The latest addition to the Marvel Comic Universe, “Captain Marvel” dazzles audiences breathtaking special effects and colors that help to enhance what amounts to a perfectly average superhero movie.
Wonderfully choreographed fight scenes and chases are prevalent, and serve to inject the appropriate amount of heart-racing action into the film. The space battle scene at the end of the movie was particularly well done. Marvel films are known for their bright and saturated color palette, but “Captain Marvel” took it to a new level with the title character’s photon blasts and costume.
The story was nothing more than an average action hero plotline, although I was pleased with the “twist” that comes part way through the movie. I use the term twist lightly, as it was relatively obvious for anyone who’s seen other Marvel films. Nonetheless, I won’t spoil it here. However, aside from this twist, the plot was rather boilerplate. There was nothing special about the story.
I was also pleased with the path filmmakers chose to take regarding the feminist attitude of the movie. It was without a doubt pro-woman, even going so far as to depict some of the hardships and discrimination Carol Danvers faced during her time in the Air Force. The film focused on women’s issues and excellently portrayed Captain Marvel, a character that Kevin Feige, Marvel’s President, has confirmed to be the most powerful hero introduced in the MCU to date, as a woman.
However, this focus never detracted from the quality of the film. I know of people who were worried the film would be a vehicle for a political message and sacrifice its story trying to make a statement. I can confidently say that, while the film does make a statement, it does not sacrifice itself to achieve this goal. “Captain Marvel” is two things: an important step forward for women in media, and a pretty good movie.
As far as how the film connects to the rest of the MCU, it was very cool to see a young Nick Fury in the early days of S.H.I.E.L.D. and how he was inspired to start the Avengers Initiative. It was also awesome to see into the Kree civilization years before the events of “Guardians of the Galaxy.” However, there was one choice the filmmakers made that baffled me. The inclusion of Goose the cat, later revealed to be a tentacled alien creature, was bizarre and inadequately explained. Without spoiling too much, I’ll just say that I hated the important role that Goose played near the end of the film, and thought his character was the most childish and un-humorously silly part of the whole film.
The acting was solid throughout the film. Brie Larson did an exceptional job as Captain Marvel, joined in typical brilliant form by Samuel L. Jackson, who delivered his performance through a CGI de-aged face. Jude Law also delivered a notable performance. There wasn’t a bad performance in the movie.
“Captain Marvel” is a pretty good movie. It’s about what fans have come to expect from the entertainment titan that is Marvel Studios. It was perfectly average for a Marvel film. That being said, even Marvel’s worst isn’t that bad, so this average Marvel movie was fairly good.