Captain Marvel review, it’s above average-and that’s OK

Just how did a movie within the MCU become a political lightning rod? The fact that many people have strong opinions about Captain Marvel before the film’s been released is testament as to how much cinema and social media have evolved since Iron Man in 2008. A Captain Marvel film in 2008 would’ve seemed like the stuff of fancy, now it signals the next era of Marvel film making. This works for-and against it. The end result is that Captain Marvel is a very entertaining film that has very similar elements from the 19 films in the MCU the preceded it.

It is interesting how political and skewed the news has been about this film though. One person who was in the audience during my showing said that they thought that Captain Marvel was originally written with the man as a lead and that it was gender switched, a la, Ghostbusters, to placate today’s trends. I’ve also read some articles online about how Captain Marvel was nothing more than military propaganda. In reality, Captain Marvel is film about a character, who has been around for decades, and does have Earth memories of being a Air Force pilot.

What’s also true is that the film is quite entertaining. It takes a while to get to the period when it’s completely entertaining, but once Carol Danvers lands on Earth the film kicks into gear and really has fun. It’s about this time that Nick Fury enters the film and it takes on a buddy cop feel from the 90’s.

It’s not as humor heavy as some are expecting. There are some nice one liners, but for the most part its dry quips never hit home as often as Korg from Thor: Ragnorak or the dialogue between the Guardians of the Galaxy. In Captain Marvel the laughs are almost exclusively given to Fury, Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn) and the vast differences in technology between the 90s and now.

The action sequences are very good, the sound is amazing, the soundtrack is spot on and Brie Larson as Captain Marvel is very good. She’s a dry, confident super power who realizes that she’s the strongest force in the universe and swaggers accordingly.

There are a couple elements of the film that didn’t add up as well as Disney would’ve liked. Mainly the friendship between 90’s era Carol Danvers and her best friend, Maria Rambeau, played by Lashana Lynch doesn’t connect. They were best friends back in the day, but Rambeau (is this a play on Rambo…?) has since retired and lives on farm in the south east-and conveniently has a box of all of Danver’s old stuff.

Samuel L. Jackson as a young looking Fury works great, as does Mendelsohn who oozes charm in character or in voiceovers are particular bright spots. The cat also steals many scenes later on in the film. Captain Marvel is very entertaining and serves as a great jumping off point to Avengers: Endgame. If anything, the addition of Captain Marvel serves as a needed punch to the chest for an Avengers film that might’ve left fans feeling defeated. One of the post credit sequences sets up Endgame and leaves audiences wanting a Dirty Harry style end to Thanos and his finger snap.

Overall, Captain Marvel works and is a quickly paced popcorn film and that’s OK. This is an above average MCU film that you’ll want to see more than a couple of times. It’s loud, fun and fits very nicely within the films that have come before it. Moreover, it also sets the stage nicely for Avengers: Endgame, in which Captain Marvel might just (hopefully) up her game.