Marvel Studios
We’ll get two things out of the way right from the start: (1) This will be a spoiler-free review. (2) The name Captain Marvel is never used in the movie.
So who exactly is this character we first meet in Captain Marvel who goes by the name Vers (Brie Larson)? She’s a Kree soldier (and for the uninitiated, the Kree have a long history in Marvel comics and have been featured on the last season of Agents of SHIELD) who keeps having weird flashbacks to another life on another planet, Earth. She doesn’t have much time to dissect these dreams/visions as the Kree are in the middle of a war with the Skrull (yes, this is the origin story of the Kree-Skrull War). Captured by the Skrull, Vers ends up on Earth (in the 1990s), encounters a young Nick Fury and an even younger newbie agent, Coulson, gets a little background on SHIELD, learns that she’s actually a human named Carol Danvers who gained her powers through an accident with a hyper drive engine, and now needs to protect Earth from the invading Skrull. But all is not as it seems … and that’s about all I’m going to say about the movie.
It’s taken eleven years for Marvel to finally give us a movie with a female lead. You’d have thought by now Black Widow would have had her own franchise but the studio opted to go with Captain Marvel first (and the huge success of DC’s Wonder Woman certainly gave them the push to get this movie made). And they really upped the ante not only with Brie Larson in the title role, but including a diverse group of female co-stars including Lashana Lynch as Carol’s friend (and former military buddy) Maria Rambeau, and Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, part of Vers’ Kree platoon. So thumbs up for this casting.
Casting Larson as Carol/Vers (and if you haven’t guessed, the Kree name came from the remains of Danvers’ damaged dog tag) is perfection. Larson can be the tough Kree and American soldier who will not indulge in any funny business from the Skrull, her commander, or Fury. She has a ‘kick ass now, take names later’ attitude, but she can also be incredibly sensitive and vulnerable when interacting with Maria’s daughter Monica, or learning the truth about her life as a Kree. It’s a solid, well-rounded performance.
Lynch also gives a nice performance as she has to deal with the emotions of seeing her friend who she believed dead for the last six years and finds it a bit hard to swallow her story of what amounts to alien abduction. But she she comes face-to-face with a Skrull, all the pieces fall into place and she’s ready to join Carol (and Fury) on whatever adventure comes, and at the behest of her 11 year old daughter (also a wonderful performance by Akira Akbar). Chan, unfortunately, doesn’t get a whole lot of character development. Her Minn-Erva is basically a soldier trained to carry out her orders and ask no questions.
Jude Law also stars as Vers’ Kree commanding officer Yon-Rogg, a complicated character. Ben Mendelsohn plays the Skrull Talos, although I had no idea it was him under the heavy make-up. As Skull can shape-shift, we do get to see Mendelsohn in the flesh impersonating Fury’s boss, so he gets to use his actual speaking voice as Talos (he’s Aussie by birth) and an American accent as Keller. But I can’t really say more about either performance without getting too spoilery. It was also interesting to see Lee Pace return here as Ronan, a character first seen in Guardians of the Galaxy. And, of course, the cat Goose who just takes to Fury and vice versa. The story has some twists and turns, we finally learn how Fury lost his eye, and the origin of a particular item seen in several MCU films.
Captain Marvel runs just over two hours, but I felt directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck really kept things moving. I have heard others say the movie felt a bit long, but I was having a good time and didn’t feel it went on too long (I’ve seen much shorter movies that felt like they went on for three hours). Boden and Fleck also co-wrote the screenplay with Geneva Robertson-Dworet and it seemed to have a couple of plot holes or just as yet unanswered questions, but the main thrust of the story is there and it works. I really have no major complaints.
This being a Marvel movie, be aware that there are two post-credits scenes. The first comes right after the main cast and title credits and ties directly into Avengers: Endgame. The second is at the very end and is a bit of humor with Goose. Also, Marvel has altered the opening Marvel Studios logo but we’ll leave that as a surprise, but it’s a good one. Overall, for not really having any prior knowledge about the character of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, I really enjoyed Captain Marvel from beginning to end. It may not be perfect, but it’s action-packed with an interesting story, some great action and special effects, de-aged Sam Jackson and Clark Gregg, a diverse cast and a cute kitty. It’s just a lot of fun. What more could anyone ask?
Captain Marvel has a run time of 2 hours 4 minutes and is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language.
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