bit and nothing took me out of the movie so much that I wanted to walk out. So you get points for that.
Speaker 1:I remember way back in the day when we reviewed Captain Marvel and we both I think we both gave it a big old one out of six Infinity Stones. So that brings back memories of horrible times and I'm going to give the Marvels 4.5 Infinity Stones out of six Because I, for some reason, I just really enjoyed it a lot more. It's not a perfect movie. Obviously there were still parts that I didn't like, but gosh, darn it, it got me. I liked it. Darn you Brie Larson, but I liked it and I think it was because it wasn't just her in the movie. She had other people helping her and I think that did wonders for the film, and it kind of makes me sad that it's not doing well in the box office.
Speaker 2:Because I know it wasn't bad. It feels like people who are critics and were in doing reviews do have an influence, because it can make or break a movie. And it's a little scary because, like you said, the movie is not as bad as I thought it would be and people maybe just don't want to admit that. They want to be angry. But anyway, I have my quote to sign off.
Speaker 1:Take it away.
Speaker 2:Brie Larson, if you're listening. You are beautiful, you're an incredible actress, but it's time to hang up the hat of Captain Marvel.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Nadie and Katie at the Movies. Feel free to leave us a review so people can find the show. Follow us on all our social media platforms and if there's a movie that you want us to watch, feel free to contact us at nadieandkadycom. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
