Captain Marvel movie review by Hogan Coad

Rating: 5/10 (7 April 2019)

Although I greatly admire the Marvel cinematic universe and its contributions to the superhero genre, I have to acknowledge that Captain Marvel is among the weakest of its productions. The best way for me to describe this film is through a hypothetic scenario. Suppose I am an average moviegoer who has only seen a few Marvel movies and doesn't really follow the grand story of it all. Someone then asks me what to expect when seeing a Marvel movie. To this I reply "some decent action, a few funny moments, and an empowering message." Even though a lot of other Marvel films try different things with these basic elements, Captain Marvel rides this simple formula to the furthest degree. As a result, a pretty boring experience is conceived. This is easily the most I've yawned while watching a Marvel movie in a long time. Without comparing it to other films within the universe, I'll focus on it as a stand alone movie. As a stand alone film, its still not very interesting. My biggest issue with Captain Marvel is the title character herself played by Brie Larson. I have no doubt that Larson can pull off a great performance, but she gives maybe three facial expressions throughout the whole film. There is also no arch to Carol Danvers' story. She merely learns something she never realized about her past and that's about all there is to her. This is not fault of Larson, bit rather poor directing and generic writing. The supporting cast was easily the best part about the film. Samuel L. Jackson is once again very likable as Nick Fury, the green shape shifting antagonists turn out to be pretty interesting, and Danvers' best friend played by Lashana Lynch gives a very believable performance. Even though these characters are performed well, they still re not written in a unique way. As for everything else, it's all stuff that's been seen before in other superhero films with nothing new or interesting added to the recipe. The humor is standard, the action is standard, and the effects are standard. In fact the effects start to look almost laughably cheap during portions of the final space battle. On the whole, Captain Marvel isn't awful, there just isn't anything to gain from it. The story is predictable with all of its components being done to death already and the main character is not captivating in the least. Captain Marvel simply isn't worth seeing given the impressive lineup of superhero films we've gotten over the past ten years.