When you’re going to these movies for the mid-credit scene, maybe it’s not a great sign.
Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races
The good old MCU. The most reliable thing in Hollywood today, maybe in the history of Hollywood. It took them just over 20 movies to have their very first female-led superhero flick. Enter Brie Larson and her portrayal of Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. You can always count on an MCU movie to do two things; make a ton of money, and seriously divide nerd culture. From the very get-go, I truly wasn’t on board with Brie Larson suiting up in the MCU. She’s a fine actress, an Oscar winner, and has been a staple in Hollywood for years now, but something just didn’t click with me. After seeing the movie, I personally think she lacked any sort of charisma and her whole performance was very vanilla. In a world where Marvel has perfected casting, I just think they could have found someone more suitable. She doesn’t come across as Captain Marvel or even a superhero. Where RDJ, Evans, and Hemsworth are literally walking incarnations of their characters. I think the main reason I’m not down with Captain Marvel is that for the last 12 years we have watched our Marvel heroes struggle time and time again, they have lost so much. Scarified, over and over again. After the events of the Infinity War, people were legit shook. Now, Captain Marvel is dubbed the most powerful person in all of the MCU and she will be very much responsible for defeating Thanos. Which seems so unearned, actually it is so unearned and it doesn’t even seem fair to be honest. She almost gets a happy ending, and we don’t really know where she’s been and why she has decided to wait until everything legit went to shit to show her face. This movie did a terrible job at telling us why she has been gone. In fact, she tells Nick Fury “only for emergencies.” I think aliens invading Earth through a massive portal in New York wasn’t a large enough emergency.
I just felt this whole movie was a 90s nostalgia trip, that was needed in order to have this girl in our lives before the events of Endgame play out. I even took some flack online saying I felt this was one of the weakest MCU origin films we’ve gotten. A huge blockbuster directed by a woman, starring a woman is fantastic, but that doesn’t mean you can’t talk about its flaws or be honest with how you feel about it. It’s Sunday on its opening weekend and it’s sitting with the 6th highest global opening ever with 455 million dollars, this movie is going to be fine. It’s just not what I wanted it to be. The only great aspect of this film was Sam Jackson’s and Brie Larson’s onscreen chemistry, it was actually quite fantastic. De-aging him worked really well, they should be doing this in more movies. But Jude Law is an utter waste, as one of the weakest MCU villains Yon-Rogg. You get Jude Law in your movie, you should make the most of it. Ben Mendelsohn plays Talos, and he was finally put in a great role. After a few duds in a row, it’s amazing to see him back in a fun role. I just felt the movie as a whole was choppily made, and for being so powerful, I didn’t think we even got a “cool moment” from her.
Just not a whole lot happens in her first outing, we don’t know why she decides to do what she does and really anything about her. And now we have to sit back and watch her take over the MCU? I have zero emotional investment with this character, and that’s a shame really. She doesn’t even lose anything in the movie. I just wanted it to be over so I could see the lead into Endgame. And the mid-credit scene was dope, but my biggest question after all of this. How will she interact and fit in with the rest of our heroes? Most of them might not be around at the end of Endgame, but still, she’s on the main building blocks in the MCU going forward. Even though I disliked her origin flick, I think in a group, Brie Larson could shine. I’ll find out soon enough, and I’m hanging on with the littlest of hope that this will be the case.
Overall, Captain Marvel falls in the middle of the pack for MCU movies, I’m dialing back some of my critiques of the film because I do think overtime Brie Larson can grow into this role. She’s got a lot to prove to me in Endgame, I just think it’s not right and so unearned that she gets to come in now and be the hero. I hope this is all handle so well next month. I just think it fell short of my expectations
Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Captain Marvel = 67/100