Review of Captain Marvel (2019) by Kgoreham — 08 Mar 2019

I went into this film with low expectations, based on the awful marketing. But I was actually decently entertained during the first and second acts. As soon as the "I'm a girl" fight scene started in act three though, I literally facepalmed. The movie went right off the cliff from there.

I blame three factors for the way the movie turned out.

First, Brie was wrong for the role. She's supposed to be playing a character who has trouble controlling her emotions, but at no time during the movie do we see her lose control. She only oscillates between placid and haughty. At least she smiles sometimes, and cracks jokes, which is something we really didn't see in the trailer. But she never disappears into her character in the way that Jackson, Mendelsohn, or especially Lashana Lynch do.

Second, this film version of Captain Marvel is flawed in her characterization. I actually like a few of the recent comic versions of her, but the character's flaws in those are BOTH her lack of emotional control and her over-confidence. The lack of emotional control never really appears, and while the over-confidence is in this film in spades, Captain Marvel never once pays a price for it. Instead it's treated like a virtue. That's not how heroes act.

In fact, there are at least 3 times that she is self-centered to the point of being completely unlikeable. During one key scene she fist-blasts someone who's not actually a physical threat (just put down his weapon), but who is just annoying her with what he says. That's not what heroes do.

Third, the script is weak. Captain Marvel can beam-punch-fly her way right through thickly armored alien battle-cruisers, but nobody else that she (or anyone else) zaps seems to have much trouble getting up afterward. Nick Fury is relegated to a comic side-kick role that demeans the character. The cat steals the show. The main twist reminds me way too much of "Solo: A Star Wars Story". The aliens who've never been to earth know what "Jazz Hands" are.

And the jokes... My theater was 3/4 full, and the whole audience was enjoying the humor for about the first half of the film. But as we entered that third act, Captain Marvel had become so unlikeable, and the humor was so misplaced, that only two people up front were still laughing.

And when we finally see Captain Marvel respond to Fury's pager? What would you expect her emotional state to be? Worry? Sorrow, maybe? Devastated? Nope. She's full on angry-face in a room full of traumatized avengers. The contrast between her and them could not have been more unbecoming, and I am NOT looking forward to whatever selfish part she plays in End Game as a result.