Captain Marvel - Review: The New Face of the MCU has Arrived
Release date (US): March 8th, 2019
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Gemma Chan, Ben Mendelsohn, Lee Pace, Annette Benning, Lashana Lynch,
**DISCLAIMER**: This is a subjective, opinionated article that does not have, nor should have any effect on your opinion. As such, my opinion is entitled to change over time and whatever is written here at this point in time may not and should not be held to me in the future. You are not meant to agree with me 100 percent of the time, because the nature of subjectivity is we see everything differently. If there is something you happen to disagree with, I absolutely respect your point of view if you will respect mine. Please keep this in mind.
The Review
One begins to wonder how, after twenty films, Marvel Studios is keeping the superhero genre fresh, and yet they are. Captain Marvel is the twenty-first film in the saga known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it it is the FIRST solely female-led superhero film to come from the juggernaut. They knew the heat was on, especially with the success of DC's Wonder Woman in 2017.
But really, is anyone surprised that Marvel has once again hit it out of t eh park? Captain Marvel, while perhaps not one of the strongest MCU films to date, has all the right elements in place, not least of which is Brie Larson.
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Larson, who won the Academy Award for her leading role in Room, has been tasked to step up and play the next leader of the MCU, replacing the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Larson brings a charisma and gravitas that I had not seen in any of the marketing material. To be quite honest, from the trailers, I was beginning to worry that her performance would be a little annoying and extremely one-note. And while she doesn't necessarily give the most three-dimensional performance, Larson works with what she has. The marketing has lied to you; none of Carol Danver's best moments nor her best lines are shown, and that's a great thing. You get to see her right from the beginning as a strong, noble, good-hearted fighter who is trying to figure out where her place is in the world. Yet, there's a level of sass that can go toe-to-toe with Tony Stark any day.
Larson isn't alone; she's surrounded by an excellent supporting cast. Jude Law is Jude Law; depending on whether or not you like him, what you see is what you get. He plays the leader of the Starforce and plays his part well enough. The rest of the Starforce don't exactly have enough time to establish themselves in the film, but we do get glimpses of each one to know that they are distinctive fighters. It would be interesting to see where the franchise were to take this group or another iteration of it if it so chose to.
Ben Mendelsohn deserves all the praise in the world. His performance as the Skrull general, Talos, is through the roof. It's so completely different from any other Marvel character; they tried to go somewhere new and different with his character and I truly appreciated it. For the most part, it worked fantastically. It took me a little to buy into what was going on, but the second I did, I couldn't see it any other way. It's just that the first hour or so of the movie, I was wondering why the movie was treating his character a certain way, especially after hearing all the praise from other critics about his performance.
And yes, Goose the Cat steals the movie. He has a couple of the biggest moments in the entire film. Enough said.
But going back to the previous point of Talos, I really did feel like one of the biggest detriments of the movie was that it dragged towards the beginning significantly. The movie felt bold yet stale at the same time during the first hour or so. There were so many little loose threads that were being set up, but they were left there to dangle, until finally at around the ninety minute mark, they all started to weave back together at once. By that point, I was completely on board with the film. I saw exactly what they were doing and I was into it. But before then, watching all of the set up was not as interesting as I had hoped it to be.
I will say that tying the film into the larger MCU was far more prevalent than I had anticipated, yet it worked so much better than I could've hoped for. There are twists and turns that I legitimately didn't see coming. A small downside that I have though is that there is one reveal that I audibly gasped in the theater when I saw it; but it took me out of the movie for a couple minutes because I sat there thinking about how it connected with the larger universe.
Nick Fury gets a lot more screentime than I had imaged as well. The de-aging CGI was phenomenal, both on him and Agent Coulson. I bought into the young Fury almost immediately. There's a sense of joy and of jovial spirit that permeates this version of the character, and Jackson did a great job of showing that. His dynamic with Carol was absolutely golden, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again in the future. If you're looking for a big return for Agent Coulson or Ronan the Accuser, by the way, don't get your hopes up too far. They are on screen for very, very little.
One other problem I had with the film though was the character of the movie itself. I didn't feel like there was a distinct enough flavor to the movie that set it apart from the other MCU films. It had elements that were really going for it, and it made me appreciate just how far the MCU has come. But there were other parts that I sat there and forgot about in ten seconds because it was so run-of-the mill. Perhaps we've been spoiled with so many good comic book movies, but if the film was trying to differentiate itself, it didn't work quite as well as I think it thought it did.
The special effects, for the most part, are fantastic. As mentioned earlier, the de-aging was great and looked great on Fury and Coulson. However, there are a few shots in the film where I can say the CGI looks downright bad. In particular, there are a couple shots that zoom in on Carol, and you can clearly tell her mask is CGI to its very core. Those shots made me a little uncomfortable with how fake and plasticky it looked.
And to round out the negatives, there just wasn't that much unique about the way the story was told, both in terms of story and direction. The comparisons this film is getting to other Phase 1 Marvel movies is completely fair. This film is trying to get its footing while introducing one of the most important MCU characters for the next decade and beyond. And because of that, other than a couple interesting decisions, it plays it safe and decides to go a route that we all had suspected it would.
It's not as if these decisions were bad, per se, but rather that they have been tried and true, but maybe tried a little too much by Marvel at this point. But again, this film is riding almost entirely on Brie Larson and her ability. And she shines so much in the role, that I have a feeling after Endgame and Captain Marvel 2, there will be no one questioning that Brie Larson was the ONE to play this role.
And stick around for the credits. Let's just say that I am so exceptionally excited for the future of the MCU following this movie. The first credits scene was pure gold. One of the best yet.
In Conclusion: Marvel's tried and true formula kicks in for them once again. They've found another winner in Brie Larson. Watching her team up with the Avengers in about a month will be quite the spectacle. But for now, we have to settle with this incarnation. And while not bad, there are a lot of things to be desired when walking out of the film. But at the end of the day, the film finishes extremely strongly, and leaves nothing but good tastes left in your mouth to get you ready for Avengers: Endgame.
