Captain Marvel has generally been held aloft by critics and embraced by audiences. As a colossal MCU fan, I’ve decided to delve a little further into the movie following my spoiler free review, which you can find linked in here. Cutting any pretences, I (being a heartless snobby critic devoid of the concept of joy) found the movie to be distinctly average. I enjoyed it generally, but there were a couple of mildly infuriating aspects of the movie interspersed with what had potential to be a true game-changer. Let’s delve into some plot details. Last Spoiler Warning: it’s not too late to turn back. Except for Nick Fury’s character, who has been forever butchered by this movie for me. But more on that in a minute.

CAPTAIN MARVEL HERSELF

In my review, I was somewhat critical of Brie Larson, however I also emphasised that we should give her time to put her own definitive spin on the character, and for those behind the screen to really delve into what makes her interesting. Ultimately however, she felt bland in this movie.

Smirk < x < Stoic frown.

That’s the emotional range for Carol Danvers in this movie, and I don’t feel that this is Brie Larson’s fault: there’s not really a broad emotional scene in the movie for her to really show off her Oscar-winning acting chops off in. In addition, there’s my key problem with the current version of the character. Sure, she can’t climb a rope that one time, but I can’t climb a rope either and I don’t consider that an essential flaw in my character. Yes, she failed to hit that one ball in the baseball game when she was a kid, but that isn’t a character flaw either. Carol Danvers just doesn’t have a compelling, flawed character and arc across the story.

Let me give you an example of where I’m coming from: in The First Avenger, Steve Rogers starts out as a hideously flawed weakling with a noble heart (much akin to myself), who just wants to do the right thing. He gains the powers of the Super Soldier Serum, becomes Captain America, and is able to finally make a difference. But despite his newfound strength, he fails even when he’s Captain America in that movie. He fails to save Bucky, to settle down and live out a normal life, and eventually has to sacrifice himself to save the day, showing that whilst he’s gained his strength, he’s still that scrawny kid from Brooklyn who just wants to do the right thing. Captain Marvel begins the movie as a powerful amnesiac warrior. Fast forward to the end of the movie, and she’s evolved to become an even more powerful character with full memory of her past.

Yes, she’s realised that she needs to embrace her full potential, which is uplifting for young girls everywhere. Ultimately however, to the bulk of the audience, this is completely not relatable. We want flawed characters who we can relate to: during that final battle where Captain Marvel wipes out the Kree Starforce singlehandedly, its cool to see her at full power, yes, but where are the stakes? The chance that she might lose in some way that keeps the action engaging? Like Captain America, Carol Danvers gains the power to make a difference, but because she never fails at anything she does, she just isn’t as compelling. Plus, she’s smug: with a character like Tony Stark, this works, because RDJ has a natural charisma, and he’s also flawed through his mistakes (creating Ultron, losing to Thanos, etc). Captain Marvel should not have started the movie as smug as she is – it would have made for a more impactful assuming of the power she’s been denied all of her life, during that scene where she breaks free from her bonds during the meeting with the Great Intelligence.

GOOOOOOOOOSE!

Goose is awesome. I love the call-back to that Groot killing-people joke from Guardians of the Galaxy. I love the comedy and general cuteness Goose brings. I love the Flerken reveal. I also enjoyed Goose swallowing the Tesseract, which was a good little pun. Goose gets a thumbs up from me (and I don’t even have a cat).

THE BUTCHERING OF NICK FURY

I alluded briefly in my review of Captain Marvel to how I feel the character of Nick Fury has been massacred for me going forwards. Not literally, but in my perception of him has been damaged.

I enjoyed the dynamic and witty banter between Fury and Carol Danvers, and I think the de-aging work done on Samuel L. Jackson is unprecedentedly excellent (although he does still move like a seventy year-old man in some scenes which sort of takes you out of it, but also can’t be helped. He is still pretty spry for his age though). Nevertheless, some of the writing choices are very contradictory to our prior image of the character. I understand that Nick Fury is very different in character to the person we meet in Iron Man and The Avengers, however there are only so many deviations from my prior perception of the character the movie can take before I can’t take Fury seriously anymore.

Goose the Cat scratching his eye out, all to service a cheap gag, is for me a real injustice to the character. All that emotional intrigue behind how he lost his eye, all those hidden layers to the character, sacrifice for a weak joke. As for the whole ‘Avengers being named after Danvers’ pilot codename’, it made me face-palm in the cinema, because it’s simply so unnecessary. Samuel L. Jackson gives a strong performance, but ultimately, the character writing does him a disservice. I won’t look at him in the same way when I next see him in Far From Home….

