The story follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Set in the 1990s, Captain M...
There have been three movies in the MCU, at least to me, that are lackluster at best and disappointingly bad at worst: “The Incredible Hulk”, “Iron Man 2” and “Thor: The Dark World”. Now you can add “Captain Marvel” to that list. This is the first MCU movie that I’ve seen that failed to deliver critically, in quite a while. However, there’s some good in this MCU film, as there is in the others. The supporting cast is downright phenomenal; the standouts being Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Goose the Cat. Jackson’s chemistry with Larson was surprising at times, there are a few chuckles and laughs here and there, the presentation set on Carol’s backstory was intriguing albeit for a short while, a few genuine surprises caught my eye and Stan Lee. Stan Lee’s always a win, god bless you for that beautiful tribute to him. But every other factor that made the later MCU films feel special is mind-numbingly absent here: the story knows what it wants to be but doesn’t set up a core plotline to follow, there’s no visual style to set it apart from other installments and no cohesive or hybrid tone set within the second and third act, the action sequences are entertaining but downright forgettable and no matter how hard she tries, Brie Larson was mis-cast in this role in every possible way. Whether it was the direction, the script or her choices, her acting could not get me 100% sold on her character and maybe the fact that she had to spew political garbage prior to the film’s release just made her performance all that more sour in my opinion. Your job is supposed to inspire people to put their butts in those seats to see your movie and instead you end up turning literally half of the target audience. Now people don’t see you as a hero, Brie. You heart might’ve been in the right place but you shoved your head too far up your ass. Maybe if they casted Emily Blunt, Charlize Theron or even Jessica Rothe for that instance, I’d relate to Captain Marvel more.
I really don’t understand the mentality of these executives in companies nowadays to push female empowerment down our throats. I get it, March is technically Woman’s History month, but we’ve had badass female leads like Sarah Conner, Laurie Strode and Ripley from the 70’s and 80’s but they worked out so well cause of the stories they were involved in and the fact that their femininity didn’t over-shadow everything else.....and some of these compelling feminist films that still exist today don’t push that narrative to disrespectful levels: Wonder Woman. Thelma and Louise. Persepolis. Wendy and Lucy. Mad Max: Fury Road. Hell, even Alita: Battle Angel managed to make it work. I’m not saying you can’t add politics in your movies but the main reason why we even go is to see intriguing storylines with intriguing characters so we can turn our brains off and have fun. Screw the agendas, screw the toxicity, screw the sex-shaming: just give me intriguing characters mixed with a cohesive story and I’m all good. You can have a political message in a movie and still have work out in the favor of the story but don’t jeopardize the quality of the product you’re putting out to the public to push an agenda that’s already drove away the fanbases of some of cinemas most popular franchises.
Is this film terrible? No, but it’s nowhere near as flawless as the critics are making it out to be. Is it the equivalent of Ghostbusters (2016) or The Last Jedi? In my opinion, not yet. Only one of those films were more offensive considering the backlash they received and how they practically killed their respective franchises. The MCU still has time to adapt and change into something truly remarkable but what they did here was just sad and I wouldn’t be surprised if we get another situation like The Last Jedi. Take this as a lesson, Marvel: we’ve been there for you for since the beginning and we have a month left before Endgame. I implore you: PLEASE don’t turn your back on us.
