Theatrical Review: Captain Marvel

Date: Saturday March 16 2019
Location: Cinemark Theater at Stroud Mall
Time: 11am
Party: 2 (my mom and I)

Writers/Directors: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (and 4 other writers)
Composer: Pinar Toprak

Cast:
Carol DanVERS/Captain Marvel- Brie Larson
Nick Fury- Samuel L Jackson
Phil Couslon- Clark Gregg
Talos/Keller- Ben Mendelsohn
Yon-Rogg- Jude Law
Dr. Wendy Lawson- Annette Benning
Maria Rambeau- Lashana Lynch

Duration: 123 minutes (+8 trailers)

Write-up:

Opening Comments
So at the end of the last Avengers movie, Nick Fury calls for reinforcements after disaster strikes... this was who he was calling. Now I kinda wonder how he was so sure she wasn't going to be among those people that disintegrated at the end of that movie...

Anyway, this movie broke a lot of records and of course I had to find out the next puzzle piece before the final Avengers movie comes out next month. The hype was more than warranted for sure and it was another of those great audience experiences where everyone was into the movie from start to finish. It's one of those reasons why I hope movie theaters never go under because everyone would rather stay home and watch Netflix. (We're not cool enough to have Netflix, but even then, I'm glad we don't because I have little time as it is to get everything done. Even when I'm not on Twitter or Facebook for Lent... so I'm writing this at least a month before I actually can post it).

Trailers
There were 8... funny thing was it had me thinking... there's not that many movies I want to see this year... then one of the trailers comes up and I realize... almost everything I want to see this year is owned by Disney... every Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars movie is owned by them. And just when I was having this realization, a few days later Disney bought Fox... yeah, Disney owns everything... but I like their stuff, so I can't complain too much.

"Hobbs & Shaw"- OMG, do we NEED another Fast & Furious movie? This one is about Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham and how their characters have to work together to defeat the bad guy played by Idris Elba (I think he said his character's name IS BadGuy... ugh, they really have run out of ideas, haven't they?)

"Long Shot"- it's by the same people who did "Knocked Up" starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Thereon. She's trying to become the first female president. He's a reporter and they apparently were friends from way back when and end up messing around. I don't know which part gives me more ick... these two actors getting together in a movie or this is obviously Hollywood trying to rewrite (and taking the piss out of) the 2016 election. It's been almost 3 years- LET IT GO!!

"Shazam"- ugh, not another trailer for this stupid third-tier superhero movie... 

"Spider-Man: Far From Home"- I'm guessing that this is taking place after the last Avengers movie, so everything is ok now? Supposedly he's going on a class trip to Europe and wants to be normal, but Tony Stark's bodyguard/chauffer Happy Hogan and Nick Fury are looking after him or need him to fight crime. 

"Rocket Man"- After "Bohemian Rhaposdy" was such a hit, why the heck not? Beside, this looks amazing. AND it's not owned by Disney. It's also a little weird because Elton John is still alive. Don't they usually do these biopics after famous musicians have long passed away? 

"Dark Phoenix"- another X-Men movie, but this revolves around Jean Gray and has Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender back as the young cast of the X-Men... this looks like it's going to be quite dark, but it looks like it'll be well done. The only X-Men movie I'd ever seen in a theater was the Wolverine Origin movie. I also thought about how long it's been since I'd seen the original X-Men movie and just how far that franchise has come. 

"Frozen II"- it's the 2 minute teaser trailer that came online a while ago, but it's the first time I'm watching it... I don't know what the heck to make of any of it, but I am SUPER STOKED for it. OMG!

"Dumbo"- ok, this movie is about to come out... I think we can stop with the trailers now... I don't really have any interest in it. (Speaking of it, though, I'd been watching my fair share of MsMojo videos on YouTube doing top 10 lists... one talked about characters that acted like bad guys, but they weren't cast as the villains. One of them were the other elephants in Dumbo that made fun of his ears. Even when Jumbo was taken away, they were still ostracizing him... that movie is just so messed and depressing and I didn't even get to the Pink Elephant parade. But I also thought about a recent show I saw on Animal Planet or something where they said Asian elephants have ears like Asia and African Elephants have ears shaped like Africa... All of the elephants at the circus have small ears, but Dumbo has big ears. I wonder if that's implying that his dad was an African elephant and they were mean to him because he's... well, I think the term is bastard... I'm thinking about this too much and I'm not even into the main attraction yet)... I'd just have rather seen an Aladdin or Lion King trailer cuz I hadn't seen them as much. Not yet anyway. 