THE TESSERACT – IT’S BACK… AGAIN… YAY?

I liked how the Tesseract appears. I’m not sure how Annette Bening’s character managed to wrangle it out of Howard Stark’s hands to use it to try and save the Skrulls (probably a reveal for a later movie), but ultimately, its recurrence was the narrative spine of Phase 1, and so I enjoyed seeing its journey from WWII all the way into Goose’s stomach (and out again). That an Infinity Stone is still in play at this stage, during the Infinity Gauntlet storyline unravelling in Infinity War and Endgame, seems like a clever tie in, and I feel it hints/foreshadows that we might be seeing more of them still in later MCU movies.

SKRULLS (YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MIGHT NEED SOME SUGAR (*SIPS STRAW MENACINGLY*)

I’ve always had a soft spot of sorts for the Skrulls. Alongside the iconic Moleman (who must emerge in Phase 4… it needs to happen), Kang and Doctor Doom, I’ve enjoyed them as Fantastic Four villains in the past, and I was glad to see them being given the cinema-screen treatment. Suffice to say, I enjoyed their role in Captain Marvel. The whole ‘Starforce being evil’ twist was something I’d already predicted going into the movie, but I hadn’t foreseen the reveal of their objective innocence in the war, and I found their role as refugees and victims refreshing and somewhat unexpected. It would be interesting to see how Captain Marvel – who has essentially granted them a platform to grow in strength from after saving Talos and co. from the Kree – would react should the Secret Invasion storyline happen in future, something she would in many ways be directly responsible for. It could add some layers to her regarding what I was saying earlier in this post. Although it’s more likely that a different group of Skrulls will be the ones exhibiting sinister motives in future.

Talos (portrayed by everyone’s favourite generically evil Australian thesp, Ben Mendelsohn) is so funny and well-acted, and I found him much more compelling as both a villain and general character than Jude Law’s Yon-Rogg. There’s some depth to him and his people, and they already feel like quite a unique species in this Cinematic Universe in the same way Wakanda feels like a unique place. I’d be interested to see how in future, their shape-shifting could be used for more nefarious and manipulative means. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

STANDOUT MOMENTS

If I’m being brutally honest, Captain Marvel is lacking a real standout scene with a level of memorability. The train sequence is entertaining, but would be infinitely more so if I hadn’t seen the old lady-Skrull reveal in the marketing (just another timely reminder that it’s illegal to punch the elderly to check if they are Skrulls, and I highly discourage it in all respects). I really loved the action sequence at the start of the movie where she has to literally punch off her restraints and fight the Skrulls who have captured her, although I could highlight a number of more entertaining action set-pieces in the MCU alone. Furthermore, there’s a lack of real visual style to this movie: I could tell you Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden directed this from general knowledge, but there isn’t really a directorial or visual voice in this movie, and I feel that’s prevalent in the somewhat forgettable action sequences. It’s entertaining enough, but I feel we’ve come to expect more from Marvel now. Or maybe that’s just me…

CREDITS SCENES

We were blessed with Goose the Cat throwing up the Tesseract, as well as some proper Endgame footage in the mid-credits scene, and my word is it tantalising (the Endgame footage rather than Goose the Cat… I still love the cat though). Now we know that Carol Danvers will be returning to Earth, which I’m unsure why I didn’t just logically assume she would. The whole gang’s back together: Steve, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, James ‘legs destroyed in horrendous Vision related incident but miraculously repaired by friend’ Rhodes (the name we all best know him by. Or his other alias, ‘Not Terrence Howard’). Captain Marvel’s arriving to help them reverse that snap, looking somewhat dishevelled. The big question is where has she been? Does her rougher appearance allude to a power loss of some description? Methinks so, especially considering how powerful she’s revealed to be in this movie. One thing’s for sure, and that’s that everyone looks very depressed after most of their buddies got snapped out of existence.

That’s all folks. Thank you for reading if you got this far. If you didn’t, please take the next hour to meditate and take a good long look at yourself in the mirror. Or don’t. Don’t forget to like and share this if you found it insightful on Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter – whatever platform you so wish. It would mean an awful lot. Other than that, thanks once again, and until next time, I bid you adieu! 🙂