Review: Captain Marvel

The arrival of Captain Marvel to the MCU signals one of the steps towards where the franchise will go post Endgame. Billed as one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes, and their first solo female movie, there was a lot riding on them getting this one right. But of course this is the MCU, and after a decade of quality it’s fair to have some level of trust in them.

Opening on the Kree Capital of Hala, the film finds Vers, a member of the elite unite Starforce having recurring nightmares about an older woman, a crashed ship and a stranger with a gun. Vers is encouraged by both her mentor Yon-Rogg and the Kree’s A.I. ruler, Supreme Intelligence (who appears to her as the same older woman in her dreams) to suppress her emotional state and focus on the mission at hand. The Kree are at war with a terrorist species known as Skrulls, capable of shape-shifting and infiltration with several planets already fallen to them, when one of Starforces’s agents is pinned down by Skrull soldiers, Vers and the team go in for a rescue mission, only to realise too late that the whole thing is a trap and Vers is captured by the Skrull leader Talos.

Talos starts probing Vers’ memories, seemingly looking for the mysterious woman in her dreams. Vers escapes but crash lands on Earth, 1995 where she’s met by SHIELD Agent Nick Fury. With the Skrulls on Earth looking for the mysterious woman, Vers agrees to help Fury stop the infiltration but in return, he has to help her work out the memories she can’t remember about her connection to the woman, what about her past relates to Earth, and who the hell is Carol Danvers.

Origin stories are nothing new to the MCU but I really liked what they did here, the focus was not on how Carol got her powers (though that does become part of the mystery later on) but rather on Carol already having her powers but finding out how that connects her to Earth. The inclusion of the Kree/Skrull War was a nice touch since it helped flesh out the actual Universe of the MCU and held a lot of nice turns in that storyline as well, plus it meant that despite most of the film taking place on Earth, the actual conflict was galactic which meant that they could take away from the usual ‘End of the world’ scenario and focus on the more personal nature of Carol story.

The main characters were all very well played but the supporting cast could’ve been given more to do, most notably Starforce who are given very little to do after the first rescue mission, considering that returning character Korath (Djimon Hounsou from GOTG) is one of them as well as Ronan The Accuser also appearing for a glorified cameo, you’d assume that a little more would’ve been given to explain their partnership though with a lot of plot threads left dangling I can assume that a sequel might fill in those gaps and give the rest of Starforce something to work with.

The biggest casualty of Starforce being outside Earth is Jude Law as Yon-Rogg,, it’s a good role for Law who plays tough love leader well and once the turn in the story happens he’s able to transition the character without feeling like an entirely new creation. It’s just that for as important as he appears to the overall story, he’s sidelined for the whole of the second act and I feel like there could’ve been more done with him cause for what we see of him, especially during the finale, there’s a lot of potential for him.

For as much as the film touted the return of Phil Coulson he was only in for about 3 or 4 scenes in total, don’t get me wrong, after five seasons of Agents Of SHIELD it was nice to see Coulson back within the established canon and since this is early SHIELD it made sense for him to be there, I just wished he’d factored in a little bit more. Thankfully the film makes up for that with Sam Jackson’s return as Nick Fury, this is a much friendlier and lighter Fury than we’ve seen before, back before he knew Aliens were a thing, he’s thrown into the deep end with shape-shifters and photon blasts. What makes Jackson’s performance so great is that while Fury is suitably freaked out by everything, he does maintain a level of composure and dignity, possibly helped by the grounding effect of Goose The Cat (who is an absolute standout character and the pay-off with him is brilliant) but even with that the few moments of fun we get with Fury are enough to help flesh him out, even small moments like the side-eye he gives his boss in the elevator give Fury more character than we’ve seen from him before.

And yes, we do see how Fury loses his eye, and it’s a great little piece of subversion.

Skrull leader Talos, played by Ben Mendelsohn who also doubles as Fury’s boss, is a surprisingly strong character, much like the Kree he goes through his own turn about half-way through the film but it’s to his benefit, Talos has this laid-back persona to him that’s unlike anything you’d expect from a supposed terrorist leader, there’s a quiet desperation to him that once you find out more about him makes a lot of sense, I don’t want to spoil too much about him but this is a solid performance from Mendelsohn.

