The Avengers most powerful member has finally Arrived! and her arrival is more than I ever expected. The release of Captain Marvel fell on International Women's Day which is beyond perfect. It's about time Marvel released a female lead movie and it certainly does not disappoint. Captain Marvel is the start of something very special. I have been watching Marvel films for as long as I can remember, I was in my very early teens when the MCU started with the first Iron Man movie and now in my twenties I finally got to watch a Woman be the centre of the film. The film starts with a very emotional and fantastic tribute to Stan Lee, the Marvel fan fair has been replaced with Stan's cameos before a message appears on screen reading 'Thank You Stan' and the second those words appeared a magical moment happened and everyone in the cinema began to clap, it was the perfect tribute to the man that has given us all so much.
Read on to find out exactly what I thought of Captain Marvel - there will be spoilers!!
The film wastes no time with establishing scenes, we are taken straight into the narrative. We meet Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Played by Brie Larson) on the planet Hala, she is introduced as a warrior that needs to control her emotions to in order to master the power the Kree gave her. Captain Marvel is part of a team that includes Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan) and Korath (Djimon Hounsou) the team go on a rescue mission where Captain Marvel is captured by the Skrulls. During her capture the Skrulls attempt to unlock memories in her brain. She manages to escape and falls to earth - straight into a Blockbusters store (I miss those), where she meets a very young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg). On her mission to find and kill the Skrulls Captain Marvel begins discovering who she was and that she is in fact a Human not a Kree. The film focuses on Captain Marvel finding out who she is and the true extent of her power. The narrative is full of twists and turns and several moments had me gasping because they were such huge twists. Also Goose the cat (named after the character in the classic Top Gun) steals the show at times, in some of the films cutest and funniest moments. The relationships this film creates are brilliant, the friendship between Carol and Fury is so natural and I loved that Carols best friend Maria (Lashana Lynch) is an inspiring single mum to a super cool daughter. I will admit that the film is perhaps a little slow at the start - however I would not call it 'muddled' or 'confusing' because we the audience are learning and piecing everything together just as Captain Marvel is and for me that is a great narrative device.
There is a lot to love about this film. I loved Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, she is the perfect fit and her performance was convincing throughout, I think she will be a great addition to the Avengers team. It was great how many links were made to the rest of the MCU. The Tesseract is once again in play and the source of Captain Marvels powers, the second I saw the Tesseract I was literally like 'OMG'. We finally find out how Fury lost his eye - which I am not going to spoil, but it is brilliant. In the final scene of the movie we get to see Nick writing his Initiative which he calls The Avengers Initiative after seeing the word 'Avenger' on Captain Marvels fighter jet. One of the Villains is Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) from Guardians of the Galaxy. All these links made this film fit perfectly within the timeline which I know a lot of people where sceptical of. I also loved the 1990s theme, honestly I don't really remember much of the 90s but seeing Blockbusters and the Gameboy Colour made me think of my childhood and the endless stream of 90s hits almost had me dancing. Although playing 'Waterfall' was not the best idea as I was more focused on the song than the scene - but that could just be me because I love that song.
It would be wrong of me to not mention all the trolling and hate that surrounded this film before its release. I really hope that these trolls do not stop people from seeing this film. I am the first person to admit that I didn't really like the first two trailers, I am a huge trailer fan and these trailers just did not hit the mark for me. I will also admit that I did not want a new character coming into Avengers: Endgame and just killing Thanos. My feelings had nothing to do with the fact that Captain Marvel is a women but because over 11 years I have connected with the Avengers and I thought it would be a shame if a new character came in and stole the show. But after watching Captain Marvel I said 'I can't wait for Captain Marvel to come in and destroy thanos'. Captain Marvel is the start of something brilliant and everyone should be embracing and championing strong female characters.
