After weeks of vigorously defending the casting of Academy Award-winning actress, Brie Larson, and her alleged comments about “hating white men,” I finally got to actually see the movie. Before I go any further in my review, let me say right off the bat – Brie Larson NEVER said she didn’t want white men to review her movie. If you continue arguing she did, that’s your prerogative but you would be rightfully deemed “ignorant.” Wanting more diversity from women and people of color in her press tour is not tantamount to “not wanting white people to see her movie.” And then, Larson, unnecessarily if I may, clarified her comments by stating “What I’m looking for is to bring more seats up to the table. No one is getting their chair taken away. There’s not less seats at the table, there’s just more seats at the table.” It’s disturbing that a huge chunk of the online film fan community is unable to look at the facts and continue displaying ignorance by pushing their erroneous, sexist agendas.
Positives – When the movie had Carol interacting with her best friend, Maria, and Nick Fury, it was a lot more enjoyable because we actually got to see some personality from Danvers. Throughout the movie, Larson’s Danvers is extremely stoic but having scenes with other actors like Sam Jackson or Lashana Lynch made her more likable. The supporting actors all do a solid job for the material they were given but Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos stole the movie for me. He was much more than your average MCU baddie and at the end of the day, I really dug what they did with his arc. The story was great and this movie is also a great connective tissue with the rest of the MCU, while also giving a tease to the future of Captain Marvel character. The humor also worked a lot more for me than it has in some of the latest MCU flicks and there was just an appropriate amount of it. The visual effects were solid, for the most part, and the action sequences were super fun to watch, especially the train sequence and beginning fight with the Skrulls.
Negatives – The biggest problem with the movie is with the characterization, or lack thereof, of the titular character – Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel). Despite being an origin story, we don’t really learn much about her or her vulnerabilities. All we get are glimpses to her past and other characters telling us about Carol rather than us actually learning about her. It also doesn’t help that Captain Marvel is so freaking powerful, which reduced the stakes and made the tension less palpable. Even Superman, considered the most powerful superhero, faced challenges in movies like Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, but the filmmakers probably thought that to show a strong female character, they have to make her so vastly overpowered. As mentioned before, Brie Larson is an Academy Award-winning actress but there were so many moments where her delivery was wooden. That being said, it’s just possible that the direction wasn’t that good and seeing her in Endgame will get us onboard with the character. We also learn how Fury loses one of his eyes in the movie and what was supposed to be a serious moment is played for laughs. It also makes me question Fury’s line in Captain America: The Winter Soldier “Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye.” Another aspect of the movie they could have improved on is the style. What I mean by that is the last couple of MCU movies (sans Ant-man and the Wasp) all had distinct styles and brought something unique. This movie felt like a very generic sci-fi movie with a template we’ve seen before.
Rating – Even though Captain Marvel is definitely a fun movie to watch and undeniably an important movie for representation, it still felt like a generic MCU movie (think the likes of Guardians 2 or Ant-man 2) that had a bland titular character. Here’s hoping she receives the same treatment in Endgame that Dr. Strange received in Infinity War, which made him an awesome character. 3.3/5
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