Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel Review

Disclaimer: I know this movie has a whole feminist message and I acknowledge it right here. I know that, I saw it and I’m okay with it. I am not however okay with people saying that white men should stop reviewing movies.

That being said, let us talk about the newest entry in Marvel’s ever expanding cinematic universe.

Captain Marvel, which released yesterday on the occasion of Women’s day faced a lot of criticism from the your average Marvel viewer, Why?

2 reasons;

1.       This is the first female led Marvel movie (Elektra doesn’t count) and it is not about Black Widow or Wanda, it is instead about this new character that is supposed to be the savior in the upcoming endgame movie.

2.       Brie Larson and her comments regarding white males getting more chances to watch and review movies compared to people of colour.

Now I don’t exactly understand this hate as much because, I mean if they wouldn’t introduce a new character then, where is this cinematic universe even going?

I walked into the theatres with a bit of, what is the word? De-anticipation? Is that a word? See, I am a huge Marvel fanboy, and I watch and consume all Marvel media despite it being as bad as idk, the 2^nd Iron Man movie , or the bland 2^nd Thor movie. So, I had booked the tickets and then I saw the absolute barrage of hate around this movie and reviews being merciless, saying the movie was bland and horrible and boring and Brie Larson’s tired face dragged it along until the end.

Even the trailers suggested that Carol was gonna be a pretty bland character, So as you could understand my hopes were pretty low.

So, Now that I’ve watched it, how do I feel about it?

Is it worth watching and being compared to the likes of movies like Wonder Woman or is it a disappointment?

The Internet has already given their judgment, but freedom of speech so let me explain Captain Marvel As I saw it:

The Story:

The Movie’s main character is Captain Marvel, who despite being present in the marvel universe since the 90s hasn’t even been mentioned once until now, The movie starts with a hurt Carol Danvers on the sandy ruins of an aircraft crash, She looks around to see an elderly woman and also spots a rather evil skrull with a weapon pointing towards her. Brie is covered in Green blood (suggesting she is Kree) and is apparently in a dream sequence of her disjointed past.

The basic premise of the movie is that there is a ongoing war between Kree and Skrull kind, Carol, or as she is referred to as by her friends of noble Kree “hero” warriors, Vers, is a member of a kind of Lantern Corps of marvel universe who are fighting against these shape shifting creatures called Skrulls. On one infiltration mission,she ends up getting separated from her team, which consists of Jude Law as the leader of the group, Minerva, who is a sniper, and a few other archetypes of friends.

Long Story short, she ends up on Earth and she has to prevent Skrull infiltration while her discount Lantern Corps esque friends play catch up with her. On this journey Carol meets Nick Fury and also learns about her disjointed past.

Now, Telling a story about a character who is suffering from memory loss or Amnesia is hard, there are a few ways one can decide to tell a story like this, telling it in the way that the movie makers decided for captain Marvel is the laziest way.Instead of having to get a glimpse of her past through her behavior or actions, it is done through visions and without going in spoiler territory, using a few audios and Skrulls.

There isn’t much to say about the story other than the fact that it is kind of a cookie cutter superhero origin but with an on the nose feminist message( which isn’t that bad, or something Im against, it actually gave way to quite a touching scene which I felt a bit moved by). The movie tries to be too much and ends up being not much but a movie with a bit of less style compared to the standard set by previous MCU movies.

Now it may sound like I hated this movie, but to the contrary I did like it quite a bit, the Skrull twist, if you have seen the movie was fun for me, and despite how bland Captain Marvel was in the first act, she played off really well with Nick Fury and it was just amazing watching them arguing and throwing jabs at each other. It really felt like a buddy cop movie in the between but then changed quickly enough for you to actually accept it as a buddy cop movie. I don’t understand why people hated it sooo much when it was just an okay if not good enough movie.

To conclude about the story, I think it was a fair enough story for an introductory character. Moreover I think maybe the movie was not sure what it wanted to be, a buddy cop? A movie about friendship? , A movie about strong woman character kicking ass?

Maybe all of it and in trying so, none of it.

The Direction

Anne Bodan and Ryan Fleck direct Captain Marvel, and the end product is a movie which shines in some scenes while falls flat in some others. A few shots look incredible while a few others look like a mess. I sure, the fight scenes were just so dark and hard to follow that I think I remember more about the music choices than the action that took place.

A lot of flying scenes were quite well done with the aviation shots being impressive. I did love the third act’s shot of the desert fight scenes.  The action scenes other than the first one with carol Danvers being stuck on a Skrull starship, and the last one were not at all memorable. Even the movie’s tone was not set properly, I mean a lot of Nick Fury and Carol Danvers jokes and chemistry landed really well, while a lot of could’ve been great characters are utterly wasted.

I don’t understand how to judge this segment this time, because I haven’t seen the pairs’ previous films, though I have heard of Half Nelson which was apparently a great indie film. I can just say hopefully I get to see Half Nelson soon enough so I get a taste of their film making. Because I don’t know what happened with Captain Marvel.

The Acting and The Characters

Let me get something off my chest, I didn’t think Brie was horrible as Captain Marvel, she was okay as I see it. Because I have never heard of Captain Marvel before this and from what I have heard she doesn’t really have all that much of a charming personality in the comics either, so I think Brie Larson did an okay job as her.

On the other hand, the side characters really did outdo Brie, whether that was Samuel L Jackson, with his charismatic as ever Nick Fury, or Ben Mendelson as Talos, the skrull or even Lashana Lynch as Carol Danver’s old friend.

Nick fuy and Brie Larson really did come off quite well together, while Talos also was a fun character. Talos reminded me a lot of The Necromancer from Legacies and I know nobody watches Legacies but still just a bit of inner info.

Conclusion (Not as Bad as people are saying)

Captain Marvel is a marvel movie and it will succeed no matter how much you end up hating it. I didn’t hate it but I wasn’t blown away by it either.

It was a worthwhile watch and I would probably never watch it again, with a one too many odd yet likable song choices and an honest message that “Even Feminism can be sold” (lol) the movie was fairly okay and doesn’t deserve such as bad reputation.(seriously, you’ll enjoy it.)

Also I am SUPER PISSED ABOUT HOW MUCH TIME PHIL COULSON got in the movie, not fair at all.

Final rating is a 3/5 (it was fun enough to be better than the second Thor) (watch it for Nick Fury and That Cat Goose who I didn’t mention because I have Science tomorrow)

Thank You for reading this!!