I’ve never heard of Captain Marvel before seeing the movie, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this fresh new superhero who has appeared in no other MCU movies prior to this movie. However, I've heard that people who do know a lot about Captain Marvel in the comic series really don’t like this movie, in fact they kinda hate it to an extent. The first time I saw this movie I remembered really enjoying it as another fun and likable addition to the MCU. A year or so has passed though, and some of the flaws I didn’t notice before are admittedly starting to show their true colors. I still think this movie is enjoyable and not as underwhelming as most people say, but there were some things that kept this movie from being at the top tier section of the MCU’s library.
Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is a Kree soldier who is at war with the evil Skrulls. Captain Marvel unfortunately though keeps having recurring dreams about another life that she is not sure if she has actually lived and things get worse for her when she escapes being captured by the Skrulls and crashlands on planet earth where she meets up with a young Nick Furry (Samuel L Jackson) and is taken into custody by SHIELD. Nick soon realises that Captain Marvel is not all what she seems and helps her to discover the mystery of her past life with the help of some unlikely friends. Meanwhile the Skrulls are out on earth to look for our heroes but their reasons for doing the things they do may prove to be an eyeopener for Captain Marvel who has believed many things for her entire life.
The things I do like about the movie are the little details such as seeing a younger Nick Furry and having the whole movie take place in the 90’s. The way Captain Marvel and Nick interact with each other is enjoyable to watch and there are plenty of call backs to characters and subplots from other MCU films that would take place after this movie. There is a decent storyline with a few twists and turns that do at least keep things interesting even if it's not the finest storytelling from the studio. The main problem I have with the movie though is sadly a big one, in that there is way too much time focused on earth with okayish side characters and not on the unique space setting with the Kree forces that they establish in the first act. This in some respects is almost like the first Thor movie as it also had some of the same problems of not taking advantage of a unique world or creative setting. Thankfully one of the biggest saving graces the film offers is the third act where you see the high flying action, the comedy is brought up a notch and a lot of cool action set pieces are put into play. it honestly was worth the wait to get to that point but I still wish the kind of stuff in the third act of the movie would have also been present throughout the entire movie.
Captain Marvel herself is not too bad of a character even if she does suffer from having some bland strong women stereotypes here and there. Brie Larson does a decent enough job to sell her performance even if it does risk the fact she may not be the most interesting female superhero in the MCU despite her cool and otherworldly powers. Nick Furry is younger in this movie and it's cool that we get to see how he got his start in becoming a leader of SHIELD and how he came to the conclusion of the phase 1 avenger initiative. The rest of the characters range from being decentally likable to okay but no one in the movie was anywhat insufferable or mediocre. I did like the kid character Monica okay enough and the Skrull characters actually do have a decent amount of interesting backstories. Though they may not be the most memorable characters of the MCU, they are certainly not the worst.
There are a couple of visuals that were neat to witness during the course of the movie. Captain Marvel is said by many to be one of if not the most powerful superhero in the marvel comics and even though I wish we could see more of Captain Marvel in action, what we do get is good enough especially when it comes to the already mentioned third act of the movie. The movie had a huge miss opportunity to explore more of the Kree’s home planet or any of the other locations set in space, but for what we do see it's okay if i’m being honest but it's nowhere near the stylisation of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the time period it takes place in, which is the 90’s. Even though it's clearly made for nostalgia purposes, the 90’s setting nevertheless is unique for the MCU and brings us back to a simpler time where blockbusters reign supreme and technology is very limited compared to today. The music score is done by Pinar Toprak who has quite the history for scoring superhero movies and shows for DC related content. While far from great, this score is fun in giving us a spunky techno but also traditional superhero score against 90’s related inserted songs.
Is Captain Marvel bad? no. Is Captain Marvel the best MCU movie? Heck No. while it pales in comparison to other great MCU movies like The Guardians of the Galaxy or Captain America Civil War, Captain Marvel was nonetheless a fun movie with plenty of action-packed moments and decent characters that more than compensate for its somewhat lacking storytelling. If you're new to Captain Marvel like I was, I would recommend not to go in with high expectations. There is plenty of fun to be had and the filmmakers were definitely trying their hardest, but when it comes to the best stories from the MCU, this one does come up short but not in a bad way.
(Final Grade: B-)