With the climatic end of Marvel’s Phase Three “Avengers
: Endgame” a month an a half away, Marvel Studios is squeezing in one more character origin story. And this one just happens to also be a “universe” origin story.
“Captain Marvel” stars Oscar-winner Brie Larson as military pilot Carol Danvers. She acquires radioactive powers (sort of the same scenario with “The Hulk” and
Fantastic Four” in respect.), so she has more energy than every other superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at least that’s what we’ve been told by Marvel head Kevin Feige.
“Captain Marvel” is primarily set in 1995, but there are also plenty of flashbacks to Danvers as a child and in the Air Force. Along the way we also get the back stories of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). Both actors are digitally de-aged to look younger and it’s by far the best de-aging I’ve ever seen you really don’t even notice, unlike what they did in “Aquaman” and “Furious 7 (granted that wasn’t exactly de-aging but you get the point)”.
Other than Marvel trying to establish a strong female stamp character presence, the main purpose of “Captain Marvel” is to provide fans with the final pieces of the puzzle before April’s epic “Endgame” finale. How was the Avenger initiative formed? How did Danvers become the key figure of the group? And what really happened to Fury’s left eye?
All of these are answered in “pop-up” moments throughout “Captain Marvel”. The visuals are of course pretty good but it’s the performances that really break the ice here.
Directors and co-writers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck helmed the indie 2015 drama “Mississippi Grind” (which I was not a fan of), that film co-starred Ben Mendelsohn, who appears here as the sorta villain is one of many scene stealers here along with a cat. Annette Bening seems to be having fun in her role as a Carol’s mysterious flight instructor. Yon-Rogg’s Jude Law is excellent here as Carol’s mentor/trainer.
The musical score was reminiscing of “Guardians of the Galaxy” with the 90’s flair. There isn’t much of a visual style here; it feels more like a phase 1 film like its trying to figure out what it is, no disservice to the phase one films. There is one movie that did the whole amnesia thing really well “The Bourne Identity”.
There’s 90s nostalgia peppered throughout, most of the film plays like a buddy cop film, then it turns to a sisterhood film in dealing with the loss of identity.
Caral Danvers is a Kree (though they call her Vers), sort of a police (Star) force. They hunt Skrulls, shape shifters the Kree have branded as terrorists.
I have only seen Brie Larson in “Kong: Skull Island and “Free Fire” both of which she was more of a supporting character merely along for the ride.
As for “Captain Marvel” she’s a fish out of water, she has a feistiness to her she is quite comical. She’s a bit more light hearted than Iron Man in her humor.
The 3D here was decent there was one particular fight towards the end with large items flying around in a nearly zero G atmosphere but the 3D was non existent.
Critics seem to be split on this and the audience score which started in the low 30s is now in the low 60s Rottentomatoes even admitted to standing up for the movie, removing well over 50,000 reviews in the 1st weekend.
There’s a great Stan Lee tribute in the open and a good “Easter egg” closing credits scene.
PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language)
REVIEW SCORE/ B-
