by Anthony Herring Disclaimers: This review contains spoilers for Captain Marvel. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going strong for almost eleven years now. We’ve seen a man suit up in high-tech armor. We’ve seen a man become not only a super soldier but the symbol of America. We’ve seen a high-powered god channel lightning through his comically large hammer. Heck, we’ve even seen a talking tree and raccoon travel across the universe, kicking butt and taking names. Needless to say, audiences have seen a lot of varied--and straight up Strange--characters as time went on. Even after all these years, the MCU shows no signs of stopping. Last year alone, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ant-Man and the Wasp have raked in a total of $4 billion at the box office. Not only that, but these three films have introduced audiences to a plethora of new characters and locales, with Wakanda as a notable example. Now, from the looks of it, this year will be no exception. That leads me to the newest installment of the MCU: Captain Marvel. Set in 1995, the film introduces the world to Carol Danvers, a woman who finds herself in the center of an intergalactic war between two alien races: the Kree and the Skrulls. The film was originally announced in October 2014 as part of the MCU’s Phase Three lineup, with Brie Larson cast as the titular character two years later. A lot’s riding on this film, as Captain Marvel is the MCU’s first female-led film, along with the fact that Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, says that the character will be at the forefront of the franchise in the future.
A game of ‘Twister’
Earth to Captain Marvel, come in Captain Marvel
The weakest aspect of the film was Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel herself, in both writing and performance. I found Carol’s character woefully uninteresting. While the flashbacks in the film helped to show Carol’s past and current struggles, she responds to these events in oddly nonchalant ways, which I thought was very strange since such problems should’ve had a profound impact on her character. Not only that, but Carol’s character arc isn’t as effective as it could’ve been. This is due to Carol as a character being mainly used as a boring pawn used by other people, and not as a unique individual who just happened to be taken advantage of but slowly grew aware of this as the movie progressed.
The Fast and the Fury-ous
“I understood that reference”
IMDb IMDb
