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| Captain Marvel (2019) |
Okay, let me say off the bat that I really like the look of this film. There is a fairly heavy use of CGI, but I'd argue that this film makes a really good case for CGI over practical effects. We've come a long way since the early 2000s, and films that rely on computer-generated graphics don't need to be shunned anymore. There are some things you just can't do practically. Case in point, Carol Danvers' powers. These were great to watch, especially by the end. There's also, oh, I don't know, Samuel L. Jackson. Holy s***, Marvel have done fantastic jobs de-ageing various characters for specific scenes before, and it looked impressive enough with Michael Douglas, Kurt Russell and Michelle Pfieffer for just those moments. This was the entire movie. Samuel L. Jackson was de-aged by about 15 years for the entire film, and it was seamless. It's actually gone beyond the Uncanny Valley by this point. I'm freaked out that I'm not freaked out. I don't care if this is what we should come to expect from a movie's visuals by this point, I can still be impressed. It takes a lot of time, hard work and talent to pull something like this off, and it deserves a mention. I also briefly want to touch on how some of the internet have been viewing this movie. From the comments I've seen about the movie 'teaching young women to hate men', I'm convinced those people were watching an entirely different movie. There was little to no 'men are the worst' stuff in this movie, and when there was, it was always more subtextual. The movie promotes girl power, sure, but why is that a bad thing? It's not. And, of course, I'm not on the other side of this debate. I'm not saying that if you hate this movie you're a misogynist, absolutely not. To me, the way this movie handles this matter was a lot like how Wonder Woman did it. It was there, but it was treated intelligently and tastefully, and Captain Marvel is an excellent role model, with the way the movie handles its themes by the end.
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| Brie Larson as Vers |
I also just really like the character of Carol Danvers. I like that she's a little snarky and talks back a lot; I know a lot of people like that and it goes a long way to making the character seem real and relateable. I also love that there are basically three versions of the character: the Kree warrior, the human Air Force pilot, and the combination of the two. It's something you may not notice on your first watch, but there is a slight difference in the characters between the first two, and as she starts recovering her memories, the two characters sort of merge into one. It's not a huge focus, but it is there, and that's largely down to Brie Larson's acting. I've always been a fan of hers; I loved her character in Community, and she was great here as well. I touched on the subtleties I picked up on in her performance, but Larson goes a long way to helping that likeability I mentioned earlier come through as well. It's really easy to make some of those lines a little too hurtful, but Larson finds the perfect balance. The one thing I will say about Carol Danvers as a character is that she doesn't really get pushed that far. We never really see the character at her lowest low, or even at her highest high. I hate to compare this movie to other MCU films, but you kind of have to. We see Iron Man at his lowest low when he's in the cave. We see Captain America at his lowest low on multiple occasions. We see Doctor Strange at his lowest low when he loses function of his hands. We never really get that with Captain Marvel as, instead, we get the mystery of her past. I'll touch on that in a second, but I feel like there's still so much more to explore with the character that this film doesn't quite give us, and that does hold it back a little bit.
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| Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury |
That being said, I did like how the 'origin story' was structured here, as it plays around with the typical formula a little. A typical origin story will show us the character, then the inciting incident that gives them their powers and then finally show us who they are as a hero. It's not a 100% reverse of that order here, but it is somewhat backwards, and I like that. And messing around with the formula doesn't inherently make a movie better, but when it works hand in hand with the story you're telling, that's what elevates it. The other characters are all great too, for the most part. Nick Fury is as good as he's ever been. Dare I say it, this might be my favourite Nick Fury appearance. He's got so much personality here; a definite contrast from the stoic individual we've gotten in the past. What's great about it, however, is that it never feels out of character. It really comes across like the modern-day Nick Fury is a more hardened version of the Nick Fury we get here, and it also helps that Jackson has fantastic chemistry with Larson. I could watch these two go back-and-forth about almost any topic and it would never get boring.
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| Ben Mendelsohn as Talos |
Ben Mendelsohn plays a great Skrull, and I really like how the Skrulls are used in general. They're frightening, and that psychological element of not being able to trust anyone is handled really well, but what's great about them is how much comedy they squeeze out of them. There's an excellent balance with the Skrulls, and I love their inclusion in this story, which makes it kind of weird to say that I didn't quite get that from the Kree. I found their moments in the first act tended to drag a bit, and it took a while for the film to get going as a result. The movie sort of plops us in their world without explaining that much about it, and there's no 'fish-out-of-water' character to help explain things for the audience, resulting in some slightly painful expositional dialogue. I ultimately just didn't find the Kree as interesting as the Skrulls, and that translates to Jude Law's character. I liked him fine enough as a mentor figure to 'Vers', but he didn't really leave that much of an impression on me. Hell, I don't remember if the movie ever said his name out loud. I guess I could have used just a little more of a focus on the Kree and their customs in the first act, and that would have helped me get into the Kree-Skrull War a little more. I get that the key focus is supposed to be Carol, and that all works fine, but when the central conflict of the movie is effectively built upon this war, you kind of need to know more about it.
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| Jude Law as Yon-Rogg |
Despite a few shortcomings, Captain Marvel (2019) has good characters, good action, good laughs, good themes, good heart in places, and is just an all-round good movie. See it if you get a chance, preferably sooner rather than later, as I have a suspicion you'll want to be all caught up before what comes next... 8/10.
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