It’s time for another film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe saga, and with just about every superhero in the Avengers films the big question is of whether Disney has done it in the best way possible. Some (including myself) contend that there have been way too many films and the general storyline can get too confusing over just going through the whole larger story by recapping everything leading up to the big story. As the Third Phase races to a close, there is still one more character to bring in “Captain Marvel”.
Co-directed by Anna Boden (Sugar) and Ryan Fleck (The Affair), Brie Larson (Room) plays the title role, whose alter ego is Carol Danvers and as “Vers” is a member of Starforce with the Kree military. On a mission to rescue a spy who has been exposed by the rival Skrull army (a shapeshifting evil race), she is captured with the Skrulls wanting to extract memories from her. After she escapes her captors, she ends up in 1995 Earth with her enemies hot on her tail. Meeting up with a young Nick Fury (still Samuel L. Jackson), Captain Marvel is born while Carol Danvers tries to put the pieces of her past back together.
For one of the Marvel films, this is another big-budget film with a ton of CGI, but not as much compared to other films in the MCU and relies more on practical sets than special effects surroundings. Jackson does well as Fury, as usual with Lashana Lynch (Brotherhood) and Akira Akbar (This is Us) as pieces from Carol’s past. As far as Larson goes, I think she fits the role well given that her character has a different origin compared to some of the others characters, and her mixture of the different sides of her personality shines. My big shout out has to go to the cats that played “Goose”: trust me, I think you will understand after you see this film.
“Captain Marvel” is a little over 2 hours long, which I feel was the right length, not dragging or getting too complicated. For an origin film, it is not the best one I have seen but still very good. As this takes place in the mid 90s, I really liked how the time frame really enhances the comedy as it made me look on how technology has changed in over the last almost quarter of a century. Knowing that this is the lead-in for “Avengers: Endgame” next month, I feel it is a good edition to the MCU done right, so I will recommend “Captain Marvel” as an afternoon showing in the theaters.