Captain Marvel Review

March 7, 2019 at 3:07am
By Jason Stettner

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to grow as we experience yet another origin story. This entry in the long running series acts as an origin and reference to a number of characters. Some previously existing, others brand new to this movie. The main focus of this tale is set on Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers (Brie Larson). She's become a noble warrior of the Kree, working closely with her mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law).

In this society that's war focused she's part of an on-going battle against the Kree's core enemy the Skrulls. The Skrulls are a race of shape shifters, which makes them harder to find as they can hide amongst any species. During Carol's regular life she's haunted by vivid dreams of perhaps a past life, and these force her to explore this past as they're uncovered. That's the general setup of the film, it's about Carol dealing with problems as she attempts to reach her full potential. These problems are largely focused on her identity.

There are many twists to this cosmic entry as you do get a good look at Earth in the 1990's. With this being a prequel there are many references, and origins to characters or concepts we know from the other films. These definitely do stick out while you're watching, it's neat to see yet at the same time it does distract from the main focus of the action. I will also mention that Goose; the cat, was awesome and a stand out.

For the most part I certainly enjoyed Captain Marvel, it feels like a typical hero film from the group. I did however feel it dragged a bit during the middle, but there were some surprises and I appreciated those. We get some additional context into the back stories of certain characters and objects. I thought Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) was fantastic here, would love to see a solo film from him. The de-aging technology was perfect, it just felt like a regular performance and I didn't even think about it not being natural the entire time.

When it comes to the lead, I felt Larson came across as a bit flat during some scenes. They all had some good jokes, that produced laughs. I still didn't quite feel a full sense of charisma from Larson, though I'm not entirely sure if that was desired with her being a numb warrior. She's a very powerful character, perhaps too strong in comparison to others though it should be interesting to see if she ever meets anyone that's comparable in the future. For the most part the visuals were great, I did notice some dips in the visual quality of the CGI though the effects age wise were perfect.

The Conclusion

Captain Marvel delivers a fairly typical origin story that's a solid entry with a very powerful being. This is certainly a step further into the cosmic side that's sure to follow Endgame, yet still grounded on Earth. There's a good cast of characters, the narrative is generally enjoyable and it's a good time.

I just felt that some points came across as a bit slow and that the lead didn't quite have that spark that others have had in the universe. Still, she had some great moments and I loved the connection of her coming to a realization of what's required to become a hero. A balance of being powerful; yet still connecting to what it means to be human, especially when one gets knocked down. There was some solid action, and the whole flashback style of taking it to the 90's was interesting.

Still, some of the references felt like they distracted my attention from the main focus of what was going on. Captain Marvel definitely kicks ass, I look forward to seeing her interact with other characters as I think she'll shine going forward in ensemble films or sequels. There just needs to be more of a relaxed style to her as the character got stronger as she eased into figuring out who she is.

Captain Marvel Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Disney

Rating Overall: 7.5