Written by Cameron Erickson, Staff Writer
The female empowering entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel, pulses into cinemas with a whopping $153 million domestic opening at the box office, accompanying $455 million worldwide.
The film is presented with a feminist message displaying Carol Danvers, the lead character portrayed by Brie Larson, as an independent fighter who strives for nothing but greatness and excellence. It is uplifting and encouraging to all women and little girls, and even made me, a man, feel encouraged by it.
But that does not make a good movie.
Captain Marvel lacks an engaging, fresh story, that feels lively or even entertaining. There is no weight of importance to the climax of the film. The second act comes to a full and complete stop and has you checking your watch to find out that only five minutes have passed.
I wasn’t invested in the characters as much as the filmmakers intended.
Carol Danvers was very expressionless and quite boring. She cracked a few jokes here and there but was uninteresting to say the least. She just wasn’t that likeable. I felt no connection to her and couldn’t find reasons to root for her.
The “fish out of water’’ scenario didn’t seem to work for me all too much. Maybe because it has been done way better in this past. Remember Terminator 2?
Samuel L. Jackson is by far the best thing about the movie. He reprises the role of Nick Fury, but as a younger, CGI’d version of himself, in which the reverse-aging CGI is the best that has ever been done before. You would not believe that it was even computer generated if you examined it closely.
The conflict between the alien races, the Skrulls and the Kree, made no sense to me. These two races are at war, and the filmmakers provided no background to it, and that war is a primary piece to the story. The audience is left to assume who is good and who is bad, without any evidence as to why we should root for a given side.
The character Goose, who so happens to be an orange cat, is definitely a highlight of the film. The feline provides lots of comic relief to the film and is just straight adorable.
The most important part of the movie for me, as an avid Marvel fan, is the first end credit scene which reveals how this film will play a role in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. That one glimpse made the $9 ticket worth it for me.
Overall, I did not enjoy this film. I am a huge Marvel fan and I enjoy watching good movies. But this was neither a good Marvel movie nor a good movie.