It's gotten to the point where it just doesn't feel like the year has started till the latest MCU movie is out in theaters hasn't it? It's definitely is going to feel like something's gone once this whole franchise finally comes to an end in like the next 10 years or something but in the meantime we have one of the prequels of the MCU. As of this article Linkara hasn't made a Secret Origin video describing the original first appearance of Carol and I will not be reminding anyone of Avengers #200 so when it comes out I'll edit this article to fill in the details. But for now we have the MCU incarnation to cover.
Our story starts in 1995 with an amnesiac woman named Vers (played by Brie Larson) on the planet of Hala, the capital of the Kree empire where she under the tutelage of Yon-Rogg (played by Jude Law) serves the Kree leader, the A.I known as the Supreme Intelligence as a member of the Starforce. Her current mission has her working to exterminate the Skrull, a race of shapeshifters who have been at war with the Kree for centuries. However she gets captured on her latest mission and has her memories probed by the local Skrull commander Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn) which, aside from being a massive invasion of personal privacy, triggers her memories of a certain planet that holds the rest of the pieces of her long forgotten past. If you guessed that that planet was earth, then you get a gold star.
After she lands in a Blockbuster Video she runs across a young S.H.I.E.L.D agent by the name of Nicholas Joseph Fury (played by a masterfully de-aged Samuel L Jackson) who after getting attacked by Talos and his men agrees to help Vers discover what the Skrulls are up to on Earth and what Earth may hold about her past. Now there's nothing but spoilers afterwords so I'll stop right there. Ignoring the spoilers I thought this was another good entry for the MCU. I honestly wasn't expecting this to be a throwback to 90's Buddy cop movies with Superheros but hey, I've seen wielder things happen. Speaking of our duo I think they're both really good.
Starting off with our title character, I like Brie Larson's Vers, at the beginning we can see that her real persona is breaking through the amnesia but that tends to get her in trouble among her fellow Kree subjects. But when she gets on earth she seems to fit in much better despite the primitive technology and galactic awareness. And as she wanders with Nick and arrives at certain locations she's overcome by something, she can't quite put her finger on it, and then the word comes to her "nostalgia". Aside from just the 90's California aesthetics that is, which there is quite a bit of in this movie as if the Blockbuster Video scene wasn't enough of a nostalgia bomb. Seriously It's been how long since Blockbuster closed down their stores?
As for Nick, I have to agree with everyone, the de-aging effects on Samuel L Jackson are amazing. Keep in mind the guy is about 70 years old yet he looks just like he did around when they filmed Pulp Fiction, it's amazing. Other then that we see a younger Nick Fury who hasn't become so much of the cynical contingency planer that we see in the other movies. These two working together makes for funny back and forth, a short yet powerful friendship and helps show Fury that Earth has more than just their local superpower wack-jobs to worry about and why he went straight for that pager at the end of Infinity War. He knows that she's the most powerful being on Earth aside from Thor and that she is the last resort since she had her own agenda all this time protecting her people from the end of this movie.
But as for how I would personally grade it. I don't think this is the absolute worst of anything, especially Brie Larson's acting. Listen people, I know what wooden acting is and this performance was not it. Go watch something like Birdemic or "The Time Machine (I found at a Yard-sale)", Twilight or anything made by David Cage. I dare you to tell me that her acting is bad after you've seen Wooden Rod, 50's Mc Cheerios and Dead Pan Mcgee.
No, in this movie we see that while she has had extensive training as a Solder she has plenty of one-liners, attitude, empathy and is, shock and gasp, an actual human being with a wide range of emotions! Sorry, sick and tired of the current discourse surrounding this movie and I had to get that off my chest. Back on track, the villains, are at least better than standard Phase 1 fare. We have personal conflict and a legit reason to hate them. Avoiding spoilers but when we see Vers take on the Captain Marvel codename and fights the big bad all I wanted to say was "this is for the science guy!"
Though the sequel set up was a bit obvious we do want to see where this goes for the Captain and how she's going to deal with this overcoming threat and how it shapes up the Kree for how we see them in Guardians of the Galaxy 1. Speaking of, yes we do get some cameos from Ronan and his #2 guy, but they're pretty much window dressing right now. The comedy is on par with the MCU as well, well written, perfect tension breakers and help to give dimensions to the characters. The action is cool, diverse, well choreographed and the final set piece where Captain Marvel unlocks her full potential is a sight to behold, as well as a good reason why she was kept out of the movies for so long. She's basically the MCU Superman, if she showed up the conflicts would have been over and down with before Tony Stark finished even one one-liner.
So like I have to keep saying so long and often I feel that I have to make it my catch phrase, ignore the hype and make the best judgement call around, yours. So now that MCU movie #1 is out of the way for this year time to see Marvel join up with the Avengers and leave a meteor sized fist mark right into Thanos' skull. But not before we see the original Captain Marvel up on the big screen. And from what I've seen of the trailers and how DC's been getting their act together all I have to say is, holy moly.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Captain Marvel is owned by Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company. Based on the character created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan.
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