Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel was not a very well-known character before she was given her own film in 2019 right after the release of the eventful Avenger: Infinity War. Growing from a gender swap of a once male character after transition through several different hero labels and names (even Ms Marvel originally) Carol Danvers would become known as one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, but she never truly clicked with people throughout her comic book runs, which meant there was great potential with this film, as it could act as a way of endearing her to the general public the same way it did characters like Iron Man, Thor and Captain America previously. However, the road to success was not as clean for Captain Marvel, being saddled with awful advertising and plenty of ”controversies” surrounding comments made by the lead actress, Brie Larson, which resulted in some viewing the film as anti-male. Even ignoring these complications, it wasn’t really grabbing people from its trailers alone, and after all was said and done, it didn’t do much to leave that strong an impact once people finally saw it. On the capital planet of an alien race known as the Kree, Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson) is an amnesiac soldier for the Kree who is being taught to master her powers by her master, Yon-Rogg (played by Jude Law) and defend her planet from a shape-shifting alien species known as Skrulls, who are led by commander Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn). After being kidnapped by the Skrulls, she escapes and lands on Earth to discover that Talos is searching for a US air pilot, Wendy Lawson (played by Annette Bening) who Carol seems to recognize from her repressed memories. She runs into a young and still inexperienced Nick Fury (played again by Samuel L. Jackson) and the two decide to work together to find Lawson while evading the shape shifting Skrulls, gradually learning more about Carol’s past and her real life on earth with her best friend Maria Rambeau (played by Lashana Lynch), and discovering the truth behind the situation involving the war between the Kree and the Skrulls, which will cause her to awaken more of her powers and eventually take up the title of Captain Marvel. The movie was very successful from a box office perspective, becoming the first female-led superhero film to succeed over $1 billion, but it doesn’t really feel like that came from the film’s quality (moreso due to good placement as coming out right after Infinity War) Though not terrible by any means and at least contains some harmless aspects that make it watchable, it has many glaring issues that hold it back from being a great film.

One of the biggest problems this film faced was with how incredibly safe and generic its presentation was for a new origin film with what should be a crucial character going forward in your universe. It feels very akin to previous origin stories like Kenneth Branagh’s Thor or Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First America, movies with very run-of-the-mill plots with a less than favorable execution that were only given leeway due to coming with a fresh universe and being stuck with characters that were difficult to translate into the cinematic medium. But while those films had other elements that kept the negatives balanced out, this one mostly plays the plot safe and focuses a lot on elements that aren’t made interesting. There are components to this story that could be interesting including Carol’s backstory and even a bait-and-switch involving the Skrulls halfway through the film, but they’re so jumbled and are so inconsequential that they almost feel like a side note. It is a very cliched and safe picture that contains little to no surprise, goes at a pace that while not awful, is made more annoying through little investment in the topic of focus, and it isn’t doing anything that unexpected or lively for a character that should have a more interesting origin film. The directing in this movie is really the killer for this film with co-directing team, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck not doing very well working at the helm of this film. While they have a limited but critically successful assortment of films like Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story and Mississippi Grind, they don’t scream like the right people for this kind of space-fairing, action sci-fi comic book movie, and you can feel that they don’t bring any unique flair to the picture to make it any less boring or fresh.  The screenplay is also no very good, with Boden and Fleck, along with fellow screenwriters Nicole Perlman, Meg LeFauve and Geneva Robertson-Dworet not doing much to show some of their inexperience with how unimaginative and stale the film feels from a dramatic and a comedic stance. With this said however, while the film isn’t very engaging, its not the worst to get through and there’s not too many moments that are painful or overly forced (outside of a few). It would’ve fair better if it came out around the time of these other origin stories when the space wasn’t packed with more unique films to compete with.

