Marvel At This?

1995

When Iron Man got the MCU ball rolling over ten years ago, it was the first and last big risk that Marvel took on the big screen. Since that time, the films have been released at calculated times with specific intent and they’ve all been financially profitable. While characters such as Captain America and Thor are known by moviegoers with just a casual knowledge of comic books, other characters in the Marvel universe needed to be supported by these bigger names in order to build them up.

Black Panther is a perfect example of this need, as he was relatively unknown outside of comic book circles until he debuted in Captain America: Civil War. He benefited not only from the popularity of Captain America and almost every other hero in that film, but also from a brilliant performance by Chadwick Boseman. The Disney machine then turned up the hype for Panther’s solo film and then strategically placed its release between Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. To top it all off, Black Panther was actually very good, and put more behinds in seats than either Disney or Marvel could have dreamed.

That ability of feeding hype and releasing a film at just the right time greatly benefited Captain Marvel. Probably less familiar to general audiences than Black Panther, Captain Marvel arrived on the scene squarely planted between Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, ensuring Disney and Marvel that most fans of the MCU would go see the film no matter how unfamiliar they were with the character because the movie might feature some key information about the big Avengers/Thanos showdown in Endgame.

Spoiler Free Review Ahead!

The movie wastes no time jumping into Captain Marvel’s story. We learn that through dream sequences and memory extraction. Instead, directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck toss us into an opening sequence that features Marvel (Brie Larson) training with her mentor, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law). It quickly establishes Vers (Captain Marvel) as a self-assured person who’s a little trigger happy at times. We then get to see her join up with a Kree squad featuring Yon-Rogg, Korath (Djimon Hounsou, reprising his GOTG role), Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan), and others as they infiltrate a Skrull stronghold to rescue a Kree spy.

When that mission goes south, Vers finds herself on Earth in 1995 where she meets Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and a rookie SHIELD agent named Coulson (Clark Gregg). She’s also being tailed by a Skrull leader named Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). Eventually he catches up to her and Vers learns things about herself and others that change her entire outlook on the Kree/Skrull war and her own life.

The story plays out at a somewhat slow pace. Whether this was writing, direction, or editing, I’m not sure, but it kept me longing for something to happen during the film. It seemed to take forever for sequences to complete in the movie and when they finally did come to a close, the end result was dull.

The film’s characters were all over the place. Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau gave one of the film’s best performances as did Mendelsohn as Talos. Those two characters were well written and executed on the screen to perfection. Sadly they weren’t enough to keep this film interesting. Jude Law, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, and Annette Bening were all wasted in this film. Law wasn’t convincing in his role at all. Jackson seemed to be playing a character that was Nick Fury in name only, as he was pretty much reduced to comic relief in this film. Gregg’s role was limited and unnecessary. Bening just gave a bad performance. Her acting completely threw me out of the film while she was on screen.

Young Akira Akbar portrayed Maria’s daughter, Monica, and did so with youthful wonder. I loved her performance in the film and really wish that her excitement would have bled over into some of the other performances in the film.

Lee Pace also revives his monotonous Ronan for the film. Much like he did in Guardians, he stands around with a dull look on his face and holds his hammer. He’s only in the film for a few minutes, but they are the most boring minutes of all.

Sadly, Brie Larson’s performance was my least favorite in the film. Whether it was poor direction, weak writing, plain old bad acting, or a combination of these things, Larson gave quite possibly the weakest performance of all of Marvel’s MCU heroes. Almost all of the humor in the film felt forced and unnecessary, but especially so when delivered by Larson. It almost seemed as if she was attempting to portray the second coming of Tony Stark minus the money, comic timing, and alcoholism. She also reminded me of Thor prior to him being humbled and eventually becoming a true hero. Captain Marvel is just as cocky, but never really considers herself less than the best even after a major twist occurs about halfway through the film. I honestly hope that if and when she faces off against Thanos in Endgame, she gets humbled and experiences an attitude changing event that makes the character more interesting. She suffers from Superman syndrome, but instead of being so powerful that she becomes boring as Superman has often done in the past, she’s so powerful and cocky that it becomes annoying.

The film relies on 90’s nostalgia quite a bit. From music (which was actually pretty cool, especially during one of the final fight sequences) to an old Blockbuster video store, this film repeatedly reminds you that it takes place in 1995. I kept waiting for a Friends reference, but it surprisingly never came. The soundtrack was cool, but the score by Pinar Toprak was forgettable. I didn’t even notice it while the film dragged along.

The film does have some brilliant visuals. I’m not sure if it was Boden or Fleck, but one or both of them really love wide angle shots, and there are plenty of them in this film. They work to the film’s advantage and look great in 3-D. I also really enjoyed Stan Lee’s cameo in the film.

Ultimately this film falls flat. It constantly teases of greater things to come but nothing ever happens. Talos and Maria keep the film from being a total loss, and I really enjoyed the music and a lot of the film’s cinematography, but I wasn’t that impressed with this movie overall. It will definitely pull in big numbers based on the fact that it is a Marvel film and that it’s bookended by two of the most anticipated Marvel movies, but I don’t consider this to be one of Marvel’s better films.

As always, thanks for reading. I know that my opinion is probably in the minority, so please let me know in the comments what you think about this film.