What can you expect from one of the top tier titles of the Marvel Disney cinematic universe? Not much as it turns out.
A note which could account for my disdain for this movie:
* The version I seen was the no frills, traditional screen - almost 4:3. So although the format did appear to be widescreen, there were black bars on the top and bottom, it seemed to have been somewhat cropped and zoomed in. Could this be a limitation of the hardware display or a ploy to usher more people into the much more technologically superior and larger IMAX, and what have you, screens?
Notwithstanding that, this movie seems half baked from the get go with what seems to be a redeeming up-tilt a quarter ways in, which then surely ebbs back into a dull doldrum. At times the footage seemed to be pre-production quality. Unnervingly realistic looking, no post-processing overlays or effects, every little lighting or color correction, just raw footage straight from the camera.
You'd often see this type of material on DVD/Blu-ray features which include previously cut scenes, which for obvious reasons would not have the polish and post processing done as that's just a waste of time and resources.
The overall cinematic imagery is woeful. The scenes seem to be almost first run throughs to probably get the lighting and sounding rigs set up properly. With cramped, zoomed in shots and awkward angles, composition seems to have not even been given an afterthought. This is especially perturbing when dramatic scenes have a tight, closed in focus on the actors face which only draws attention to the tepid dialogue. Mired into this is the equally dismal visual effects which was flat, poorly choreographed, lacked any dynamism and seemed gratuitously added to lengthen the run time.
The peppering of apropos jokes and jibs that Marvel uses to great effect in its other movies falls flat in this screeching, slow train car of a movie. The comedic timing, if any, is off and seems to be arbitrarily interspersed within the lackluster dialogue. Another movie which had this same issue was Captain Marvel.
The narrative has a tenuous, bumpy flow, with a plot that seems to have been strung together and improvised on the spot. This has all the makings of a made for TV movie by an outsourced, off-shore firm who've never worked with the intellectual property, nor the genre. Or even a made for TV show with all it's episodes glued together to make a full length feature film - Chimerascope if you will.
The movie is barely one dimensional in terms of its narrative, story and character development as well as, visuals and imagery. Ironic as the core theme is about the multiverse.
Cons - Weak script, poor, editing, mediocre character and plot development at best, C grade cinematics and direction.
Pros - Got me out of the house, when it ended.
