Captain Marvel Review (with Spoilers)



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Captain Marvel came out this weekend. Maybe you have seen it! Maybe you did not think it was so great. Let's talk about that.

The initial opinion of Marvel Cinematic Universe on Carol Danvers is going well. That's good? This is good. If you wish, you could perhaps say that the film is good. But despite the heaps of golden bricks, he's accumulated in the Disney safe during the weekend and despite all the self-laudable praise he's received in others. points of sale, it's at best a missed opportunity – and I say it as a person that would cry if someone presented me with several well-generated graphs or an Excel spreadsheet detailing the time and the weather. money spent on my fandom MCU.

MAJOR SpOiLeRs to follow, obviously.

Let's start with the big macro things. The main story – all this damn story – is unclear and undefined to the point where the Great Revelation (s) occurs (s) occurs and the sets of the last act begin to unfold. you sit in the theater trying to remember why you care about those who get hit. It's as if the film had feet on two pieces moving in different (and not opposed) directions – the desire to play in the MCU sandbox and the desire to tell the story of Captain Marvel – and never really choose which one he wanted. be. What's left is a mishmash of a good actor, beautiful special effects, and poor script writing.

For what is apparently an original story, this film constantly tries to avoid being what it is. (Wow, it's like a meta-comment!) Black Panther and Spider-Man: Homecoming-who have subverted some of the most common original tropes, in part because their characters made cameos in Captain America: Civil War and were thus set in the barrel – all MCU viewers must leave Captain Marvel before seeing his full introduction is a logo on a buzzer in the middle of the credits scene Avengers: Infinity War, the one who, given the musical signal, is supposed to inspire hope after the most devastating event of the current chronology. Comic readers can obviously get into the film with the expectations of Kelly Sue DeConnick's glorious pages, but for the majority of viewers, Captain Marvel is as cool to them as the Guardians team was before the fall of the hit of 2013.

The big question the film had to answer was always: Who is Carol Danvers or Vers? (Just to clarify things on this blog, in case weird people would like to ruin blockbusters, every time you see the names Captain Marvel, Vers or Carol Danvers in this document, we are talking about the same person.)

But the question never gets a complete or strategic answer during the film. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, co-directors, begin the story in the media and relegating these responses to frustrating and insufficiently informative flashbacks and the results of the second half are potentially cold, but ultimately rushed. If you want to put Annette Bening in a bomber (a good idea!) And change her true identity three times during a movie (another good idea!), It might be helpful to make the audience feel kind of connected emotional with at least one of these identities and not just expect us to be impressed by the continuous tugging.

It is possible and likely that this is a problem related to a constantly expanding MCU and to the ideaWar of Infinity must win and specify his place in the largest canon. But compared to Iron Man, Captain America: First Avenger, Guardians of the Galaxy, and even Dr. Strangethe reason why a viewer would watch this particular movie is unclear for too long.

Part of these weaknesses comes with the risk of getting your story out of the well-defined history of the Earth, or C-53. In The first avenger, the stakes are determined by your preconceived understanding of WW2; the same goes for the US-Afghan war in Iron Man. You know perfectly the shapes and the rhythms of the peripheral configuration, so you can spend most of your time digging in the arcs of character.

At this point, the main obstacle to achieving any emotional investment in Captain Marvel is his impenetrable mythology of Skrull-Kree war – and more importantly, the pre-existing relations of the two races, which is left almost completely indefinite outside the explanatory language of Talos, perfectly played by Ben Mendelsohn. We still do not really know why these two armies really fight, what kind of blood (and even less color) Talos has on his hands, and who is Ronan compared to Vers, if not a blue guy that she punishes absolutely. The first guardians Slyly, this trap focuses more on his band of breaks than on the conflict that surrounds him, and even in the end, you get what's going on between Ronan and the Nova Corps and you even get a little clue about Thanos master plan. .

One of the best features of this film is its chemical composition. Larson and Lashana Lynch, who plays Danvers' best friend Maria and her veterinary colleague in the Air Force, take full advantage of their few scenes to truly silence their deep relationship. But their dramatic mid-term reunion seemed non-existent and underdeveloped – we had no way of understanding why Danvers seeing Rambeau for the first time in years (and vice versa) meant so much. The main friendship between Carol and Maria could have been five to ten minutes in the background or even at the same time at Rambeau's house. The friendship is not incredible, but its foundation is superficial, especially compared to past MCU films – think of Cape / Bucky, Tony / Rhodes, T'Challa / Okoye, even Thor / Hulk. It's a shame, because their scenes, as well as those of Monica Rambeau, played by Akira Akbar, shine.

