Something Positive....CAPTAIN MARVEL

Something Positive, wherein we explore everything positive about film, tv, or experiences even if we didn’t care for it.  It is known that many people come together to create something they hope people will enjoy and not something that people will despise.  We like to look for the positive in everything and will share that with you in this series.

Captain Marvel sure wasn’t a movie I was looking forward to.  Honestly, I don’t find Captain Marvel the character entertaining or interesting in the least.  My only exposure to her in the comics was her role in CIVIL WAR II and in that she wasn’t endearing or sympathetic in the least.  During the events of the first Marvel CIVIL WAR at least you could see the sides on which Captain America and Iron Man were coming down on, you could understand both of their motivations.  Captain Marvel in CWII had a very vague moral compass and wasn’t altogether that intelligent or organized.  The character of Captain Marvel was very off putting and I didn’t care to follow her or any of her adventures as far as the comic books go.  When the movie was announced for me, it was going to be a hard pass.  I didn’t have any interest in watching this movie about this character.  I also skipped THOR 2 and IRON MAN 3, for many of the same reasons (I think Iron Man is only interesting when he’s playing with others, and Thor wasn’t interesting until Ragnarok).  So I didn’t feel compelled in any way to see this movie.

Well, circumstances being what they are I eventually ended up seated in the audience of the movie as an excuse to see my friend who did want to see this movie.  I put a up a fight about it, but eventually we sat down with my popcorn and soda in hand ready to watch the adventures of CAPTAIN MARVEL.  Academy Award winner Brie Larson stars as the titular character and this is, I think, only the second movie I’ve ever seen her in; the first being KONG OF SKULL ISLAND, where she also starred with Samuel L. Jackson and Tom Hiddleston, and John C. Reilly.  Also known as Nick Fury, Loki, and Nova Corpsman Dey.  These Marvel people are everywhere!!!  As far as acting goes, I thought she was fine.  Like so many problems in movies I think the acting is a reflection of the writing and the directing.  There wasn’t a whole lot given for Captain Marvel to do.  Her character went on some sort of emotional journey, I think, but it was all told through very brief and disjointed flashbacks about how in her previous life as Carol Danvers she was bullied through every stage of growing up.  But that’s just what I’m piecing together, the audience is never really told this.  Because of this character history we have no idea about and the fact that Carol is working through some sort of inter dimensional amnesia, the character comes off as cocky the entire movie.  Which isn’t a great selling point if you’re looking to continue a lasting franchise.  I didn’t feel sympathetic or invested in Carol despite the best that I’m sure Brie Larson was giving.  As well as making her cocky the creative team have made her incredibly over-powered.  She bursts through ships like she’s punching through tissue paper.  That level of strength, is exactly why SUPERMAN is so completely uninteresting too.  When you have a hero that powerful with no flaws or weakness it makes them no fun to watch.  Drama comes from conflict and if the conflict is easily solved because of a characters power level then there is little to no drama to hold my attention.  I’m sure this is all setting up something huge for the next phase of Marvel’s movies as the executives and producers of these films don’t really leave much unplanned.  But in terms of this movie it just isn’t great movie making.  Now that being said, I’m not going to lie; it was damn fun to watch CAPTAIN MARVEL burst through ships and knock out the big baddies.  Watching things go boom and faces get punched is why YouTube is so dang popular.  Even my wife, who hates watching those videos on YouTube will sit for hours and watch re-runs of WORLD’S DUMBEST.  As far your big budget, sci-fi money-shots go, this one lands right on the nose.  Does this make me interested in reading CAPTAIN MARVEL comic books?  No, not really.  But for movies you could do far, far, FAR worse. 

So the biggest problem I had with CAPTAIN MARVEL was the character of Captain Marvel.  What about the rest of the cast?  Let me start with Ben Mendelsohn, an actor whom I’ve been falling in love with since ROGUE ONE and then watched him ham it up brilliantly in READY PLAYER ONE.  He plays Talos a leader of the highly anticipated Skrulls.  Mendelsohn has the perfect timing of a grade A comedian, and also the acting chops of a skilled and matured thespian.  When he’s funny, he’s FUNNY.  When he has a heartwarming moment with his family, he’s absolutely endearing.  I certainly hope we haven’t seen the last of Talos in MCU because he’s great.  The addition of the Skrulls in this movie is interesting.  I certainly hope we get into storylines like THE SECRET WAR in the future of the MCU.  It wouldn’t surprise me if that was the next phase of the movie series.  To set up who is a Skrull imitator and who isn’t.  Revelations of heroes that really aren’t heroes would be absolutely devastating.

 ***SPOILER*** skip this section if you don’t want to know about ENDGAME.

What if Black Widow is still alive and her Skrull imposter was thrown to her death on Vormir?!?!

Samuel L. Jackson is not just back, he’s back to having fun in movies again.  I still don’t know how they did it.  Just like bringing Tarkin back from the dead in ROGUE ONE I have no idea how they de-aged Sam.  At no point did young Sam look fake, or rubbery, or too CGI-ey.  Young Sam Jackson was brilliant.  And it honestly looked like Sam Jackson was having fun making movies again.  Lately he’s had some amazing, AMAZING roles that I won’t understand why he wasn’t nominated for any of them.  But they were all…downers.  Real drags of people, situations, and stories.  In this movie it looked like he was actually enjoying himself and the silliness of it all.  It was fun to watch.

All in all, this is one of the smaller Marvel Movies.  Not as small as the Ant-Man flicks (Pun intended) but very self aware and self contained.  It didn’t move the needle one way or the other, and honestly you could quite easily skip this movie before watching AVENGERS ENDGAME.  This movie is NOT required viewing.  However, you would denying yourself a fun cosmic romp with some pretty funny moments from several brilliant actors who looked like they were having a nice time making this little sci-fi movie.