This, until Frozen 2 was officially announced, was one of my most anticipated movies this year if not the most anticipated movie this year. After my middling review of Avengers: Infinity War, I really have no emotional connection to the upcoming Endgame. It’ll happen. I will see it, but what really got my attention was the final shot from Fury and the stinger that came with it for this movie. Then they tell me it’s Brie Larson who I first saw as Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and I absolutely loved in Free Fire, and then again in Kong: Skull Island she was able to elevate a sub-par character. I am more pleased. The trailers drop, the smile grows. Larson goes on the offensive to the internet trolls – and how can I not be happy. Then my best friend points out how Marvel is doing the “HER” O thing in the trailer..and its a touch eye rolling since Marvel is second out of the gate on this front and there’s been a lot of talk about it but no action until 11 years into the Marvel universe. They talk, but their actions and other comments seem to say they don’t trust. Now they go for it and the internet trolls go after Marvel and this movie in full force – so bad that several sites turned off reviews from people until after the movie is out.

So is Captain Marvel the hero we needed in the Marvel universe?

Well Yes.

Yes she is. She is long overdue.

Did they do her justice though?

That’s the real question. The first answer to it, is not what I call good. Frequent readers of mine know I have a “Three Writer Rule”; which states that any movie with three or more writers usually has some issues. This one has five story by credits, three of which also get screenplay. Now I could go look up and try to decipher who did what and share that, but I don’t think that is needed. We can generally infer that the story by with Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy, Detective Pikachu) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur) were the initial story writers, as the other three credits also get screenplay. Those credits going to Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider 2018), and the films directors Anna Boden (Sugar, Mississippi Grind) and her frequent collaborator Ryan Fleck (Sugar, Mississippi Grind). As I piece this together we have a Disney writer, a proven Marvel writer, and an up and coming writer from the writers room. We have two writer/directors who clearly work well together, but haven’t worked on anything this big before – and now this movie makes sense.

We have the story of Vers (Veers), a Kree Warrior with amnesia, engaged in an intergalactic war with a shapeshifting species known as The Skrulls. During a rescue operation Vers and her team are ambushed by the Skrulls and Veers is captured. During a Skrull interrogation flashes of lost memory return to Vers and during her escape she finds herself on Earth. Now she must stop the Skrulls from find a MacGuffin and clues to her own identity.

That’s more or less the premise here and its fairly solid comic book storytelling. The plot is amazingly straight forward and carries itself well. The connective tissue of the movie that carries you from beat to beat is some of the better pieces since Marvel Phase 1 and early Phase 2; where they let the two hour movie slow down enough for you to get a real feel for the characters and their interactions with those around them. The movie even solves amazingly well the Green Lantern Paradox, which is how do we show an Alien world and let people care. They did it. The problem really lies on the surface of the film. They brow beat you with the girl power in too obvious ways that actually do read as pandering. That isn’t to say that the movies through line of this woman who stands up against everything that tries to hold her back isn’t there – because damnit it is and I am here for it. What takes away from it is the inconsistencies and little jabs that don’t work and should have been edited out. What doesn’t work is that there are beats that could have been so much better had they leaned into the trope a bit more and run with it in their own way. Sure its easy for me to write about all the flaws in something that took months of work, but I feel like someone in the producers chair should have caught it.

Granted some of those flaws don’t come from the script, but the directing. I maintain they told Brie Larson to maintain an arms reach perimeter around herself where no one else was allowed within that range and she must *always* stand in a 3/4 pose. For Marvel to make this their big bet for us in the female audience I feel like they didn’t take us seriously on the directors chair. The actors did fine don’t get me wrong, but Brie Larson, Samuel L Jackson, Jude Law, and Ben Mendelsohn can act their way through anything and make it better than had any right to be. I am not being entirely fair to the directors here, there are more than a few shots that really are just great and the acting, the blocking, everything is framed just right. The problem is there are also more than a few where a “hero” shot was called for, something from a comic panel and it was missing. Where a few seconds of timing or clarity in the shot could have made it all work.

It doesn’t help the movie that on the technical side most of the fights are a mess and lack real geography. They could have been cleaner, they could have been wider or brighter to showcase someone who is clearly a wonderful talent physically as well as in her acting. The absolute worst crime for this movie is Pinar Toprak’s score. It 100% lets the movie down and makes all the minor flaws I talked about that much more apparent. There is absolutely nothing to it, no theme, no anthem, no leitmotif to let the movie have any real rises and falls. I’d love to send her youtube content creator “Sideways” video on Eric Wolfgang Korngold and leitmotifs because I think it could help. Granted, this may not be her fault, she may have just done a demo score, or temp music, for the movie and a producer hand-waved and said it was good enough without giving it to another. The CG, with few exceptions though is top notch and getting better by the day and was down right engaging.

TL;DR

The movie despite my lambasting critique above is good. It is entertaining. It will absolutely be empowering for girls everywhere. I had a good time with the movie. I am just said I didn’t have a great time. I am sad I didn’t get as invested as I wanted to. Brie Larson did her best and thanks to her we have a *great* female hero on the big screen. The character is great, the actor playing her is amazing. The movie is elevated because of her and the other actors and while it speaks of great things for those performers it doesn’t say much for the rest of the movie; which just falls flat too many times

Captain Marvel is a very solid, entertaining film, one of the better Marvel films in recent years and I am glad I saw it and rightfully deserves all the money it should make. It gives me hope for the MCU going forward.

You were kinda harsh on it – should I watch it then?

I was harsh but thats kind of my job. I have maintain my integrity and call the flaws out that there are and this has many – but aside from the score most of them are minor.

The movie is worth seeing. It’s on the top side of good and again I had a good time.

Would you watch it again?

Yes. I’m going to see it again and maybe do an edit to this if one is warranted, but right now its still on my go see again.

Are you buying it?

Yes. Yes I am. No argument and no doubts.

But?

*sighs* Marvel didn’t give it their all here. The people on the production did, even script and directors. Marvel didn’t. They didn’t bring in the right directors or the right people to polish the screenplay.  They didn’t give us a No Man’s Land scene. They didn’t give us a score that makes us sit up and let us know the hero is about to do something epic.

The movie was good, proper, and entertaining but should have been great and honestly. ….DC did it better.

I hate saying that, but its true.

I really feel that Marvel gave this one lip service in production and tried to sell it in post and in marketing. That isn’t fair to the audience or the people who put in the work.

That isn’t fair to the girls who are (and should) be looking up to this movie and it’s character. They got good, they deserved GREAT.