Part two of a double header in March 23rd in Chicago.
Seeing how Avengers: Endgame was coming out not too long after Captain Marvel, I pretty much had to see this film. Not too mention that it's the first MCU film with a female protagonist. So there's that too. The 21st film in the MCU was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
The story takes place in 1995 and opens with our protagonist as member of an elite Kree special forces unit known as Starforce. During a sparring session with her commander, we get a glimpse of her immense power. On their next mission, the Starforce walks into a trap and Captain Marvel (she's not yet Captain Marvel as we know it) gets captured by the Kree's arch enemy, the Skrulls. Marvel escapes and crash lands on Earth.
On Earth she meets Nick Fury while hunting Skrulls and they become fast friends. Marvel, who's been suffering from amnesia and visions all film, starts to piece things together as she meets up with her old wingman Maria Rambeau. It also turns out that the Skrulls are refugees who needs Marvel's help. Eventually it all comes together; she remembers everything, solves the Skrulls problems, realizes the full scope of her power and gives Fury a pager so that he can contact her in case of an emergency.
The story takes place in 1995 and opens with our protagonist as member of an elite Kree special forces unit known as Starforce. During a sparring session with her commander, we get a glimpse of her immense power. On their next mission, the Starforce walks into a trap and Captain Marvel (she's not yet Captain Marvel as we know it) gets captured by the Kree's arch enemy, the Skrulls. Marvel escapes and crash lands on Earth.
On Earth she meets Nick Fury while hunting Skrulls and they become fast friends. Marvel, who's been suffering from amnesia and visions all film, starts to piece things together as she meets up with her old wingman Maria Rambeau. It also turns out that the Skrulls are refugees who needs Marvel's help. Eventually it all comes together; she remembers everything, solves the Skrulls problems, realizes the full scope of her power and gives Fury a pager so that he can contact her in case of an emergency.
I guess this qualifies as an emergency.
Whenever possible, I try to leave the serious nitpicking to my pals over at Cinemasins. This was a fun movie. The cast was great, especially Larson (who's really tough not to like in her roles). Boden and Fleck do a nice job of putting things together to tie nicely (or as nice as they could get it) into the MCU. They also did a nice job of keeping true to the Carol Danvers source material in terms of her role as Captain Marvel (Danvers has a complicated history). I also like the Rambeau tie in; Monica, the daughter of Maria, was an Avenger in the comics during the 80s as Captain Marvel after Danvers had lost her Ms. Marvel powers in Avengers Annual #10 but before she became Binary in the X-Men (I hope I got that timeline right).
When I was reading comics back in the 80s, the Skrulls were villains. Evil to the core. Sure they homeworld was destroyed by Galactus or something but they were still evil. However, I just kind of shrugged that change off. Now, there have been two main types of MCU films; the equally matched hero and villain (Iron Man, Black Panther and Ant-Man) and "hero realizes how heroic they are (any Thor film)." This film falls into the realization category. I guess it was too much to ask for Marvel to give something a little different but why mess with success. My other issue is that her power has no limits. She's like the MCU Scarlet Witch as in, she's as powerful as the script needs her to be.
The film took in over $153 million during it's opening weekend. The worldwide gross as of June 23rd is over $1.12 billion. The picture received a 78% Rotten Tomatoes rating which is about right. The film had a few laughs and some roll my eyes moments but it was fun. It's hard to get a lot of tension in the film when I know that she plays a part in Endgame. It's good to see that Marvel was able to have success with a female protagonist following the success of Wonder Woman. Personally I thought that Black Widow should have had a stand alone film first, as I am sure other did as well, but instead we got Red Sparrow. If you have been following the MCU as I have, then you have to see the film.
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