Captain Marvel review

Directors: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck
Running time: 124 minutes
Certificate: 12A


Captain Marvel is set in the mid 1990s, so it's a somewhat prequel to the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, it's also the first to be led by a female character. Centred on Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), who's a member of an elite force of Kree warriors. When a mission to rescue an intelligence operative goes wrong, she is captured and her memories are probed by a group of Skrulls, a shape shifting alien race that the Kree are at war with. She manages to escape but crash lands on Earth, or Los Angeles to be more precise. Where she comes to the attention of government agent Nick Fury, and the remaining Skrulls that landed along with her.

In many ways Captain Marvel is a rather by the numbers superhero movie that happens to revolve around a character who has a form of amnesia. There's nothing about it that's particularly memorable or compelling. The action scenes are entertaining but rather passable, there's little in the way of tension when someone is so powerful, so any form of set up has no pay off. It's visually well made but not distinctive enough to really set its mark when you put it alongside other superhero movies, let alone on its own merits.

I did like the sense of adventure and urgency in the plot, all of the characters had clear motivations, and the action was driven by all of this. And to be honest the plot is rather serviceable, which wouldn't be much of a problem if there was an emotional connection to Carol Danvers. Brie Larson is a fine actress, and I thought the character became more sympathetic towards the end of her story arc. But the performance is just lacking a spark that guides us through the narrative, and there's not much in the way of character development by the end of the movie. This isn't helped with the flashbacks that we see of her past, while they explain her motivations they're short scenes lacking any kind of meat to them. So they just come off as a bit two dimensional.

The surrounding cast elevate what is an otherwise serviceable script. Samuel Jackson is as good as ever as a young Nick Fury, even if his character has gone from being serious and imposing in the previous MCU entries to a laugh a minute comic relief in this one. Jude Law is impressive as Yon Rogg, who is Danvers mentor and commander. And Ben Mendelsohn adds layers and a sense of empathy to the Skrull villain, Talos.

The movie doesn't really add much to the wider MCU timeline, its connection to the recent Avengers: Infinity War is pretty minimal, but it's worth waiting around for the post credit scene that does link the character to present events. The character might turnout to be more interesting within a wider ensemble of heroes, but her powers are not particularly well defined at the moment, and she's probably a bit too powerful for my liking. Every superhero needs a flaw or a weakness, and Captain Marvel doesn't really have one that I can speak of.

Overall this is a mid range MCU movie, it's perfectly competent and entertaining but lacks the heart to really string something together that's more than the sum of its parts. It's still worth the ticket price, especially if you're a fan of superhero movies.

2.75/5