CAPTAIN MARVEL by Urizen

Going into Marvel's newest film, Captain Marvel, gave me a bit of a nostalgic feeling. For once, probably since  Guardians of the Galaxy, I had a character that I didn’t know much about. I knew the basics of Carol Danvers, having seen her some as Mrs. Marvel and as Captain Marvel in other comic series, but I had never read one of her own series. On top of that, the most recent event I had read that featured her was Civil War 2 which wasn’t the most well received take on the character. So going into this, I got to pretty excited. The trailers already made the film look pretty great to me, but being able to go into this without having to have much concern as to “well, It isn't like this in the comic" or “that's not accurate,” it was kind of nice. Though typically I do my best to ignore that sort of thing anyway because the MCU is it's own separate entity. Nonetheless, my excitement was high and I have to say, I did not leave disappointed.

As bad as it is, a part of me going into this movie was a bit worried. I knew that to an extent this was going to be an origin story which can be fine but most often I find myself liking some of the sequels better, after everyone is already established.  Not always, but a good chunk of the time. Plus I couldn’t help but wonder, with how much CGI has to go into de-aging Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury for not just a couple scenes but for a whole 2 hour movie, were we going to end up with a Black Panther or more an Infinity War in terms of the effects. Once again though, the movie exceeded my expectations in both categories. But I will get more in depth on these as I discuss the movie.

The story centers around Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, or as she is first introduced to us,Vers. Vers is an amnesiac soldier in the Kree Starforce. The Kree are an alien race from the planet Hala. They are at war with another alien race, the shapeshifting Skrulls, led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). Vers and the rest of this group of the Kree Starforce, led by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) have to stop the Skrull’s plan and win the war, while along the way Vers is working to regain her memories. As time goes on, she ends up on Earth where she runs into S.H.I.E.L.D agent Nick Fury (Jackson) and eventually Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) who aid her in stopping Talos' plan. While being a basic story,  there are enough twists and turns to keep it really interesting and make it well done.

For the most part, the characters are all great.  The only exceptions to this really being the other members of the Starforce that we see, minus Yon-rogg and Vers. I never really felt like I got to know them that much, the only one I got a bit more of was Minerva. But even then, nothing much came from her. This was all exceptionally disappointing when it came to Korath (Djimon Hounsou), who originally appeared in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film. Both he and Ronan (Lee Pace) suffer from that. At the end of the day though, this is a Captain Marvel movie. From the very first trailer, people have complained about Brie Larson's portrayal of Carol Danvers. “Her acting is too wooden" or “Why is she so serious? Why doesn’t she smile more?” Well, I have to say, I think she absolutely nails it. Carol does have a bit of seriousness to her and a bit of anger. That is nothing new. But in this movie she has this cockiness and this charm that makes her fit right in with the rest of the MCU. I cant wait to see her interacting with Tony Stark and all of them. Of course , Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury was great as always. It was nice to see this younger version of the character and get some answers to some questions we all have had.

Now what would a hero be without a villain? For this film we have Talos, played by Ben Mendelsohn. I don’t know much about Talos from the comics truthfully, but I absolutely loved his character. He and Goose (best cat) really stole the show for me. Some of my favorite moments involve those two characters. While there are others such as The Supreme Intelligence, more with Maria Rambeau  and others, it is hard to talk too much without spoilers. We do also have our Stan Lee cameo which was great as usual, and at the beginning there was a touching tribute that brought applause from the whole theater.

To me, this movie almost seemed like Guardians of the Galaxy to 90s kids. There were plenty of references and great music from the era along with a musical score that felt right at home at times for a 90s sci fi film. While this movie has drawn a lot of criticism with people complaining about feminism and about Brie Larson, I really think this movie knocks it out of the park. I look forward to seeing much more of Carol Danvers in the future. Higher, further, faster.