Unspoiled Reviews - Captain Marvel
For most non-comic book readers, the end of Avengers Infinity war might have left people with several questions which need answers, the largest of there being "What's with the pager?". The answer comes in the form of the newest introduction to the MCU - Captain Marvel!
Before we begin, I'll admit that I'm not especially knowledgeable about the character of Captain Marvel, most of my knowledge of the character coming from her part in several of the cross over events Marvel has released in the past few years. What I do know however, is that this film does take some liberties with the character's origin and powers, and the Kree race, and their conflict with the Skrulls, which might leave some fans slightly confused, and contradicts some of what Marvel has built into their comic book history.
As always, I'm not going to go into detail about the plot of the film, for that you're going to have to watch it yourself, but will share a couple of my thoughts about the plot below, so if you want to keep ALL details about the film secret, then scroll down until you see the picture of Jude Law and Brie Larson, you can't miss it!
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As you might have guessed, this film is set before the majority of the events in the MCU (aside from the first Captain America film), and details the origin of this powerful superhero. Being a prequel, the film takes the opportunity to throw a few more Easter Eggs into the mix and answers some questions, which were never explained to the viewers in the other MCU films, such as a brief introduction into Nick Fury's back story, the development of several key features of the other movies, and why we haven't heard anything about Captain Marvel and the Kree-Skrull war before 'The Snap'.
As well as Marvel's usual blend of action, powerful character relationships, and comedy, this film also has, presumably, one of the final Stan Lee cameos which everyone has grown to expect over the years. I won't spoil that for you either, but keep your eyes out for the late legend!
The acting in most of the MCU is pretty good, but in the majority of these films the main characters stand out against the crowd of supporting characters. This film however, is filled with awesome acting across all of the characters, both minor and major (and yes, I'm including Goose the cat in this as well!).
I'd love to go into each of them in great detail, but that would make this review far too long, so I'm going to focus on some of the main characters here. Before I do though, I'd like to throw a shout out to Gemma Chan (Minn-Erva), Annette Bening (Supreme Intelligence), Lashana Lynch (Maria Rambeau), and Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), who each gave an awesome performace and added a grounded sense of realism and naturalism to the fantasy piece, keeping the audience's attention fixed on the events of the characters.
Of course, I have to give special praise to the titular character, Captain Marvel herself, played fantastically by Brie Larson. Brie's acting is faultless, which was a real challenge given the huge range of emotion, action, and comedic timing this role required. Brie kept the audience gripped, and did an awesome job of guiding the audience along the journey as she learns more about herself and finds out who she really is within the universe. I've not seen much of Brie Larson's body of work, but if it is all like her performance here then I am in for a real treat when I eventually find the time to watch more of it!
I really like Jude Law as an actor, so when I saw that he was billed to play Yon-Rogg, I knew that there would be something very noteworthy to discuss. Jude's performance here, like most of his other work, is very detailed and carefully constructed so the audience can understand the history and relationship to all of the other characters without saying a word. Right from the start of the movie, Jude's performance is so consistent throughout that the audience is left with absolutely no question as to why he is a central character to the life of Captain Marvel.
Samuel L. Jackson is an actor which needs to introduction (aside from this sentence), so whether you're familiar with the rest of the MCU or not, you have almost certainly seen something he's been in, and his performances have always been absolutely spectacular. In this film, we get Nick Fury taking a central role in the action, instead of his usual role of working behind the scenes to organise the actions of the various heroes, which Samuel takes in his stride and faultlessly captivates the audience's attention. Samuel L. Jackson's performance is stellar, bringing his usual comedic charm to the younger and less experienced version of the character, while maintaining the intelligence and resourcefulness which we are all familiar with from the other films in the timeline.
Finally, I wanted to give special mention to Ben Mendelsohn, who plays the role of Talos, because his performance create a really interesting and well developed character. I'd love to talk about why I loved his performance so much, but I can't without risking spoiling some of the plot of the film. Sufficed to say, that Ben brought the motivations and back story of the character to life, and kept the audience in the palm of his hand whenever he opened his mouth. Ben's work is something I'm not particularly familiar with, but I can't wait to see more performances like this in his career.
The set design and effects in the film are of a very high standard, with many throwbacks to the past, and keeps the realism of the pieces as far as possible. The visual effects are powerful and immersive, and the choreography of the fights is, on the whole, very impressive.
My only real criticism with the performance is with the MCU's standard fighting style. I've explained this in more detail in my Unspoiled Review of Daredevil Season 1, but I would love to see the Marvel Movies following the lead of the Netflix series on how to edit a fight scene, without loads of cuts being used to create the character fights.
Overall, I would highly suggest that you watch this film, not only because Captain Marvel will make an appearance in Avengers Endgame, but also because it is an entertaining film.
Until next time,
Tim
Plot: ✇ ✇ ✇ ✇ Performance: ✇ ✇ ✇ ✇ ✇ Overall: ✇ ✇ ✇ ✇