The characters are unfortunately not made especially interesting, which is a problem when its whole purpose is to set up a role that should be important going forward. Nothing about Captain Marvel’s backstory stands out or feels fleshed out, and its a shame because from how the character has been perceived in the comics, there’s something there which would maker a fun role to see on the big screen.  It doesn’t seem to be the most complex or deep character by any means, but she comes off as a wise-cracking, cocky, maybe a little reckless, but has the power to back it up and has a lot of fun while doing it. In the film, these elements are kind of there (at least to the point that she isn’t an entirely bland stick in the mud that punches things), but it isn’t pushed far enough to really land and the lack of depth behind backstory and limited personality keeps her from really working. Brie Larson is kind of half-and-half in the portrayal as well, once and a while she has an emotionless face and a lost delivery that makes it feel pretty sloppy in parts which either comes from a directing problem or her own missteps, but other times she feels like she’s into the role, has occasional spouts of good expression and, while feeling more soft and approachable to the more aggressive and bluntly serious portrayal in the comics,  it can still work if given more time and offered stronger guidance. The side characters are passable, but mostly underused. Nick Fury is mostly a punchline in the film, he doesn’t do anything particularly cool, the revelation about his eye-patch is pretty stupid, and diving into the cool ambiguous past of Nick Fury is slightly dampened with the knowledge that this is how he started off, but the charm of Samuel L Jackson is unmatchable and the relationship he has with Captain Marvel is quite nice, mainly coming from the two actors chemistry which is pretty solid and the two work well off each other (it would be a relationship that would be fun to see grow), Lashana Lynch as Monica Rambeau does pretty solid in her small part, portraying a pretty convincing tough figure pretty well (almost better than Larson in regards to who could’ve been a more effective Captain Marvel), but is rather pointless in the grand scheme of things. Ben Mendelsohn is good and is given a reveal halfway through the film that does take his character in a better direction than what was set up, but he is made to be pretty silly. Jude Law is largely forgettable as well as most of the other roles surrounding the Kree despite featuring equally talented actors like Djimon Hounsou and Gemma Chan. Arguably the funniest part of the film is this alien cat later named Goose, as the reveal of what he is and what he can do does result in a decent laugh to the film’s credit.

Even though this is a Marvel movie, the film is surprisingly lacking many laughs. It doesn’t need to force in any humor if it doesn’t require it, but not only is the story not thoughtful or engaging enough to warrant a limited amount of levity, but comedy can help endear characters to the audience (which is what Marvel has done with its humor), so that element removed does keep a lot of these roles pretty stale. Every once and a while the actors get a small chuckle,  but overall its a surprisingly barren predictable script that is also very much drenched in this 90s atheistic and attitude that doesn’t much to help make it very interesting. Even with the idea of setting it in the 90s, nothing is brought up or turned into a joke that hasn’t already been done before in other movies (a lagging computer is not interesting anymore as its literally decades old at this point). Again, its appreciated that nothing painful or annoying is said, but it doesn’t really feel like anything is being said, so it leaves almost no impression. The cinematography by Ben Davis is very straightforward even sometimes pretty sloppy, the music by Pinar Toprak is fine but very easily blends in with other films, even a lot of the action is run of the mil. It feels like you could have some fun with this character’s set of powers to create some more hands-on, but also high-flying action scenes, but for the most part, its pretty basic until the climax where its occasional okay. There’s a spaceship flying scene in a canyon that feels very much like something out of Independence Day (and that isn’t a good thing), but a fight scene in space both in the craft and outside of it are pretty cool looking. Some of the effects in this film ranges from being real good to kinda awkward-looking. Most of the ageing effects look good, especially on Samuel L Jackson and Clark Gregg, as well as the visual on Ben Mendelsohn and the Skrulls overall.

Captain Marvel is an average Marvel movie with some flaws that are noticeable, but overall doesn’t feel completely alien to the franchise. The general public are getting bored with simple comic book movies, and its why this film isn’t getting a pass like others before it that did very similar things, but were made practically a decade apart, so its going to stand out when one doesn’t push its far enough. With that said, while it is bland, messily constructed and not the most engaging, it isn’t truly awful and contains enough elements that would be fine for a single viewing. The characters are fun, the acting is good in parts, the chemistry shared between the leads is done well, some of the the action is fun, and while the origin of this character isn’t anything great and the role could use more depth and personality, there’s room to grow and will be an element that is hopefully improved upon in later projects. It definitely needs a script update, as well as better directing, but as a whole, there’s pretty much nothing that’s really anger inducing, especially after what it was built up to be. Needs some improvements, but overall, there is still something that at least does deserve to be Marvelled at.