CAPTAIN MARVEL:
BRIE LARSON PILOTS THE MCU’S BLAST FROM THE PAST THAT’S FUN BUT A BIT ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: *** out of 4
Brie Larson as Captain Marvel
The MCU goes back in time to 1995 as Brie Larson (21 Jump Street, Short Term 12, Room) becomes Captain Marvel, the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the series’ first female-led superhero movie. Ever since Samuel L. Jackson disintegrated at the end of Avengers: Infinity War last year there was a lot of hype for a movie based on the Marvel Comics heroine.
After DC’s Wonder Woman proved that it’s possible to make a good female-centered comic book movie, it makes sense for Marvel to follow in their footsteps. With Larson in the title role and the directing partnership of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Mississippi Grind) helming the project and Marvel taking the superhero movie formula to new heights after the critical and box-office successes of Black Panther and Infinity War, Captain Marvel should be the next big MCU event, right? It’s complicated.
I’ve never read the Captain Marvel comics, so I have no idea how faithful this movie is to its source material, but as a moviegoer and MCU enthusiast, I had a fun time with this film. I don’t think it’s one of Marvel’s strongest films from a narrative perspective and there are some issues I had with the execution, but the 90s nostalgia, action sequences, and Larson’s performance make it worth a watch.
During an intergalactic war between the militaristic Kree Empire and their shapeshifting enemies, the Skrulls, a mysterious woman named with extraordinary powers and a fractured past with nothing but snippets of memories from a second life named Vers (Larson) ends up on planet Earth after escaping from the leader of the Skrulls, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn-Mississippi Grind, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Ready Player One) with one of his escape pods, crashing it into 1995 Los Angeles. Vers’ presence attracts the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson-Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles 1 and 2, The Hateful Eight) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg-Will & Grace, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Much Ado About Nothing (2012)) but their investigation is cut short when some of the Skrulls crash onto Earth with Vers on the hunt for them.
Vers befriends Fury and Coulson who may have the answers to her true origin as she remembers more of who she really is. As she uncovers the truth behind her past this once-lost Kree warrior takes a huge leap and becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes, Captain Marvel.
The film also stars Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2) as Yon-Rogg, Djimon Hounsou (Amistad, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Furious 7) reprising his role from Guardians of the Galaxy as Korath, Lee Pace (The Hobbit trilogy, Halt and Catch Fire, Pushing Daisies) reprising his role from Guardians of the Galaxy as Ronan the Accuser, Lashana Lynch (Fast Girls, Still Star-Crossed, Bulletproof) as Maria Rambeau, Gemma Chan (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Humans, Crazy Rich Asians) as Minn-Erva, and Annette Bening (Mars Attacks!, American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right) as Dr. Wendy Lawson/Mar-Vell.
Overall, Captain Marvel is a perfect example of a “Middle of the Road” Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, it isn’t bad or a slap in the face to the series but for a movie that was built up big time at the end of Infinity War I was a bit underwhelmed. There are some good ideas in here about self-discovery and finding one’s purpose, but I felt they weren’t fully realized or there was too much focus on the MCU tropes…and I’m not talking about the good tropes.
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe was just starting out, a major criticism a lot of people had at first was the antagonists being weak with the exception of Loki, but Marvel took some notes and delivered villains just as enjoyable to watch on-screen as their heroes in films like Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Black Panther, and Infinity War to name a few. The villain(s) in Captain Marvel however feel like a giant step backwards, there isn’t much time devoted to them or to establish why they’re doing these things in the first place, none of them are very threatening or funny so they fail to leave an impression, and even their designs and appearances are just bland and uninspired, Thanos and Killmonger these guys aren’t.
For the most part the plot is where it needs to be, focusing on Captain Marvel figuring out her identity and the mystery behind her second life. However, there were moments during the film where I thought to myself “What is even the purpose of this?” or “What is at stake here?” and the more I tried to piece the story together the more confused I got, so yeah that kind of hurt the movie for me.
I know, I sound like I should probably hate this movie, but I really don’t because as flawed as it is there are plenty of things, I enjoyed about Captain Marvel. The action sequences are a lot of fun and I was interested in seeing Captain Marvel’s journey of self-discovery all the way through…also one of the funniest running jokes involving a cat you’ll ever see that I was so worried at first that they wouldn’t deliver a proper payoff…the cat alone is worth the price of admission.
While I don’t think she’s quite at the Gal Gadot Wonder Woman quality, Brie Larson does a solid job portraying Captain Marvel. She’s smart, beautiful, cocky when necessary, she has enjoyable chemistry with Samuel L. Jackson, she kicks ass while looking good, and you root for her all the way, not once did I feel like the movie was nudging me while saying “Hey, she’s a female superhero!” I saw a character with a complex and interesting backstory and extraordinary powers stuck in an unfamiliar world every time she was on-screen…also ten points for making a female-led superhero movie WITHOUT a love interest however, I get the feeling Captain Marvel + Nick Fury Fanfictions will be through the roof because of this movie…but I digress.
Captain Marvel is a weaker installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I still had a fun time. It’s action-packed, nostalgic, and should keep MCU enthusiasts busy until Avengers: Endgame comes out next month.
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