Thanos better be watching out!
Captain Marvel is directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The film stars Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, Ben Mendelson, Lashana Lynch, and Annette Benning. It revolves around Captain Marvel, whose an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls. Living on Earth in 1995, she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. With help from Nick Fury, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past while harnessing her special superpowers to end the war with the evil Skrulls.
As someone who’s a big fan of the MCU and someone who is anticipating Avengers Endgame to no end, I was really looking forward to Captain Marvel. Even though the trailers were good (but not great), I was anticipating the last piece of the puzzle before Endgame and seeing a new hero introduced to the franchise. I am extremely happy to report that Captain Marvel is the first great crowd-pleasing action blockbuster of the year. Captain Marvel is awesome!
What’s really cool about Captain Marvel is that despite the fact that it’s in Phase 3 of the MCEU, this film honestly feels more like a movie Marvel would have made during Phase 1. Captain Marvel takes it’s time to establish it’s plot lines and characters, just like how Marvel did with their Phase 1 films. While this may just sound like any other superhero origin story, Captain Marvel decides to take the formula of the origin story and flips it on its head. It takes some constructive risks with its structure, which one would not expect from Marvel to do. The core of the plot (which is the mystery revolving Carol Danvers and where she comes from) is compelling and really holds this movie together throughout it’s run-time. Since the film takes a lot of time establishing Carol and her motivations, it turns into such a relatable story that a lot of people are going to connect to.
A lot of reviews seem to mention that the first act of the film is really slow in how it’s structured, but I personally found the first act to be pretty great in how it establishes the characters and how the film takes its time in doing so. The whole movie, in fact, is paced incredibly well, as it’s always moving with the plot and knows when to give audiences a break before jumping right into the action. This makes Captain Marvel such a fun action movie throughout its two-hour run time. The action scenes in Captain Marvel are such a blast, with a great variety of set-pieces in different locations. There are space battles, car chases and lots of combat that is all filmed so well and edited together in such a pure way.
This brings me to the all-star cast that was assembled for this film. Brie Larson seriously kills it in the role of Captain Marvel as she brings so much humanity to the role from some good subtle acting, while bringing in a fun tone to the character. Larson also sells the physicality of the role that is demanded out of her. All of this makes me seriously excited to see her in Avengers Endgame. While Larson carries the film, the supporting cast here is just as good. Samuel L Jackson is (obviously) great as Nick Fury here. He brings his signature charm to the role of a much younger and naive Nick Fury, where we see a lighter side to the character, with Jackson really nailing the role. Larson and Jackson are the two leads and their chemistry throughout the film works well because of the actor’s commitment. Also, look out for Goose the Cat as it may just be the best furry friend ever featured in film history.
Visually effects wise, Captain Marvel looks stunning. There was only a handful of shots that didn’t look that great, while the rest looked so polished and detailed. Since Samuel L Jackson is playing a younger version of Nick Fury, Marvel decided to use a de-aging technique to make him look younger, and it’s crazy how insanely good it looks. It blends in so well that you buy into the fact that you are looking at a younger Samuel L Jackson during the whole damn thing.
My only real complaint with Captain Marvel, is that some of the characters in the film, just end up being pure fan service at the end of the day. The film does contain lots of callbacks that does tie lots of loose ends in the MCU. However, the ones that don’t work are the appearances of Agent Colson (Clark Gregg), Ronan (Lee Pace) and Korath (Djimon Hounsou). While seeing those characters are cool (especially Agent Coulson), They ultimately had no real consequence to the plot.
Overall, Captain Marvel is another fun and great addition to the MCU. It’s a crowd-pleasing fun action movie that audiences will go and have a great time watching. This movie rocks, and the long wait for Endgame is going to be unbearable for the next couple weeks….
Note: I saw Captain Marvel in IMAX and it is so worth paying extra for it. The movie has a lot of sequences that fill the IMAX aspect ratio, which makes the film more immersive, and adds so much detail to the visuals and action sequences.
9/10
Captain Marvel is Now Playing Nationwide
On The Clock 