Some other nits to pick:

  • The big badass sequences are over before we start, which is good, but because Captain Marvel just seems to snap his fingers and totally master and master his "new" powers, the fact that it's even more cruel than before. It was thought little lost.
  • The opening of the film is so dark that I was listening for half an hour. You tell me that the Skrulls and the Kree can wage an intergalactic war but that nobody has the money to light their spaceship?
  • This movie seems not to have taken note of Black Panther to distance the powers of the central characters from the Infinity Stones. Again, tying Captain Marvel's credentials in the Tesseract / Space stone is not a big deal, it's excessively complicating the location of this very busy stone and seems a bit too MacGuffin-y for a film universe who lives and dies on MacGuffins.
  • The name "Captain Marvel" is not pronounced nor referenced only once in the film, to my knowledge. It's good! I'm just going to feel a bit embarrassed when everyone walks around the room and shows up End of Game.
  • The director's decision to have one of Nick Fury's latest snapshots while sitting on his computer at the precipitant's edge by typing "The Avengers Initiative" on a Word document is a sloth of cheese that I hoped that the MCU had started in the first phase.

That said, there is good! This movie is very funny and funny – Samuel L. Jackson likes to play Nick Fury and it shows. His scenes and the disintegrating technology used on him provide some of the funniest elements. In addition, I show my prejudices as a cat, but the pieces of goose are very good and very funny – even if I do not need them, I have necessarily decided that I will not be happy. Fury's eye would look on Goose's paws. me.

And for credit to writers and directors, the second semester is clearer than the first. The revelation that reverses the whole dynamic Good Guys / Bad Guys – though, again, not perfectly configured on a larger scale – is creative and intelligent. And when Captain Marvel unveils his full powers and gives fire to each ass, it's extremely lively and very well shot and it's a great example of why this big machine will survive all.

Regarding the annoying male look of the other MCU entries (who is looking at you, The Iron Man 2!) the film represents a significant improvement in the way female characters are represented on the screen in Marvel films. Captain Marvel has no annoying interest in the love of men to distract her – Jude Law appears for five minutes – and Larson better embodies the role anyone could have in this situation, with a presence that translates to both curiosity and strength. that the story of his character requires. The most important problems – the screenplay, the lighting, the terrible story of origin – do not escape you to the point of wanting to leave the cinema (but you will sigh well).

OK, let's talk now about what this mid-generic scene means, because, in reality, that's the real question with this film finally released. Without breaking the scene on a case-by-case basis, I hope wholeheartedly End of Game do not rely too much on Captain Marvel to steal and hit Thanos and save the day. What made War of Infinity special for people who watched (and revisited) the MCU canon is that it felt at least partially won – as the relationships and narratives established in each film were woven convincingly by the Russo to create the first half of a satisfying film. final offer of the MCU. Yes, the relationship between Wanda and Vision was silly, but that was about all, if you also ignore the quick introduction and exit of the Dark Order. Captain Marvel is very clearly supposed to associate with Spider-Man, Black Panther, Ant-Man, what's left of the Guardians and Dr. Strange to bring the MCU into its cosmic phase.

This first film by Captain Marvel does not show very well where and how the character and the movie exist alongside an apparent new era of cinema. Thor despite all his false-seriousness, it was clear that there were other worlds with more powerful beings. Captain America left us the prospect of an ancient man who met and conquered a stone to infinity. Leaving Captain Marvel's position (in the universe, in his personal journey, in his mastery of his powers), an unclear progress seems to be literally the last thing you want if you're Marvel and there's a month left before what is supposed to be the culmination of a decade and more of the building of the world. That said, if the worst of the scenarios is that Captain Marvel takes a solo or two movie to warm up and shoots the brilliant middleman during the big team movies, I can live with that! But we will have to wait until the end of April to find out if this is the case.

Global Captain Marvel in the average level of MCU movies for me (better than Thor 1/2!) but that probably says more about my depraved fandom than anything else.

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