Captain Marvel Movie Review

Captain Marvel follows Vers who is a Kree, a race of intergalactic police. After a mission goes wrong, Vers ends up stranded on Earth in the 90s and must race the shapeshifting Skrulls to a piece of technology that will help them win the war against the Kree. At the same time, Vers begins to learn more about her mysterious past that may be connected to Earth. Captain Marvel as a character is one that is quite fun and entertaining even if it is very familiar for a superhero origin movie. Although Brie Larson’s acting was questionable in the early parts of the film, she really brings Vers to life once she ends up on Earth. There is nothing in her development that makes her special but her fish-out-of-water dynamic with Earth is incredibly fun.

By far the best parts of Captain Marvel involved the conversations between Vers and Nick Fury. Their writing dialogue scenes were the highlight because of how well the actors played off one another. These scenes give up more information about Fury’s personality than all of his other appearances combined. The shapeshifting abilities of the Skrulls also create some very fun, slow-burning suspense scenes. However, the biggest disappointment is the action scenes. Although they are not bad by any extent, they remained very tamed for Marvel standards. This leads most of the action to be unmemorable even if, in the moment, they are exciting to watch.

Captain Marvel suffers from a major issue with constant reminders to the rest of the MCU. Unlike some other Marvel movies whose references have major implications to the rest of the cinematic universe, Captain Marvel references are played for laughs that are meaningless to the rest of the universe. One particular Easter egg towards the end of the film was particularly aggravating since it downplays one of the most interesting plot threads this movie could have dealt with. There are even some characters in the movie that serve no real purpose to the plot other than to give callbacks to previous films. These cameos and Easter eggs could easily be used to show the connected nature of the MCU, but instead, they feel tacked on and forced. This is an issue that has been more common within the MCU, but it still brings down the movie’s quality overall.

Although there was nothing in Captain Marvel that was particularly bad, there was nothing that was remarkable either. The movie remains perfectly watchable and entertaining but lacks the personality and style to truly stand out from the sea of superhero films. It is the exact definition of average.

Score: 6/10