Captain Marvel (2019)

Movie Info

Keep the lunchbox

Vers (Brie Larson) is a warrior in the Kree army, but finds that her missing memories are causing her problems.  When Vers pursues Skrulls to Earth, Vers discovers her life coincides with an Earth woman named Carol Danvers and a jet engine designer named Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening).  Now, Vers times herself teamed with her friend Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) and a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and the battle against the Skrulls raging.

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel is a Marvel Comics action-adventure sci-fi fantasy.  Following Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018, the film is part of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the twenty-first film in the series.  The film was met with positive reviews and a strong box-office return.

Welcome to the MCU, Skrulls

Captain Marvel was facing major online problems.  The series was met with criticism often deemed sexist before its release and a small campaign to break the movie as a result.  The movie became a box office hit, and despite the pre-release criticism, it performed well.  The weird part about the movie is sometimes criticizing the movie, critics were labeled as sexist or just “anti-woman”…while I felt Captain Marvel wasn’t bad, I also felt it wasn’t anything different or special.

For me, the problem was story-based.  The character had so much opportunity to be a breakthrough character, but she felt like any other Marvel character.  You could argue that “any other Marvel character” is a positive since she is a woman and plays as hard (if not harder) than most of the male superheroes, but the character’s path doesn’t have much arc.  The 1990s setting seems gimmicky and the character is almost too powerful…her quest for her identity doesn’t always seem like a logical path.

Just an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his…flerken

Brie Larson was very outspoken and stroked the uproar by not standing down (which she shouldn’t have done).  She’s a great actress (Room is one of my favorite movies in the recent years), and she has great screen presence…I just wish the character depth was deeper.  Jude Law was an obvious villain throughout the film, and the de-aged Samuel L. Jackson is almost distracting because of the special effect.  Annette Benning as Mar-Vell and the Supreme Intelligence was good and it was good to see Lee Pace return as Ronan the Accuser after his Guardians of the Galaxy appearance.  I like the set-up of my favorite “Captain Marvel” with Akira Akbar potentially being the second Captain Marvel Monica Rambeau.

If I can’t have Binary, more space Captain Marvel

The movie looked pretty good.  I have always loved the Captain Marvel design and it would have been nice to see more of the throwback costumes.  I loved Carol Danvers period as Binary and wish I could have seen that costume design.  The Skrull also looked quite good, and it was good to see them finally make it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Captain Marvel is by no means a bad movie, but I feel it missed a lot of opportunities.  While I feel Carol Danvers and Brie Larson are great role model for girls and women, I wish the film had taken better advantage of the opportunity to make the story less incidental.  I hope with future outings, Captain Marvel’s story will develop and Larson will get more opportunities to show her acting ability while making a character with the complexity and development that Captain Marvel deserves.  Marvel followed Captain Marvel with Avengers:  Endgame in 2019.

Related Links:

Avengers:  Infinity War (2018)

Avengers:  Endgame (2019)