I enjoyed it overall, but the show kinda lost me in Pakistan, and I think the finale didn’t really hang together very well, either. (Spoilering because I’m not sure about the policy in this thread, but really, it’s just pointless gripes:)
Kamala’s mother turned from overprotective to ‘I’ll make you a costume to go out, fight crime and possible get killed in’ on a dime—but then, that seems to be the way ‘character development’ happens on this show, for mothers at least. Although I do applaud them for not doing the classic thing where the hero gets all angsty having to hide their powers and worrying about endangering the ones they love. But then ruined it by doing the just as played out are-they-kissing-or-fighting (even complete with the kiss being forestalled by the sudden appearance of the comic relief sidekick!).
The whole ‘let’s go to the school’-plan didn’t seem very well motivated, and then of course they’re found immediately because the plot needed for there to be a standoff type of situation. Then Damage Control just waits until they had time to Home Alone some makeshift defenses. (Also, for ‘nonlethal weapons’ they seem to be able to take out quite sizeable chunks of masonry…) The timescale was also a bit weird—they start their flight in one scene in the daytime, and then it suddenly is pitch dark after they seemingly turned a corner. Then bam, Zoe ex machina—that seemed totally random, if there was any indication that the character would have a role to play at some point, I must’ve missed it. And yeah, Kamala saved her life—but wasn’t it also her powers manifesting that endangered it in the first place…?
All in all, I thought this felt somewhat similar to the final Game of Thrones-season, plot-wise: we need those characters at this point at that moment, so they’ll just turn up without worrying too much about how they got there, not just location-wise, but also regarding character development. Like the whole thing was just reconstructed from a hurried exposition of the main story beats.
Still, I think this had potential. I liked pretty much all the main characters—only nerdy comic relief sidekick slash spurned love interest needs to be fleshed out to seem more like a person than a plot device to pop up randomly and speed things along. I liked the brother’s enthusiasm about things, and the father’s kindness. And I liked the look—lots of color, a welcome departure from the grey-in-darker-grey school of superhero filmmaking; I’ll even forgive the occasional inexplicably bad CGI during Kamala’s parkour antics. With a bit more connective tissue to the story, I think this could’ve been great; as it is, to me, it’s just on the good side of watchable. But it’s got me looking forward to future outings!
Chuck Cunningham was a call-back to post #17 in this thread (though apparently it was a location swap with Carol Danvers and not just Kamala suddenly looking like her).
Way to break out the extremely obscure information that surely nobody here already knew about, and definitely isn’t explicitly discussed in one of the linked articles anyway!
“Amusingly, Wilson has previously admitted she didn’t get the Simpsons reference when she began using the word “Embiggen.” In fact, she thought this was a computer term she’d encountered in relation to image manipulation, specifically the “embiggening” of JPEGS.”
Wilson quite possibly encountered it from astronomer (and former Doper) Phil Plait, who has been using the term that way for many years. Here’s an instance from 2008:
I was pretending I was Batman. The whole reason he had Robin as a sidekick was to explain the plot to the slower readers. There may have been someone who wasn’t aware of it.
I’ll admit that I have been slightly amused by all the “Yay! She said her beloved catchphrase–which is not at all original or unique to her!” reactions. Dan Greaney must be quietly crying in a corner somewhere.
I’d put this series about in the middle of the Marvel series. It was enjoyable, and as I said above, Iman Vellani is a likeable and appealing performer who is a lot of fun to watch. But its storyline seemed a bit disjointed, and I wouldn’t put it in the top tier of series alongside things like Loki or Falcon & The Winter Soldier. However, I liked it enough that I will look forward to seeing the character again.
I kind of understand why they changed her powers, as the comic book powers could easily look silly in live action. I have to say, even with the change, her “embiggened” form did look a little awkward.
More significant to me than the word “embiggen” was the word “mutation.” Between this and the new Dr. Strange movie, they definitely seem to bringing mutants into the MCU.
They really overloaded the origins of her powers. She has a magic bangle, and she’s part djinn, which lets her use the magic bangle. But, also, she’s a mutant, so they can justify why her mom and brother aren’t also superheroes. That’s three different weird things in her background that had to happen for her to be a superhero, which is two weird things too many.
Yeah, in the comics her jewelry is—jewelry. Important to her as family heirlooms and cultural symbols, but nothing more. I thought it was weird that they made it a plot point, like saying that Superman really got his powers from his cape all along. As for her powers, maybe one of her parents and her brother might have developed powers, too, if they had been exposed to the Mcguffin Mists, but they never were.
Reminded me of a bit from “What’s New With Phil and Dixie” in which the superhero is subjected to so many origins at once that nothing is left but a pile of ash
To be fair, her mom had been in “my flaky daughter reminds me of my really flaky mother, whose crazy beliefs have caused me social embarrassment all my life” mode. The switch to “my daughter has superpowers, I’ve been wrongly accusing her of ruining her brother’s wedding, and my mom was right all along in all her weird beliefs” is bound to cause some serious swings in behavior.
I just finished the series. The start was slow, but I liked that they developed the characters. The show is obviously from the point of view of Kamala. As she matures, her perceptions of the other characters changes.
The whole vibe of the show is not serious. I like they didn’t over-explain things. They tell the important parts of the story and skip stuff that didn’t matter.
Favorite joke: the halal and haram hats on the appropriate heads.
I think Kamran’s mom is influencing him through whatever energy she sent him when she died or ascended to that other dimension. He was a pretty good actor-I wouldn’t hate to see him again. His powers in general seemed the same as Ms. Marvel’s, though, so where does the mutation come in?
I thought the same thing, but then insta-fan-wanked, “They’re probably for some educational skit for little kids. Hi, I’m Haram and you should run away from me! I’m Halal and I’m your friend.”