Likewise I’m not going to see too much about Annette Bening’s character, even giving her name might be a spoiler for comic fans, but this is a great role for Bening who does a lot with her little screentime. During her time on Earth with Carol she’s a cool headed leader, friendly, driven and smart, but when she appears as Supreme Intelligence (who takes the form of whoever the visitor admires most) she maintains that cool-headedness but with a more sinister edge, little tweaks to how she talks and what she says completely turn the character around. Bening seems to be having fun with the role and plays about a bit but never sacrifices either version of her character.

Assisting Carol is her old friend Maria Rambeau, played by Lashanna Lynch, and her eleven year old daughter Monica who continues the Marvel tradition of cute as hell kids. While personally I think Maria could’ve been given more to do since she doesn’t come into the film until a little bit later, I liked what they did with her, she’s obviously capable with her air-force credentials and being a single mother but none of that is used to define her, instead she’s brought into the fold, says it’s all crazy then agrees to help for the good of her old friend, there’s a strong camaraderie between her and Carol that we’ve not seen in the MCU between females yet and I’m glad to see it here.

Out of everyone though this is easily Brie Larson’s film who absolutely nails the role of Carol, when we first meet her she’s physically capable to the point of actually enjoying how powerful she really is but emotionally she’s conflicted, strange nightmares and a past she can’t remember put her out of sorts, constantly questioning herself and everything she doesn’t know. What Larson does brilliantly is that she plays both sides of Carol, when she’s on the field she’s funny, confident, snarky and capable but when dealing with personal issues she’s scared, confused, often angry and she captures all that about Carol. What’s great is that Carol could easily have been an over-confident bad-ass because she really is that powerful, but giving her a lost sense of self does enough to tone her down so that when she finally does break out it’s worth the wait, if this is anything to go by then Larson is a welcome addition to the MCU and I’m excited to see where she goes from here.

Directing duties this time are picked up by partners Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, sadly this is the first film I’ve seen of theirs though I’ve been meaning to look into their back-catalogue but they’ve definitely got talent. At its most base term the film is a light-hearted mystery with Carol trying to solve her own past and on that level Fleck and Boden do great work, they keep everything close to the chest, never fully revealing everything until they have to but given just enough to push the story forward, using the Kree/Skrull war as a backdrop was a clever choice to up the stakes and put Carol in an awkward position even before she lands on Earth.

The cosmic elements definitely play a high factor into the film but they’re integrated well, the rescue mission at the start of the film showcases how technologically advanced the Kree are with Starforce’s abilities and tools while also keeping a good tension with the Skrulls shape-shifting powers. The scene where Talos is searching through Carol’s memories is one of the most brilliantly bizarre sequences where (and I’m finding this very hard to describe) Talos instructs Carol on what to do whilst she’s in her own memories to try and find a hidden clue on where to look. The cosmic elements work so well because they’re put into partnership with the mystery, you need to have Carol deal with the intergalactic portion to make sense of the earthbound portions and the combination of the two worked wonders, especially at the end of it all when Carol is fully unleashed and gives what is arguably one of the best Hero Moments in the whole MCU when you see how easily she takes down a Kree ship.

Fleck and Boden also make good use of setting it in the 90s, the slower technology factors in a couple of times but primarily through the solid soundtrack, nothing on GOTG of course but when you have stuff like ‘Only Happy When It Rains’, ‘Crazy On You’, ‘Come As You Are’ (never thought I’d hear Nirvana in an MCU film) and a great use of No Doubt’s ‘Just A Girl when Carol is kicking all kinds of ass, it’s easy to see people are getting nostalgic about it.

Captain Marvel ranks up there with Iron Man as one of the best origin stories in the MCU and I don’t think the last we’ve seen of Carol, even outside her role in Endgame. The story focuses on the mystery of Carol’s past whilst also showcasing more of this ever expanding universe, while some smaller cast members are very small the main hitters of Mendelsohn, Jackson and especially Larson all make their mark with Larson especially making her claim to the franchise post-Thanos. And the directing from Fleck and Boden combines a personal emotional weight with cosmic powers and a solid 90s soundtrack to make the film as entertaining as can be. Definitely one of the upper echelons of Marvel Movies.

8/10