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Captain Marvel Review

By Bryan Weatherall | March 9, 2019

Captain Marvel is the latest film to be released and take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film comes directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson and Jude Law. Captain Marvel is based on a Marvel Comics character named Carol Danvers, of which this is the first film to be made for the character and this is also the first female hero to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a standalone film.

Going in to see Captain Marvel at the cinema this week, I must admit I was quite excited to see what would happen in the film. I’ve been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe for some years now and am always keen to see what’s new with the characters within that universe.

I do think though that there is some confusion out there about who this character is because Captain Marvel was never really a major character in the comic books I read when I was younger and also there’s a DC comics character, who also goes by the name ‘Captain Marvel’ and also has a film going to be released soon. But that hero is known as Shazam now. I do know that there are certainly people out there that think when you say the words ‘Captain Marvel’ that actually you are talking about Shazam and not Carol Danvers. Due to this, I’m super curious to see how this film and Shazam perform at the box office.

Captain Marvel is basically meant to be a Superman like character within the Marvel Universe. She’s super powerful and there’s not really much out there that could take her down. In fact actually when the character of Captain Marvel was first created, there was a lawsuit between DC and the creators of the character as it was thought to be too similar to Superman. You can read more about that here on Wikipedia.

Captain Marvel takes place sometime in the 90’s and the character is essentially in a time period before everything in the Marvel Cinematic Universe happened. Essentially what’s happening in the film is that there’s a war going on between two powerful alien races and it has spilled over onto planet Earth. Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel comes to Earth and gets into the middle of this war and takes a look at what she can do about it all.

Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN MARVEL..Starforce Leader (Jude Law) ..Photo: Film Frame..©Marvel Studios 2019

For the most part the main plot of the film is good. I liked the new alien races that were introduced in this film and felt that they were amongst the better of the alien races we’ve scene from the MCU for some time. While the main plot about the war and having Captain Marvel stop it was interesting, I felt that the film lacked quite a bit when it came to its main character Carol Danvers. I didn’t really feel that there was much there. In fact actually, I left the cinema feeling I got to know Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury much more than I ever did coming out of this film.

The action scenes in this are okay. The character itself is very powerful, similar to Superman and if you’ve seen a Superman film, you’ll know that most people he faces don’t last long in a fight because essentially they can’t touch him. Same goes here with Captain Marvel. It’s nice to watch the character in the fight scenes, but most things come quite easy for the character, so I never really felt that she was in much trouble at all.

The acting was good enough, I enjoyed all performances from Brie Larson, Jude Law and Samuel L. Jackson. They did their best to bring their characters to life and on the big screen, when they were there, things were always great.

Marvel Studios' CAPTAIN MARVEL..Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)..Photo: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2019

Overall I would say that this film was a decent cinema experience and if you’re going to see it this weekend, I don’t think it will really disappoint many out there. I felt the Captain Marvel character wasn’t very well developed, but the main plot and the introduction of new alien races into the MCU was well done and I’m keen to see more of that. The action scenes were okay too. Where I think the issue with this film is, is not with the film itself, but it feels more like just another MCU episode in amongst what have been many films/episodes released over the years. For people following the series, this film is a must watch because it will fill in much needed gaps for the upcoming Avengers: End Game film, in which Captain Marvel will likely appear. As for seeing this film over other films at the cinema this week, I’d still highly recommend going to see Alita: Battle Angel this week over this if you were needing to choose between one or the other.