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Update: March 5, 2019
Dragonlord’s Review of CAPTAIN MARVEL (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: One of the weakest entries in Phase 3, Captain Marvel is a passable but forgettable origin story and flubs mainly due to the bland characterization and miscast of the titular lead.
Much like Black Panther last year, the fanfare, controversy and heated political discussion surrounding Marvel Studios’ first female solo superhero movie have reached fever pitch. Captain Marvel will no doubt do pretty well at the box office but quality-wise it falls short of the standard of excellence that fans are expecting from Marvel Studios.
The movie starts on the Kree home planet Hala where Vers/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) wakes up from a bad dream. She spars with her superior officer Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and visits the Kree leader Supreme Intelligence. Carol along with her special forces crew Starforce go on a mission to rescue a Kree spy from their shapeshifting enemies, the Skrulls. Some brief scuffle ensues and then the setting switches to Earth. All of these happened in the first 20 minutes and that is precisely where the movie fumbled the ball.
First is the bland characterization of the heroine. Aside from her smugness and non-witty back talk, there was nothing particularly interesting or endearing about her. Even when she is displaying her powers, particularly her photon blasts, it was just boring to look at and her hand-to-hand fight scenes with the Skrulls were just dull.
She is a terrific actress and her Best Actress Oscar win for The Room is well deserved but Brie Larson is a miscast as Captain Marvel in my opinion. This might just be me but her voice is not well-suited for the role, it’s not serious or commanding enough for an action role. Although it is the way the character is written, her personal style of smugness and hubris is a bit off-putting. [Entering into trivial nitpicking territory here, I don’t like her hair (or hairstyle), there’s just something “off” about it. Plus it doesn’t match with her suit. The hair should be shorter or longer for my taste. A ponytail or bun would have helped also.]
Things get more interesting and fun when Carol lands on Earth and it’s revealed that the year is 1995. Naturally there are plenty of 90s imagery and pop culture references to go around, some quite humorous like the slow loading from a CD drive. Enter a younger and optically intact Nick Fury, again played by Samuel L. Jackson who is seamlessly de-aged throughout the entire movie. Nick and Carol have a good chemistry together and their banters are one of the few highlights about the film. Though different from his cool and hardass older persona, it's still enjoyable to see a more easygoing and laid-back young Fury.
Other positives: Ben Mendelsohn’s Australian-accented Skrull leader Talos eventually became an engaging character midway. The cat Goose was adorable and steals the show. Though she’s playing an insignificant minor character, Gemma Chan (BBC’s Humans, Crazy Rich Asians) as Minn-Erva looked fantastic, absolutely captivated me whenever she was on screen. Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) was equally as riveting for the brief time he was in. He didn’t really do much but it was still nice seeing Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) back in the MCU movie side.
What didn’t work though was how Captain Marvel’s powers are depicted. The sparkling photon blasts looks cartoonish and visually doesn’t carry much oomph. When she’s flying and blasting spaceships out of the sky, it just looked too unrealistic and too effortless, i.e., boring. Carol’s “power upgrade” was done poorly as it felt like she didn’t really go through any hardship or overcome overwhelming odds to deserve the level up. Even the origin of her powers seemed too convenient and simplistic.
Clearly one of the most powerful, if not, the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Studios roster (her limitations are still unknown), so what does this mean to the MCU landscape? Future Earth-based adventures seem too beneath the character based on her power set but there are numerous cosmic level event stories (like Annihilation) where she would fit in. With Avengers: Endgame coming up in just a few weeks, hopefully ace directors Russo Bros. can put their spin on Captain Marvel and depict the character, her power set and her action scenes in a more favorable light.
There is a loving tribute to Stan Lee at the opening which was nice to see. Stick around for two post-credits scenes, one of which ties up to Avengers: Endgame.
Captain Marvel is passable but uninspired. It flounders mostly through the miscasting of Brie Larson and the faulty characterization. The action was mediocre, the power depiction was done poorly and the story was just adequate. If only there was a Captain Marvel origin story somewhere out there that was more exciting and bad-ass. Oh wait, there is.
