I watched Captain Marvel for the first time last night and overall I thought it was a slightly above average film. It had it’s good moments but overall it wasn’t anything special. Here’s my detailed review. Minor spoilers ahead.
1. The lead star
We all know the controversy surrounding Brie Larson and how she has both male and female critics for how she is as a person. But for this take, I’ll be focusing on the actress’s on screen performance and how her character’s scripts were written rather than her political views and personality. Her performance as Captain Marvel was really mediocre at best. The way she performed in this film made it seem like she wasn’t really passionate about the role. She tried so hard to be funny but it usually flopped throughout the film. In my opinion there are so many other actresses that would have been better suited for the role, such as Margot Robbie and Amanda Seyfried.
2. The plot
The story itself was surprisingly pretty decent, not the best but still good enough to keep me interested. The protagonist is basically an amnesiac who can’t remember her past. As the story progresses she remembers more about herself, the source of her powers and learns who the real antagonists are.
3. Thankfully it wasn’t really a 4th wave feminist film
Prior to watching this film, I assumed it was going to be another cheesy 4th wave feminist movie but surprisingly and thankfully there was hardly any references to feminism in the film. Having her get punched in the face by a male character and then get dominated by the same male character a couple minutes into the film is going to disappoint those who were hoping the film to be a hardcore feminist film.
3. Great 1990s references
One of the few things that did impress me were the references to how society was in the 1990s. From showing popular companies, fashion and technology of the 1990s, the film did a good job in portraying a decade that is often neglected in fiction.
4. Protagonist overshadowed by secondary characters
Captain Marvel is pretty much overshadowed by many of the characters she interacts with, especially Nick Fury. I felt that Samuel L. Jackson was the real star of this film. His character got a lot of screen time, he was far more humorous than Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and even stood his ground throughout the film despite having no superpowers.
5. Skrulls vs Kree
I think this is the best part of the movie. We actually saw an ongoing conflict between two alien civilizations, The Skrulls and the Kree. At first it seemed like another example of the trope where the more “human looking” of the two alien species were the good ones but as the story progressed we learn that it’s the other way around. It’s not very often that a movie portrays the “scary” non human looking aliens as friendly, so I think that was one of the films strongest parts.
6. Captain Marvel isn’t much without her powers
For so much hype that was put on “the most powerful hero of the MCU” the character of Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers is portrayed as a character that failed on various occasions prior to acquiring her powers. It shows her crashing in multiple vehicles, struggling in boot camp etc. Not to mention that she can’t handle Yon-Rogg in a regular fight without using her powers on two occasions in the film, at the beginning and at the climax. It was even worse at the climax because instead of accepting Yon-Rogg’s challenge to a rematch, she simply incapacitates him by blasting him a few yards away with her powers and then delivers a cheesy one liner, basically admitting that she can’t handle him in a regular fight. Technically this kind of vulnerability surrounding Captain marvel isn’t really a bad thing, if she were a flawless character, she’d be another Rey(Mary Sue). And it shows that she really is only human without her powers. Now yes it does show her getting back up from every fail she’s been in, so that somewhat redeems her character but it was a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment. Even then a good superhero is one that can stand his or her ground without their powers. See Thor in his first movie, Black widow’s character, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Captain America and Tony Stark, they can all still accomplish impressive feats without their powers/suits.
7. Goose the cat/flerken
Goose is a very interesting character and is probably the most powerful character in the film. While hardcore marvel fans might have known upon first sight that Goose is no normal cat, I liked that they kept Goose’s true powers hidden until the climax of the film which probably surprised many moviegoers who have no idea what a flerken is. Goose affects a certain character in a weird way that probably angered a lot of fans due to the comical nature of it.
8. The action scenes
The action scenes where pretty decent, especially in the climax of the film. Not as good as other MCU movies like Thor Ragnorok, Black Panther, captain America civil war, Iron Man 3 and the avengers films but still good nonetheless. The soundtrack gave the action scenes a major boost.
9. Great ending
The ending was very good because it added hype to avengers endgame by showing how the name for the avengers came to be.
10. End credits scenes
Perhaps the most anticipated part of the film where the scenes shown during the credits because it jumps forward to the present, during the events of endgame. Captain Marvel shows up and delivers a line but with a clearly confused look on her face due to the fact that Brie Larson has no idea what was going on because she was kept in the dark. However disregarding Brie Larson’s awkward delivery of her line, the scene was a good way to further hype the audience for Avengers: Endgame. There is also a post credits scene that was surprisingly more important than the mid credits scene despite being comical.
My overall rating of this film is 6.2/10. It wasn’t an atrocious movie but it also wasn’t even close to being the best MCU film. Most of the film’s strongest points didn’t involve Captain marvel but rather other events and characters. I wasn’t that impressed with Brie Larson’s performance and I don’t think she deserved the role. But I’ll give her credit for trying to look the part and developing the necessary martial arts skills to play Captain marvel. Nonetheless there are plenty of up and coming actresses who were better deserving of the role than Brie Larson. They did recast the actors for Bruce Banner and War machine, so I guess not all hope for the character of Captain Marvel is lost just yet.
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