Most of what you guys said is pretty spot on. I myself was actually hoping for it to be as good or better than Wonder Woman, and I don't think it achieved that. But it was really good. 7/10, and still no duds in the official MCU film series.
Yeah, it didn't come anywhere near WW, and it's too bad. For me, the movie overall was "good." It was standard Marvel fair, it was fun and told a good story, and it moved the ball forward in advancing and expanding the MCU storyline. That, in and of itself, would have maybe put it around 7.5 / 10. But to me, it had some glaring flaws that took me out of the moment to the point that, the more I think about them, the more jarring and frustrating they are. Maybe I'm overanalyzing, or maybe I need to see it again to put them in context, but here are my two major issues:
1. How Fury lost an eye: First off, we didn't need this. That in and of itself isn't necessarily a "problem" or a reason to feel that the film was dragged down. But it is a problem when something that is completely unnecessary is also completely mishandled. I have two major problems with this sequence. First, by this time, Fury had come to realize that Goose was a Flerken, and that Flerkens can be incredibly dangerous. There is absolutely NO reason for him to have been so stupid as to continue treating it like a cat and going nose to nose making cutesy noises with the business end of Goose. That's like an experienced agent playing around with a gun and holding it to his face staring down the barrel. There's just NO WAY that that ever happens. Second, when Goose scratches him, he is totally nonchalant about it in that moment and for the rest of the film. "Oh, er...ow. Oh well, let's go to Maria's have have some dinner, and I'll help with the dishes. And, uh, no problem, I'll just take Goose back to base with me too. We'll all good." This really made no sense at all. Yeah, it's a super hero film, not a deep drama. But it still needs to make sense within its own universe. Unless I'm missing something (and I could be), this sequence makes zero sense, and as such, really takes me out of the experience of the movie. And the fact that it didn't even need to be in there at all makes its mishandling even more egregious.
2. They mishandled her overpoweredness. Her being able to cut through a Kree warship without barely even thinking about it is impressive enough. And from everything that's been said about the character, that's
barely even the tip of the iceberg. And yet, at other times, her energy blasts just...knock people down and maybe stun them a bit. So...which is it? The movie could never make up its mind. Granted, when you get into the realm of having such overpowered characters, that is always a huge challenge. But in a universe as rich and well developed as the MCU, I feel like the audience was owed a better effort to balance this than what we got.
To me, these are HUGE flaws that drag it down to a 5.5 or 6.
That said, I still enjoyed it. There were a lot of very cool things going on. The montage of her getting up and dusting herself off was amazing. The humor was done really well. I loved that Goose actually was a Flerken. Talos was one of the best aspects of the film. And the story, as a whole, was a good one. It's just too bad they couldn't have figured out some of the things that dragged it down for me. To me, these are not simply "personal preference" issues. They are actual flaws--mistakes that could and should have been avoided. And that's a quality issue.
I disagree with the consensus that the first half of the film was klunky (or other similar adjective). I found it to be a bit jarring, but that was fitting with the confusion that the main character was going through. So I felt like it worked.
I think it not only worked, but worked really well. It was a good idea that served the story. I had zero problem with it.
But ya....that song choice....classic definition of "forcing". Totally fell flat.
I knew about it in advance. I had seen a reference. So when it started, I was not surprised at all. And I couldn't help but involuntarily shake my head. But here's the thing--I wasn't shaking my head in disapproval. I was shaking my had and smiling because...well, it was fitting and fun. And when I say "fun," I mean that it just felt like an appropriate level of quirky, awkward self-awareness that fit with the overall tone of the film pretty well. This could have been a very serious story. And maybe there is a good argument to be made that it "should" have been more serious and stayed away from the light, comical "Ragnarok" tone. But it is what it is, and that moment at least felt genuine and consistent to me with the overall tone of the film. Maybe it was just a bit too much for some. I get that. But as with some of the other "issues" many had with the film, I had zero problem with this.