RATING: 6.5/10
Link to previous threads:
1st thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/110449745/
2nd thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/144704953/
3rd thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/150252171/
Dragonlord’s Review of CAPTAIN MARVEL (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: One of the weakest entries in Phase 3, Captain Marvel is a passable but forgettable origin story and flubs mainly due to the bland characterization and miscast of the titular lead.
Much like Black Panther last year, the fanfare, controversy and heated political discussion surrounding Marvel Studios’ first female solo superhero movie have reached fever pitch. Captain Marvel will no doubt do pretty well at the box office but quality-wise it falls short of the standard of excellence that fans are expecting from Marvel Studios.
The movie starts on the Kree home planet Hala where Vers/Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) wakes up from a bad dream. She spars with her superior officer Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and visits the Kree leader Supreme Intelligence. Carol along with her special forces crew Starforce go on a mission to rescue a Kree spy from their shapeshifting enemies, the Skrulls. Some brief scuffle ensues and then the setting switches to Earth. All of these happened in the first 20 minutes and that is precisely where the movie fumbled the ball.
First is the bland characterization of the heroine. Aside from her smugness and non-witty back talk, there was nothing particularly interesting or endearing about her. Even when she is displaying her powers, particularly her photon blasts, it was just boring to look at and her hand-to-hand fight scenes with the Skrulls were just dull.
She is a terrific actress and her Best Actress Oscar win for The Room is well deserved but Brie Larson is a miscast as Captain Marvel in my opinion. This might just be me but her voice is not well-suited for the role, it’s not serious or commanding enough for an action role. Although it is the way the character is written, her personal style of smugness and hubris is a bit off-putting. [Entering into trivial nitpicking territory here, I don’t like her hair (or hairstyle), there’s just something “off” about it. Plus it doesn’t match with her suit. The hair should be shorter or longer for my taste. A ponytail or bun would have helped also.]
Things get more interesting and fun when Carol lands on Earth and it’s revealed that the year is 1995. Naturally there are plenty of 90s imagery and pop culture references to go around, some quite humorous like the slow loading from a CD drive. Enter a younger and optically intact Nick Fury, again played by Samuel L. Jackson who is seamlessly de-aged throughout the entire movie. Nick and Carol have a good chemistry together and their banters are one of the few highlights about the film. Though different from his cool and hardass older persona, it's still enjoyable to see a more easygoing and laid-back young Fury.
Other positives: Ben Mendelsohn’s Australian-accented Skrull leader Talos eventually became an engaging character midway. The cat Goose was adorable and steals the show. Though she’s playing an insignificant minor character, Gemma Chan (BBC’s Humans, Crazy Rich Asians) as Minn-Erva looked fantastic, absolutely captivated me whenever she was on screen. Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) was equally as riveting for the brief time he was in. He didn’t really do much but it was still nice seeing Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) back in the MCU movie side.
What didn’t work though was how Captain Marvel’s powers are depicted. The sparkling photon blasts looks cartoonish and visually doesn’t carry much oomph. When she’s flying and blasting spaceships out of the sky, it just looked too unrealistic and too effortless, i.e., boring. Carol’s “power upgrade” was done poorly as it felt like she didn’t really go through any hardship or overcome overwhelming odds to deserve the level up. Even the origin of her powers seemed too convenient and simplistic.
Clearly one of the most powerful, if not, the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Studios roster (her limitations are still unknown), so what does this mean to the MCU landscape? Future Earth-based adventures seem too beneath the character based on her power set but there are numerous cosmic level event stories (like Annihilation) where she would fit in. With Avengers: Endgame coming up in just a few weeks, hopefully ace directors Russo Bros. can put their spin on Captain Marvel and depict the character, her power set and her action scenes in a more favorable light.
There is a loving tribute to Stan Lee at the opening which was nice to see. Stick around for two post-credits scenes, one of which ties up to Avengers: Endgame.
Captain Marvel is passable but uninspired. It flounders mostly through the miscasting of Brie Larson and the faulty characterization. The action was mediocre, the power depiction was done poorly and the story was just adequate. If only there was a Captain Marvel origin story somewhere out there that was more exciting and bad-ass. Oh wait, there is.
RATING: 6.5/10
Link to previous threads:
1st thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/110449745/
2nd thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/144704953/
3rd thread: https://forums.sherdog.com/posts/150252171/