The Main Event
Well, before the actual movie starts, there's a really cool tribute to Stan Lee. I won't give it away :P but at the end, I wooted to myself, my mom started to cheer and then the rest of the audience joined us. It was a really cool moment. He deserves it. The reason why we're all here in this theater seeing all these movies. 

I'll be honest-- I was LOST for the first 30 minutes of the movie. Vers (as she's known on the Kree home planet) is training to be strong enough to join in a mission with her mentor, played by Jude Law. And he keeps telling her about keeping her emotions in check. Their mission is to take out this other race of aliens that are shapeshifters and taking over other planets. But she keeps having flashbacks that are garbled and it makes as much sense to her as it does to the rest of us.

Then she lands on Earth and things start to fall into place when we breach familiar territory. 
For starters, it's 1995 and she crash lands into a Blockbuster. Ah... those were the good old days. I was 9 in 1995 and a lot of the references I grew up around, so that was really cool. Also they had a lot of music from the 90's, so that was a nice touch too. I didn't think the 90's would ever be a period worthy of nostaglia for people. But then again, I grew up in the 90's. The only things I'm kinda nostaglic about are music and Disney movies. To me, the 80's are the coolest time period, but the people who were adults then say it wasn't that great. It's an ongoing cycle. "Midnight in Paris" goes really deep into it. 

We meet Nick Fury before the eye patch. And Agent Coulson is on his first day on the job. And they're trying to figure out where she came from and who she is. 
We do eventually find out who she is and that she was originally from Earth and had been missing for 6 years... it becomes clear after a while where this is one of those movies where everything you think is true is not and vice versa. 
Jude Law has been playing more bad guys lately, it feels like... and I had this really weird feeling about him. I think even during the trailers. And then there's a point where he's talking to Ronan on telecom... he was the bad guy in "Guardians of the Galaxy" so right there, that was a major clue. 

It's kinda funny seeing Nick Fury in this capacity. Apparently, Captain Marvel was his first ever encounter with someone who'd come from another planet. I don't know what the heck S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing before they were defending against aliens and rogue superheros... but apparently they got a new purpose after the events of this movie. 

Once all the pieces came together and Vers found out she was really Carol Danvers and she was one of the first female pilots in the US Air Force... the movie just became awesome. Kinda like being nearsighted and suddenly you get glasses and you're able to see everything clearly. 
There's a lot of talk about girl power in this movie and it's definitely well thought out. There's been more focus on that lately in the entertainment business and beyond that. I feel like some of it comes off as pandering, supporting it just because it's "the thing" to do right now. Kinda like pushing for diversity just for the sake of having diversity. The ultimate lesson learned is that you're not strong because of what others have given or taught you. Strength comes from within. And Jude Law gets his butt handed to him in the most epic way possible... I like the guy a lot, but in this movie, he kinda deserved it. 
And her best friend, Maria, she's a bad ass too. And her daughter Monica, precocious because why the heck not- all kids in these movies seem to be, is super adorable. 

With the Kree world, they have something called the Supreme Intelligence that's practically their god and it takes a different form depending on the person. Based on who that person admires the most. It's an interesting idea... but it's scary as hell when you think of the implications of that... manipulating people and taking away their free will

Also, there's a scene-stealing cat named Goose... keep on a eye on that cat... super cute, but full of surprises. 
Also, the Tesseract comes into play too. No Infinity Stone has gotten more screen time than that thing. It was in "Thor," Loki stole it to wreck havoc in the first Avengers movie, Red Skull was trying to use it for world domination in the first Captain America movie... I'm still trying to figure out how the heck it came back to Earth... I thought it was underwater with Captain America until he was rescued in 2012... there are so many of these movies I can't keep timelines straight. 
(Taking time to look into it after rewatching the movies... it was fished up before finding Captain America... and whatever Loki used in "Thor," it wasn't the Tesseract, it was an artifact that belonged to the Frost Giants... but Erik Selvig was brought into S.H.I.E.L.D. to experiment with it)

And yes, there are two post credits scenes. One connects to the last Avengers movie and the last one has to do with the cat. 

Grade: A- (if I caught split the movie in half, I'd give the first half of the movie a B- or even a C because it was that confusing... but I think this is a good score to round everything out)