Mark Reviews Movies: CAPTAIN MARVEL

Become a fan on Facebook Follow on Twitter

Review by Mark Dujsik | March 7, 2019

After all of the sequels and team-ups that have come to define this late stage of the so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe (not to mention the universe-redefining events that have put the fates of about half of the major characters into question—not a particularly suspenseful question, to be sure, but a question nonetheless), it's refreshing to see this franchise go back to its roots of introducing us to a not-so-famous superhero. Yes, Captain Marvel is yet another origin story, in which we learn the back story of a superhero and witness how the hero comes to gain powers, before facing off against a villain. It's not the usual sort of origin story, though, in ways that set it apart from that most common of superhero tales.

For one thing, the film isn't so much about conflict as it is about discovery. There is a galactic war unfolding in the backdrop, between the races of the humanoid Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls, but that is simply the backdrop for a story about a woman, believed to be a Kree but also possessing memories of an entire life on Earth. With the Kree, this woman is known as Vers, a fearless and reckless warrior, and in those memories of an Earth-bound life, she is called Carol Danvers, a fearless but reckless Air Force pilot.

We spend a decent chunk of the film wondering which of these back stories or what combination of them is the truth, and to the credit of the screenplay (written by co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, as well as Geneva Robertson-Dworet), the truth of Vers/Carol's history really doesn't matter in the big picture. It only matters that this woman realizes she—whether alien or human, warrior or pilot, or born/imbued with extraordinary powers or just normal—is a hero for reasons that have more to do with herself than with the circumstances of whatever life she may have had.

The character is played by Brie Larson, a very fine actress who gives far more humanity than we might expect to this blank slate of a character. There's a subtle evolution to Larson's performance, bringing her from an outwardly stern but internally amused warrior, to a person who loses any sense of identity, and finally to a superhero who recognizes the thrill of learning that her best version is the sort who can use extraordinary abilities to fight for good—and still can have fun doing so.

This story almost begins in media res, with Vers recruited to take down a Skrull general on a nearby planet with a Kree assault team led by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law). Pretty early on, it becomes clear that this won't simply be an ordinary origin story. Vers' history is revealed through a series of memories, complete with running commentary from some Skrulls who have captured her. The screenplay doesn't give us the usual charted course of this type of story. That would be easy, routine, and, at this point in the lifecycle of superhero movies, probably dull. Instead, the filmmakers would rather focus on Vers' actions, her evolving personality, and the challenges of feeling lost on multiple worlds and inside one's own head.

After defeating her Skrull captors, Vers crash lands on Earth circa 1995, looking for the story's MacGuffin: a light-speed engine that the Skrulls could use to expand their apparent conquests of other worlds. The device's creator is a scientist (played by Annette Bening) who also appears in Vers' assorted memories. Along the way, she gets help from a younger Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, de-aged by way of flawless visual effects), who quickly learns the benefits of having a super-powered individual on your side when things become weird.

The plot is, well, fairly routine, setting up a series of chases (One, involving a chase/battle in/on a moving train and a car chasing that train, is pretty dynamic) and fights, as well as a couple of expectation-swapping character reveals. One of the more refreshing elements of the story is that we don't get a straightforward villain until the third act, and by that point, Vers/Carol/Captain Marvel has grown far beyond the need for one ("I don't have to prove anything to you," she says late in the film, defiantly sidestepping the requisite final showdown). At first, the villain appears to be the Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn, giving a surprisingly grounded performance beneath multiple layers of make-up), but that character's actual place in the story gives it some extraterrestrial resonance for the real world.

This shift in the usual structure gives the story more time to breathe. Without the plot's attention being distracted by glowing cubes or gems or setting up some big villain for a future installment (Even though all of that has been established by now, a glowing cube does make an appearance, of course, because these movies just can't seem to get away from them), we instead get a fish-out-of-water comedy and a sort of buddy-cop story, with the deadpan Vers and a more gregarious Fury (who turns out to be a cat person—even when the cat isn't what it seems) at the center.

It's a fun lark, with a sturdy character (who doesn't need a cameo or two from other heroes to keep our interest), at a time when this franchise seems to have (temporarily) embraced apocalyptic dread, with characters who mostly exist to offer up quips. At its heart, though, Captain Marvel is about a hero coming into her own, and the film tells this story just differently enough that it doesn't feel like routine.

Buy Related Products