Captain Marvel


Well, it’s finally here. After the events of Infinity War, and that ending pager scene, we are finally introduced to the incredibly powerful Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel. Now, this is one that I was super excited for, as I had it listed as my number 8 most anticipated release of 2019. I’m not going to get into the politics of this movie, or the fact that a bunch of people tried to bomb its rating simply because of the comments of Brie Larson. The main question here is, how was the movie, and, more importantly, should you spend your money to see it?
            Captain Marvel revolves around kree warrior Vers, and the flashes of a past that she can’t remember appearing to her as dreams. During a rescue mission, she is launched into space and crash lands in a Blockbuster on Earth in the year 1995. There, she meets a younger, two-eyed Nick Fury, and so begins her mission to stop the skrulls from retrieving a core that they need for their ship, all while slowly discovering that she is really a former pilot named Carol Danvers. Okay, let’s get this out of the way. This movie has its fair share of flaws. It has been a while since we’ve had an origin story in Marvel, seeing as how we essentially bypassed that for Spider-Man ad Black Panther. Now, because of that, this movie more resembles the MCU of phase one than it does what we’ve gotten used to in phase 3. Now, that’s not a bad thing, but it also means that some will be disappointed with this due to expectations. Does this live up to the level of Civil War or Thor: Ragnarok? No. However, is this better than a lot of phase one and even some phase two movies such as Iron Man 2, and Thor: The Dark World? Absolutely.
            Let me start off with what I enjoyed about this film. For starters, get ready to nominate this at next years Academy Awards for the amazing de-aging effects done on Samuel Jackson and Clark Gregg because dang, that was so slick that you can’t even tell that they used effects. It blends in flawlessly and doesn’t look weird like, let’s say, Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy. As per usual, Samuel Jackson was great, as was Jude Law. Ben Mendelsohn was absolutely fantastic as the skrull, Talos. He really did a wonderful job, as did the makeup team on this film. As far as Brie Larson is concerned, her acting was a bit wooden at times, and she has been better before, but she is far from being bad in this as has been suggested. In fact, I didn’t have a problem with her at all. She had her moments of humor, charm, and I can definitely see boys and girls alike falling in love with her throughout this. The fight sequences in here were also fun to watch, oh, and the cat. The cat was awesome.
            Okay, now, what was wrong with Captain Marvel exactly? My biggest problem with it was that at moments it just felt uninspired. At times, it felt a little like Ant-Man and the Wasp, and what I mean by that, is that it was a perfectly acceptable film, but comes across at times as filler for Avengers: Endgame. The ending goes off with a whimper rather than a bang. It felt like there could’ve been more. It should’ve meant more. I can’t go into specifics because spoilers, but the third act just felt lackluster. Also, while Brie Larson connected well with others, especially Samuel Jackson in their buddy cop style, she failed to have chemistry with Lashana Lynch, and the relationship between Carol Danvers and Maria Rambeau suffered as a result. It all just felt forced. The way you learn about Carol’s past also falls flat. It felt like they were trying to say “okay, here you go, her back story, now back to the show”. They just breezed by it. The only other problem I had with this was its tone. The movie shifts from dark storytelling to buddy cop film to family friendly almost at random. It felt jumbled.
            Despite these flaws, this is still a good movie. I had a blast with Captain Marvel, and I’m sure plenty of others will, as well. Is it Marvel’s best effort? No. Is it still a completely acceptable Marvel film that I will end up watching multiple times in the future? Yes. Would I like to see more of Captain Marvel in future installments? Heck yes. And I’m glad that Brie Larson is behind this character. How quickly we forget that it took time before characters like Captain America and Thor became universal favorites. Captain Marvel came off somewhat underwhelming due to the high expectations, but it is still a fun adventure worth checking out, and a solid introduction for the character. All things considered, I’m going to give Captain Marvel a 7.5/10.

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