Captain Marvel (2019) Movie Review

CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

You know what they say, captain makes the controversy. Well..that's what people were saying prior to Captain Marvel's cinematic debut. Political and gender related strifes caused the latest addition to the Marvel cinematic universe to stir up countless amounts of disputes among fans. As a result, fans began to worry that the precursor to arguably the most anticipated movie in recent years would fall flat and leave little impact on the overbearing story as Captain Marvel is being built up to be a key player in the Avengers: Endgame. Now she's here. The latest heroine to brace the big screen and how does she do? Fine. Just fine. 

Taking place in the year 1995, our story begins with Vers as she is continually urged by her mentor and commander Yon-Rogg to keep her emotions and powers in check in order to prevail in battle against their planets long-standing rivals, the Skrulls. Following a rescue mission, Vers is soon abducted though manages to fight her way free from Skrull capture where she soon finds herself stranded on Earth where she unintentionally brings the war between these two alien races and begins learning more about her secretive past. As I said before, before arriving on Earth, the movie is extremely boring and written horribly. We are given little reason to care about either race in this supposed intergalactic war (at this point in the film) and even less of a reason to care about our main heroine Carol Danvers and her team of lazily built strike team members. That's not to say that the movie doesn't have glimmers of light in terms of story as mid way through the second act is when the movie starts to flow well. Relationships start being built, emotions are being portrayed and good plot points are being created. This is particularly done by the third act as there is a genuinely good swerve in the film which creates the potential for impeccable story-telling which is capitalised on safely and exceptionally. 

When more and more footage started being shown prior to the movie's release, many people were sceptical on Brie Larson's performance as Carol Danvers, which is where the seeds of criticism were planted. And unfortunately, the judgement was fair. Brie Larson as Captain Marvel for majority of the movie showed little emotion and I don't think this was Larson's fault. Some of the dialogue at the beginning and even towards the end of the film was just horrific and lacked little humour and human emotion to be the main character for a movie as important as Captain Marvel. And yes I do know she is a dead serious character in the comics but that shouldn't matter. Movies I have no quarrel with being different to the original source material but if you want to change the character in the way that won't upset fans, commit. Here Carol was shown to be almost bipolar as in one scene she is stoic and doesn't take humour lightly and in literally the following she is spouting jokes like an intoxicated college kid. Balance is a very important thing to keep in mind when making superhero movies, thats why films like Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy succeeded because their directors and writers knew how to blend drama with comedy well. But I've got to say that I would have hated this movie if it wasn't for the second and third acts, Captain Marvel would have been in shambles. With competent writing and focusing on the side characters more, these acts show why this movie both succeeded and failed at it's goal. Much of the screen time is given to side characters and all the best lines seem to go to characters who aren't our leads, particularly Maria who delivers a scene-stealing monologue.

Like I said before, Captain Marvel was never going to succeed in the same ways Iron Man or Batman did (and no, it's not because of their genders), it's because Carol Danvers simply isn't all that relatable. The movie goes for this mix of comedy and drama but ultimately gets pulled down with sub-par writing and acting which is either hit or miss depending on the dialogue Brie is given. Overall, I enjoyed Captain Marvel but I doubt I'll be revisiting it anytime soon. Also the 90's references, yeah they were pretty obnoxious.  

OVERALL

6 / 10