Since then Carol Danvers (formerly Ms. Marvel, now Captain Marvel) has held the spot as my favorite superhero. I have amassed a sizable collection of Ms./Captain Marvel collectibles over the years.
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| This is nowhere close to all of it. |
When the Captain Marvel movie was announced, I was both excited and worried. Excited that my favorite superhero was going to be getting her own movie, but worried that I'd either have too much "fan baggage" to enjoy the film or that my expectations would be so high that I'd be guaranteed a let-down.
It surprised most people to find out that I had barely even watched any trailers or promotional material for the movie. I knew I was going to see it, likely on opening weekend (as it turns out, I saw it twice), but I wanted to go in with as little information about the film as possible. I wanted to do my best to evaluate it for what it was without giving myself time to start nitpicking all the differences from the comic-books beforehand.
I like the Captain Marvel movie. I don't love it. I think most people will enjoy it. But, it's probably among the bottom half of MCU movies in terms of quality. Coming from me, that's not a huge knock on it. The only MCU film that I find not to be very good is Thor: The Dark World.
I have seen the movie twice now: Once by myself on Friday and another this morning with Celia. I liked it a little better the second time.
The script seemed to lack a little focus. I'm not sure what I would have done differently, given the story they were trying to tell, but I didn't really feel like the movie found its footing until we got to Earth and Nick Fury got hooked into the story. Sometimes it almost felt like a Superman story with Carol mostly working to overcome personal struggles and to figure out how to do the right thing. (1)
I wasn't hit particularly hard by the alleged "women's empowerment" theme. I can certainly see how someone's reading of the film could focus on that. It's definitely there, but it is not at all heavy-handed. Only the most cynical movie-goers will walk out of the theater bemoaning an unwelcome political message.
Once the plot got rolling, it worked pretty well. There's a "big switch" about 2/3 of the way through the movie that I thought was pretty well executed. The final battle really showed off how powerful this MCU version of Captain Marvel is meant to be.
Something about the way the Skrulls looked really bothered me for about the first half of the movie. It almost seemed like they didn't make it all the way through post-production. I also found the head Skrull's voice to be grating and distracting. Otherwise, the visual effects were pleasing. In particular, the addition of blue to Carol's energy-effect color palette worked well (especially considering the source of her powers in the MCU).
Brie Larson did a fine job in the role, but this version of Carol Danvers came off as somewhat flat and difficult to like, especially at first.(2) That's definitely a result of the memory-loss angle that's critical to this story (and has been an on-going and over-used gimmick in Carol Danvers stories for decades). Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Bening, and Jude Law also turned in strong performances.
One of my biggest disappointments is related to the setting. I was really hoping for more 90's nostalgia. It wasn't wholly absent, but with so much of the film taking place in space and in a secret military installation, there wasn't that much room for a full-on nostalgia trip.
I was similarly a little bit disappointed in the soundtrack. It certainly has some songs that I love, but I didn't think that any of them had any particularly effective "big moments" in the film. Celia told me that she thinks the soundtrack was maybe "for girls," so that may explain why I didn't connect with it as much as I'd have liked.
There was enough fan-service without it becoming a distraction. Goose (Chewie) was a fun inclusion. I also enjoyed the brief homage to the original comic-book Kree uniform. In the comics, Monica Rambeau briefly took the name "Captain Marvel," so it was nice to see her included. I can't imagine we've seen the last of her.
I was not particularly bothered by the changes to Carol's origin story. I'd known going in that the changes would have to be significant. Anything approaching the comic-book version would have been far too long winded and confusing for movie-goers.(3) I would have liked to have seen more of Carol's relationship with Mar-Vell, but I'm not sure it was possible given the way they chose to tell this story. I didn't mind the alternate source for both her Kree and energy-projection powers. In fact, I think they did a pretty good job of making it clear why she had both without it becoming too confusing.
Ultimately, if you enjoy MC films, you'll probably like this one. If you're growing tired of the MCU, then I'm not sure why you're reading this right now. Even if you're not particularly interested in Captain Marvel, the movie serves as a decent SHIELD and Nick Fury origin story. On the whole, it's an enjoyable if imperfect film. You should probably see it.
(1) Given that the original comic-book Captain Marvel was a not-so-subtle Superman rip-off, this doesn't really come as a surprise. Not to mention the Carol Danvers(Ms. Marvel)/Kara Danvers(Supergirl) connection.
(2) Of course, if you go by her recent comic-book portrayal, that's pretty true to source material. :/
(3) In the comics, Ms. Marvel didn't even have energy projection powers for a really long time. It wasn't until her powers got stolen by Rogue and she was subsequently experimented upon by the Brood that she got her cosmic blasty powers. Neither Rogue nor the Brood even exist in the MCU right now. It makes for more sense for Carol to be introduced to the MCU as she currently exists in the comics.
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