Movie Review: Captain Marvel 👩🏼‍✈️💥

Captain Marvel’s origin story is one to behold, as it marks the first female-led superhero movie for Marvel.

Brie Larson stars as the eponymous hero in Captain Marvel. CREDIT: Marvel Studios

This post for Captain Marvel is spoiler-free.

Politics and controversies aside, Captain Marvel (2019, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck) is a competent movie as Marvel’s first female-led franchise. This superhero movie tells the origin story of Carol Danvers (human identity) / Vers (Kree identity) “Captain Marvel” (Brie Larson) and how she becomes one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Larson’s portrayal of Captain Marvel isn’t as bad as it seems. To her credit, the Captain Marvel movie trailer only showcased the stoic side of the character, whereas in the movie, audiences will be able to see the superhero lighten up a little. She even knows how to crack a joke in serious situations.

With the addition of the supporting characters such as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), and more—Captain Marvel is able to showcase a true on-screen camaraderie that makes up for its unimpressive fight scenes.

Fury is more of the second-lead in Captain Marvel as he appears throughout the movie. Jackson’s less serious and comedic performance is depicted here, where he has yet to lose his left eye. The visual effects that went into de-aging his character—and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg)—is incredibly well done. Furthermore, his bond with Larson’s Captain Marvel is truly one of the best things in this movie, and by the end of it, I wanted to be in their friend group too. Their on-screen chemistry is just as real as their real-life one, where you can easily see them teasing one another during their press interviews.

There’s also Goose the cat 🐈, which is Carol’s pet in disguise of being a dangerous alien species called the Flerken. He looks harmless and cute, but is actually one of the most dangerous creatures. Fury has the most scenes with Goose, and those scenes are the most precious ones in the movie 💓😍. Larson is actually extremely allergic to cats, so I’m pretty sure whatever scene she had with Goose in the movie were all faked, and I guess that’s also why Jackson had the most screen time with Goose—which I absolutely do not mind because it was too charming.

Maria Rambeau, who is Captain Marvel’s best friend on Earth, is also terrifically portrayed by Lashana Lynch. Even though she only appears in the middle of the movie, it was quite convincing that she and Carol were truly best friends during their Air Force days. Gemma Chan’s role as Minn-Erva is very small and there isn’t much to do for her character. She also barely has any lines to say, but I can tell you that she looks good in blue.

Captain Marvel is also Marvel’s first live-action movie to come out in theatres ever since Stan Lee’s passing last November. There was a really special tribute to him before the movie started; the usual Marvel opening sequence, which frequently featured all the Avengers was replaced by Stan Lee’s various Marvel movie cameos over the years. The tribute was a really nice touch and I hope it appears again in future Marvel movies.

Captain Marvel’s cast and performances was what made the movie good, as without those elements, the superhero movie is pretty formulaic. It also didn’t help that the fight scenes were nothing short of ordinary and the direction of the movie wasn’t particularly unique. The soundtrack was also pretty average, as I felt like the music supervisor decided to throw in some 90s songs in order to make the movie fit in with the whole 90s era—it just felt boring and some songs felt so out of place in certain scenes. The score of the movie, however, was terrific.

Rating: 4/5