Just got back from the first local showing of Captain Marvel, and after spending weeks reading about how questionable it was going to be, how Brie Larson was terrible, and the film was a mess...
Happy to report that none of that is true.
(Pretty sure there are no serious spoilers in this review.)
Let’s start with reassuring the naysayers and incels who demanded that Brie Larson smile at them — (because, they claim, she never smiled in the trailers — which is not actually true). Brie Larson, as Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, smiles, she grins, she laughs, she chuckles, she makes snarky jokes. And she is serious and sad, as well. She is a fully-rounded and emotionally expressive character. Humorously, the film even includes a motorcycle-riding jerk who demands Captain marvel smile for him. She steals his motorcycle. Well done, Captain.
The second (and first real) worry about the film was the “de-aging” CGI that was used to make Samuel L. Jackson, as Nick Fury, and Clark Gregg, as Agent Coulson, look 30 years younger. Well, it does. Mostly. Jackson’s de-aging was all but flawless throughout the film. There was never a moment that took me out of the story, and into the uncanny valley, thinking his face looked odd. Unfortunately that was not true with Agent Coulson, whose face never seemed animated and looked plastic in almost every scene. Never the less, CGI has come a long way since the CGI resurrection of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarken in 2016’s Rogue One, a Star Wars Story. When done right, CGI human faces are now pretty amazing.
But, OK, how was the movie? It was exceptional. It was every bit as good as Wonder Woman, and as good as the best of the MCU films, like Captain America: the First Avenger, and Spider-Man: Homecoming. In fact it was substantially better, as a film, than Black Panther (which, while a very good film in many ways, and an important film, was structurally flawed and poorly plotted).
The film is tight, there’s very little that does not advance the plot or build characters. There are no dangling loose ends, no plot holes, no dull stretches of filler that leave you wishing someone would shoot someone just to have something happen. The film has a standard three act structure that proves just why that structure works so well for in film making.
The film has fewer fight scenes and car chases than most summer tent pole movies, but those that it has are well structured, easy to follow and, especially the ultimate space battle, exhilarating to watch.
OK, there is one slight plot hole. Remember that time she steals the jerks motorcycle? Well, at the same time, she ditches her green and grey Kree space soldier uniform for an outfit conveniently displayed on a mannequin in front of a strip mall store (and it fits perfectly! Quel surprise). This happens somewhere near Edwards Air Force base, where she lands after plummeting down from space about 20 minutes into the movie. OK fine. So she drives for a bit, meets Fury, they go to the secret base where The Avengers started out at the start of that movie (a nice call back) and, from there they steal a plane and fly to Louisiana. A few scenes later, there she is back in her Knee uniform, 2,500 miles from where she left it (after, presumably, stripping naked and slipping into a stolen tee shirt and jeans on a sunny sidewalk in southern California). OK, a quibble. But these are the things I obsess about. What, did her uniform compress down and fit into her decoder ring? Oh, yeah, and the Steri-Strips Fury uses to hold the edges of the wound over his eye vary from three to two in the course of one scene.
OK, back to the movie.
There are lots of nice references to previous MCU films. Ronan the Accuser is back, and there is a bit of fleshing out just who the Accusers are. There are several close shaves for Fury’s left eye, which he still has in this film (ha, ha, eyepatch humor). Djimon Hounsou also reprises his role as Korath from Guardians of the Galaxy.
People who remember th 80’s will enjoy the sound track and the musical cues.
The film is very conscious that it is srongly targeted to an audience of young girls and women who deserve more super heroes to call their own, and it delivers that sensibility in spades. And even as a guy, I did not feel left out or diminished by a film that wears it’s strong female identity on its sleeve. But there is no male bashing, just several female characters, like Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), Carol’s best friend, and the Kree soldier Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan), and the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Benning) who have real parts to play that affect the plot and whose characters routinely pass the Bechdel test.
And there’s the cat, Goose, who was called Chewie in the comics but, I guess Disney who owns Star Wars, didn't want to allow Disney, who owns the MCU, to use part of their intellectual property. But it was OK to steal the name from Anthony Edwards’ character in Top Gun, from Paramount, not a Disney property. Much like Groot, Goose manages to steal all the scenes he is in. Quite a feat for an occasionally CGI cat. Well, I say “cat,” but…
Overall, this is a well-made, very enjoyable film. It’s exciting, sometimes charming, often funny. The characters are well-realized and the cast does an exceptional job bringing them to life (except Coulson’s CGI face). And yes, it would seem that Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel is, by far, the strongest hero in the MCU arsenal. Like, by FAR.
Oh, and, by the time it’s over, you will know for certain whether Captain Marvel will be making an appearance in Avengers: End Game next month.