'Captain Marvel' REVIEW: Brie Larson Powers through Above-Average MCU Outing

'Captain Marvel' is the latest film from the MCU and the first film within the franchise to boast a female superhero lead. It is also the first in the MCU to have a female co-director Anna Boden alongside Ryan Fleck helming the film. I've enjoyed the majority of MCU films ever since they've started, however with this latest addition I found myself more skeptical than ever. This is due to the main actor's mishandling of the press tour and continuously promoting itself to be a "girl-power" film instead of just promoting it as just a crowdpleasing superhero film on its own. With me, my mind never goes into SJW mode at all when it comes to critiquing movies. I don't expect MCU films to be political at all. They can have parallels to reality, but in the end it just has to be a good time at the theatre and end up not being too preachy. Isn't that what everyone wants? Luckily, despite the controversies surrounding the film Marvel has made another hit that'll surely satisfy audiences.

In 'Captain Marvel' it's the year 1995 and we see Brie Larson at the beginning of the film as Vers. A space warrior known as a Kree who is sent on a mission which goes haywire and somehow crashes on Earth only to discover her past, who she is and what she is in general. She eventually teams up with Samual L. Jackson reprising his role as Nick Fury and they go on this adventure together to stop an alien species called the Skrulls from doing their evil scheme or is it?

I can't critique this film without talking about the main lead. Brie Larson is an actress who I've loved since Room (2015) which was my second favorite film of that year. She's been good in other things too, but to see her as a superhero was something I was most curious about. Thank goodness she pulls it off. She's no Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman (2017) in terms of being awe-inspiring, but she has got charisma, badassery, and solid comic timing. She's very likable and will surely be a heroic figure to young people everywhere. Another thing about this movie that I was mostly looking forward too was the origin story. The trailers were suggesting that it going to be unique and something we haven't seen before. I found myself quite surprised that a film like this can still have a story with plenty of twists and turns despite being the 21st film in a somewhat formulaic franchise. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury was a great supporting character in this film and was able to portray a sense of awe when witnessing for the first time different aliens and what Captain Marvel can do which made him for a good source of laughs throughout the film. However, the biggest surprise and most emotional aspect of the film for me is Ben Mendelson as the lead Skrull Talos. I'm not going to spoil it here, but as the film goes on your perception of the character changes and you understand why he's doing what he's doing. Once again another great villain from the MCU. As it is set in the 90' it has got a great nostalgic soundtrack that'll surely delight audiences that grew up in that decade.

The negative aspects of the film are disapointing as it comes from a long-running action franchise to me are the film's action and special effects. With the action, I could tell there's impressive choreography, but the camera is always shaking too much or zoomed in too tightly into the shots making it almost impossible to see. The action looks its best when it's shot entirely with the other problem this movie has: the special effects. They are not good. I don't know whether they're supposed to be intentionally sub-par to be more cartoony, but when you see Brie Larson as Captain Marvel flying in space it's not her it's ones and zeroes. It honestly looks unfinished. More time should have been dedicated to polishing those special effects. The film also chooses to makes certain choices that mess up the continuity of the franchise. I'm not sure if people are going to notice those sorts of things, but unfortunately, I did and they're really distracting. It makes you question how those errors didn't get noticed in the writing process.

Overall, another solid, fun and exiting entry in the MCU. I'm looking forward to seeing what Captain Marvel is going to be like in the upcoming Avengers film. While not as good as Wonder Woman, she has definitely earned her place among other great female superheroes. The action and special effects are disapointing as they don't even come close to the standards of previous MCU films which has cemented itself as being one of the great film franchises of today.

'Captain Marvel' gets a B+