CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019) - Unremarkably unmarvelous

Captain Marvel is a 2019 superhero film, the twenty-first in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first in the MCU to feature a female lead. Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Lashana Lynch, Jude Law, Annette Bening, the film follows Vers AKA Carol Danvers AKA Captain Marvel, an alien Kree soldier who crash-lands on Earth in pursuit of a group of shape-shifting aliens called Skrulls who have infiltrated the planet. While on Earth, she partners up with agent Nick Fury and finds out that she might have had a past on Earth before, a secret kept hidden from her by the people she used to trust.

I think this is the first time I've watched a Marvel movie and came out disappointed. By this point in time, Marvel Studios has long-since figured out what makes a good, solid movie and their recent "phase" of superhero flicks from Captain America: Civil War up until now has consistently met their mark with what they were going for. However, watching Captain Marvel honestly felt like watching a Marvel movie from 2010. It feels less like the polished, well-thought out Marvel formula that we've seen in the past three years of quality Marvel movies and feels more like a Thor or a Captain America: The First Avenger--back when Marvel was still trying to figure out how to make these movies work.

And the difference is right now in 2019, we live in a world that is so, so saturated with superhero media that every single work has to have something about it that stands out. Black Panther came in with a fresh new perspective with a new culture that's never been portrayed in a superhero film. Avengers: Infinity War said "hell, let's cram in LITERALLY EVERY CHARACTER WE HAVE". These movies have their own distinctive taste and style that sets them apart from other movies of their genre, and it's this very sense of style that Captain Marvel unfortunately lacks utterly and completely.

The story is pretty bare-bones. The action scenes are barely passable. The cinematography is so incredibly dull. The music isn't at all memorable. The villain is so unremarkable that there really isn't anything you CAN say about them, which is very unfortunate considering most superhero movies released in the past few years have done very well with crafting great villains with few exceptions. 

The Skrulls I thought were really underutilized. Within the story, this is for a very deliberate reason that is apparent once you've watched the movie, but while I liked the change, I think we as an audience really lose out on some great moments that could have happened if the movie really embraced the idea of "shape-shifting aliens" as the villains. I mean, it's a whole army of Mystiques for crying out loud. There is a lot of really cool deception stuff they could have done. But side note: great props for using practical effects and makeup rather than CGI for the Skrulls. They look great.

The acting is fine for the most part, especially Lashana Lynch who gave the only really good performance as Maria Rambeau (and Samuel L. Jackson, of course). But the biggest weak link is Brie Larson, herself. And boy, does she try hard with what she's given, but honestly I think she just has some really poor writing weighing her down. I don't know what it was but half of her lines were honestly BAD. Thank Christ it's not nearly as bad as her performance in those awful trailers (side note: the marketing team done her DIRTY with those trailers), but it's a pretty unfortunate sign when basically everyone in the cast is doing a bang-up job except the lead. 

And I really wouldn't care about it as much if this was just any other Marvel movie. Hell, it's a better movie than Ant-Man and the Wasp, a movie I actively forget exists. But this movie was really supposed to be this grand feminism icon event that inspired girls everywhere to know that they, too, can become superheroes. And it... well it really wasn't that. The story isn't nearly as good as telling a female empowerment story as, say, Wonder Woman, in large part because the movie is trying to do so many different things at once.

Is the movie a female empowerment story about Carol breaking free from the outside forces that try to control her and tell her what she needs to be? Is it a buddy cop movie with Samuel L. Jackson about an alien girl hunting down Skrulls in a planet she's not familiar with, ultimately finishing up with a surprise metaphor about immigration? Is it a story about Carol finding her sister and regaining the life she once lost and reconnecting with the people she once considered family? Well, the movie tries to do all three and succeeds and none of them, making no real attempt to tie any one storyline with the other and ultimately ending up with this jumble of a movie that meanders and falls flaccid. 

Final Verdict

Captain Marvel is a good-enough movie that manages to capture your attention long enough so that most people will be entertained for a few days before likely forgetting most of the movie. It tries to do a lot while succeeding in little and comes across as pretty bland and unmarvellous. It works well enough, but feels like it should have gone through a few more drafts.

Score: C+

If I had to make just a few changes to improve the movie, I'd say just pick one or two of the storylines mentioned above and focus on improving those instead. Remove either Samuel L. Jackson or Maria Rambeau and instead further build Carol's relationship with one of those two characters. I'd probably choose to keep Maria because her relationship with Carol is both more interesting, more inspiring, and frankly I didn't see what Nick Fury really added to this movie. That means eliminating the Skrull-immigration subplot completely and keeping them just as straight villains in this movie. The twist can come in a Captain Marvel sequel and I think would bear more weight at that point since we've really gotten to know them as villains. Finally, take the female empowerment subplot and make it actually a subplot that builds on and reinforces the main theme of the movie.

Oh and just take out the cat. That cat will haunt my nightmares from now on.