Captain Marvel (2019)

Back in summer 2017, the hype was real because Wonder Woman was about to be released. It was unnecessary in a context that it wasn’t a good story or a movie.

This march, Captain Marvel premieres, which makes all nerds rooting and screaming. Either way for bad or good. Both movies share some things… First female superhero movies and a cornerstone to its own shared universe. Both women are severe cocky and not. They’re a dreadful to watch yet entertaining.

Wonder Woman has an insignificant accent that is irrelevant for the story and the exposition on Captain Marvel is difficult to absorb. Marvel Studios has now for some time trying to hype this up for Avengers: Endgame, in hope of making her presence more reliable and important. It doesn’t.

Captain Marvel, Vers aka Carol Denvers (Brie Larson) gives barely a backstory, much because of a hard-cutting montage with several flashbacks that supposed to mean something for this character. She grew up with the Kree-people, war-heroes, but learn soon enough that they can’t be trusted. As the story progresses, we also learn about her power, 90-nostalgia references that throwback to present storyline.

When watching a new Marvel-movie, there is such excitement. You know the drill and formula and it something special. This one is all dedicated to the legendary Stan Lee in the introduced logo. Watching a new Marvel is like coming home for the first time in a very long time.

Although, I didn’t feel like I was home at first.

This is slightly a more experimental approach to what we’re used to seeing in this cinematic universe. The first twenty minutes feel quite driven and explosive but then it drops intensively as it gets dragging. There is some effective editing work that keeps the flow work with a fresh nuance.

Much of this movie feels forced. You know what going to happen even if you’re not a straightforward MCU-follower. The joke doesn’t apply that much to everything and barely contain the substance that is needed. In the middle act, it is very long with an extremely short third act. It doesn’t have real closure. It doesn’t convey the storyline as it should develop each of these characters. The visuals are spot on in practices throughout the film and feel fresh. Even if Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury has a significant part to play in this universe, he feels pale and why they would collaborate is an enigma. The de-aging works to some point and it’s hard to not think about the multiple CGI-work that has come down to each of every frame and second.

In that way, it feels by certain rushed. It’s like they made this movie as a statement, to make a point. Her charisma and heroism don’t live up to the hype. She maybe has powers but she ain’t the most powerful. She is just and another superhero. Nothing more. Just like Thor, Captain America, and Hulk.  Without her powers, she’s definitely weak. Nothing more than a glorifying wonder-woman in a tight overall with some three-color palette.

She isn’t like the animated series Avengers that run for four seasons before they change animation layout to something more dreadful and horrifying. She is definitely cocky in this movie and knows things but she ain’t vulnerable. They don’t show her emotion on a deeper level. A higher magnitude that really grasps you and pulls you down.

I miss that.  In all of the four first origin superhero-movies, there is at least one moment of vulnerability. There is a moment where they fight for their lives unless they die immediately on the screen. In this movie, there is none. The only problem she has in this one; is amnesia. They fix it with a voice-over and a bunch of flashbacks. As soon she figures out that Yon-Ragg (Jude Law) isn’t on her side anymore; she doesn’t care. There is barely a conclusion.  There are some fight scenes in a hangar but not a big one – that actually means something.

The movie has entertaining moments, awesome visuals, fun superhero-moments (especially in the beginning) but concludes with a mediocre storyline that doesn’t deliver any depth of any kind.