Captain Marvel (2019)
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Captain Marvel Movie Review
Captain Marvel is a 2019 superhero film directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and starring Brie Larson in the title role. It’s one of Marvel’s better, most entertaining films.
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“Well, that thing’s clearly busted“
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Let’s first talk about the story itself. I have to say that this just might be the best plotted movie in the entire MCU. The movie has its obvious flaws and I’ll get to them later, but honestly the storytelling itself isn’t one of them as the plot is highly engaging, very intriguing at times and in the end different in its sci-fi, Star Trek-influenced approach.
Earth is just a stage for the Kree-Skrull conflict here and it is up to Carol Danvers to remember her past on Earth and help change the tides in this war which is left for a sequel which I am looking forward to very much. I absolutely loved the twist that the Skrulls are actually the victims and that the Kree are the villains.
Yes, it did render the conflict not as interesting as I had hoped for a more realistic, unsolvable Israeli-Palestine type of conflict, but still I did not see the twist coming, I found it well done and it led to a lot of very interesting drama when it comes to the protagonist herself.
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And that leaves to a perfect segue way toward her. I loved her personally and I cannot understand why many people don’t. Brie Larson is an Oscar winner so of course she brought it in terms of her acting talent, but the character herself I found very interesting. We’ve seen this type of origin story before with the flashbacks and the search for identity, but because the twist with her abuser was interesting and different, I found the entire story more interesting. She’s also very funny and her interactions with Nick Fury are awesome.
He’s one of the highlights for sure. I loved that he was less badass and more comedic here, although how he lost his eye was, though funny, ultimately too silly in my opinion. But Jackson is hilarious per usual and some of his lines here cracked me up a lot. Talos is also pretty memorable, but the hype for Ben Mendelsohn I did not get in this instance as he wasn’t nearly as great as many have pinpointed.
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Ronan was entirely wasted here and nowhere near as impactful as he was in the first ‘Guardians’ movie. But Maria Rambeau, though shortchanged in terms of screen time, is a terrific character and Lashana Lynch brought it in terms of emotional levity in her performance. Their friendship is probably the heart of the film. As for the cat, he’s hilarious, immensely cute and in the end a perfect type of goofy comic-book comic relief.
Captain Marvel is at its best when it’s focused on science fiction, though it’s far from the best and hard SF I love, but still it was very interesting in this alien conflict and their cultures so I dug it tremendously. And it’s also at its best when it’s focusing on humor as the humor is stupendous here and many lines really made me laugh as the dialogue is so good.
However, the movie’s not the greatest in the departments of action, special effects and pacing. Literally every problem in this movie stems from a short runtime. Yes, it is a two-hour movie, but the story is so rich and grand that it needed much more time to develop some of its beats and especially some of the lesser developed supporting characters.
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The pacing issues are obvious throughout and although the movie’s hugely entertaining and it flew by so quickly for me, it’s not greatly made at all. The direction should have been much better and the action, though fun at times, is mostly not as memorable in set pieces as in other Marvel movies. The same goes for the VFX which are mostly good, but are sometimes questionable.
I did not like how ridiculously overpowered Carol is. This creates a major misbalance in the MCU and she’s simply a Mary Sue who’s great at whatever she does and she can fly, she’s extremely strong and has amazing powers. It was too much and she’s a major deus ex machina for the studio. I also did not like some of the forced feminism moments in some scenes, but thankfully most of it wasn’t like that. I did though really like the 90s references, and I found the connections with the first ‘Avengers’ and ‘Infinity War’ so strong, and the movie is actually the best case of connecting tissues so far for the MCU as it acts as the prequel of the entire cinematic universe.
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Most Captain Marvel’s problems such as some undercooked plot points, some underwritten characters and pacing issues stem from a short runtime which was simply not enough for this very rich and intriguing storyline. Yes, this is the most engaging and most interesting plot in the MCU so far and I loved its twist, its SF elements and the entire Kree-Skrull conflict was so intriguing to me. Some of the action and VFX are questionable, but I loved the protagonist who’s simply ridiculously overpowered, but still a fun character with an interesting origin story, Nick Fury steals the show throughout with his hilarious lines of dialogue, Maria Rambeau is the heart of the film and the cat is so amusing. So it’s not one of the best MCU films, but it’s one of the better ones and it simply flew by for me how engaging and funny it is. The connections with the other films are also excellent.