Captain Marvel is a film all about female empowerment, never once does she have to prove that she is worthy, nor does she have to explain why she is a superhero she just is. I have always felt that the MCU treat its female characters pretty well all except Black Widow! I loved that Captain Marvel was not forced to have a love interest, it would have been so unnecessary and the film was brilliant without one. As a woman it is great to be able to watch a superhero film and see myself in the protagonist, women are strong and powerful and leaders and vulnerable women are all the same things as men and finally we have a movie that shouts it from the rooftops.
This film had a lot of amazing scenes, I loved the scene where the biker says 'You should Smile' to Carol so she steals his motorbike. I love all of the Goose scenes, especially the first time that him and Fury meet, I also loved that the Skrulls where scared of him and that his true nature was so unexpected! The two scenes that got me where when we are shown that what makes Captain Marvel special is her humanity and we see her though each age standing up and the second was after she had discovered her full powers and she showed her power to make Ronan leave, both moments made me very emotional. This film is full of great moments that come straight out of a comic book.
Overall I think
Captain Marvel is a great watch, full of humour, narrative twists and messages. I know I normally talk about set, costume, score etc and trust me I wanted to but this would have been the longest review on the planet, I will mention quickly that I loved Captain Marvels costume and I loved the look of the film in general, I was however a little disappointed with the score. I would love to know what is going to happen after this film because the Skrulls are meant to be the bad guys so it will be interesting to see if they will have a villain storyline. This film is an important watch not just for young girls, but for women and men of all ages and honestly this film should stand as a message to Hollywood - the world is ready for women to be treated as equals in all movie genres.
P.s: There are two after credits scenes so make sure you stay until the very end!! The first had me so hyped for Avengers: Endgame!!
Make sure you check out my Avengers: Endgame theories here:
https://thisisjustafilmblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-avengers-end-game-theories.html
Thank you for reading xx
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What the hell, David?
ReplyDeleteSo... what exactly is YOUR point in writing this hateful comment?
ReplyDeleteI would suggest you grow some manners and take some time reading over YOUR comment before posting it.
I would suggest the PEA method to improve your comments.
If you are not familiar with this it's as follows:
Point
Explanation
Analysis
Then maybe you can post something more constructive.
Thank you for this Blog post btw, I found it an interesting read.
Keep up the good work girl!
Thank you for reading David, although you may not be a fan of my work every read helps my blog grow. I believe that Chekov's Gun is a dramatic principle where every element in a narrative must be necessary and irrelevant elements must be removed: to me feminism is at the very centre of Captain Marvel. I write my blog because I enjoy cinema not because I want to drag films down or critique them. In response to Wonder Woman this post may interest you: https://thisisjustafilmblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/an-open-letter-to-dc-extended-universe.html
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading Cineof8
ReplyDeleteHello Darcie.
ReplyDeleteI must say this has been the most controversial movie ever. But I'm not going to talk about feminists or trolls or anything. I'm just going to state my opinion of the movie itself and not anything politically related.
As a 54 year old man I saw the movie with my girlfriend. I found it, well rather underwhelming to be honest. I did like the throwback to the 90's. Seeing the Blockbuster store brought back memories. Samuel Jackson was great as always. I've liked every movie he has been in. Goose was cute. We have 2 cats so I like cats.
Then there is Brie Larson. Many times I found her performance rather stiff and bland. She just didn't do it for me. My girlfriend agrees with me on that point (which is kind of funny because she was also stoked about a female lead in a Marvel movie). I think Kate Beckinsale would have made a much better CM. She was awesome in the Underworld movies among others.
To summarize: The movie itself was alright just not the lead actress. I pray to God that Marvel doesn't have CM come in and "save the day" in Endgame. IMO, that would ruin the MCU experience that I have invested my heart and time in.
Thank you.
Thank you for reading Bella. I am glad you enjoyed my post!
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading Mathias and for your comment, I loved seeing the Blockbusters store also! And Goose was adorable! I enjoy Brie Larson's acting maybe the writing was at fault in this movie and that is why people see her as bland? It will certainly be good to see Larson in Endgame. My theory is that Captain Marvel will set up the defeat of Thanos but that one of the original Avengers will be the one to actually defeat Thanos.
ReplyDelete