I was in no way, shape or form excited to see “Captain Marvel.”
When the trailer was posted I was like “Neat, a new MCU movie,” and that was about it. My biggest issue was with Brie Larson as the titular superhero.
Everything that she said in the trailer sounded really forced and I thought to myself, “How could she be so great in ‘Room’ and sound like she has no emotion in this?”
Well, out of obligation to the series as a whole, and not wanting to be out of the loop when “Avengers: Endgame” came out, I went and saw “Captain Marvel” this past weekend, and it truly knocked my socks off.
“Captain Marvel” follows Larson as Carol Danvers, an intergalactic “warrior hero” whose travels bring her to Earth, where she finds that she had a life there that she has no memory of.
During her journey of self-discovery, she finds out that she is the key to ending an intergalactic war between two rival species, and Earth may very soon become the battlefield.
First off, just about every line that I hated in the trailer was not in the movie, which leads me to believe that those lines were done later in postproduction and that’s why they came off so forced.
Larson was fantastic as Captain Marvel, and she really held the movie together with her performance.
I wouldn’t say that she stole every scene that she was in, because just about everyone else gave pretty convincing performances, but she really stood out and made the character hers.
The special effects, as they always are in these modern Marvel movies, were excellent all around. From here on out, I am expecting only the best out of CGI in Hollywood. The de-aging effects that the filmmakers were able to do on Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg were absolutely amazing.
I sung the praises of these effects in “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” but in that movie, they weren’t featured very prominently. Every shot of Jackson in “Captain Marvel” has this effect applied.
And I. Could. Not. Tell.
He just looks perfect. It is really weird seeing him looking like he did in “Pulp Fiction,” but other than that, there is nothing uncanny about his performance.
I am more thoroughly impressed with this computer wizardry than any other effect in recent memory.
I would be remiss if I did not bring up the central message of the film, which is that women are completely equal to men in every way and should be treated as such.
While a story with this message is an important one to tell today, there are many places where the story could have taken a dive in quality because of the heavy handed delivery of the very topical and politically charged theme.
“Captain Marvel” defies all common wisdom about how to slide a message into a film, and tiptoes the line between excellent film and message delivery aid beautifully, and at no point is there anytime where the audience is taken out of the moment of the film.
Spoilers ahead: if you haven’t seen “Captain Marvel,” skip to the last paragraph. OK, so at the climax of film, Jude Law’s character challenged Larson’s to a hand-to-hand duel, where he insists that she “prove to him” that she can beat him one-on-one without her powers.
Instead of doing what he says, she uses what makes her unique, her powers, to defeat him. After she promptly knocks him on his butt, she says that she “doesn’t need to prove anything to him” and extends him her hand in a respectful handshake.
In a lesser movie, Larson would have beat him without her powers and proved her female superiority, but instead “Captain Marvel” paints a more accurate picture and lets both characters share a moment of mutual respect, as they recognize they are equals. As it should be.
I could not have been more surprised with “Captain Marvel.”
I went into the theater with a sense of obligation, and left fully invested in the story and its characters.

BENJAMIN HAYLETT
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