Captain Marvel, the MCU’s 21st movie in their franchise, is an energetic joyride that succeeds in the same way most MCU movies do: Lots of action, entertaining special effects, moments of sly humor, and characters that are unique and mostly memorable.
It stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, an intergalactic warrior who crash lands on Earth and has superhuman abilities after a freak accident. (Isn’t that how all Marvel characters get the powers?)
It turns out she was actually a U.S. Air Force pilot knocked unconscious during a crash landing. Annette Bening and Jude Law costar as her superiors.
Once she’s on Earth in 1995, she encounters a younger Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson with some very convincing de-aging CGI) and she displays her powers by taking out a standee of Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies in a Blockbuster Video store.
Carol’s mission is to eliminate a shape shifting alien race known as the Skrulls who want to possess what would become the Tesseract.
While the plot is all over the map, the movie also provides a lot of ’90s nostalgia specifically with its soundtrack as everyone from Nirvana to No Doubt are heavily featured.
Oh, and last but not least, there’s a cat. A great feline sidekick named Goose who proves you don’t want to mess with him. He gives off the biggest and best laughs in the whole movie.
Larson is very effective as the titular character and she displays great chemistry with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. I don’t think she gives a weak performance, but I don’t think she’s in the same league as Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman.
The plot is occasionally off-the-wall and it does try to answer some of the mysteries of the MCU, but it’s not as impressive as other entries.
It doesn’t quite have the visual invention of say Doctor Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy nor does it have a compelling world or characters such as Black Panther.
Nevertheless, there’s enough rousing action to keep fans held over until Avengers: Endgame next month.
Grade: B+
(Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language.)
