I’ve been waiting for this movie for a long time, and as I follow all the news every day, I get more and more excited for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The build-up for the movie has been huge, its Marvel’s first female lead movie and their next big step in their cinematic phase. These are things people have been craving for years… but has it been worth the wait?
The story from the start was engaging and I was hooked from the opening scene. For those who don’t know, much of this movie is concerned with aliens, borrowing tone and world building from what Guardians of the Galaxy pioneered. So, the different planets were interesting and the life that exists are consequently engaging. The main character Carol Danvers is a Kree (one of the aliens) and has amnesia, which takes a back seat in her life as she progresses through the ranks in an army to fight the good fight against the Skrulls (the other more greener aliens). There are twists and turns and Carol ends up on a journey of self-discovery, figuring out who she was before joining the fight, which I enjoyed thoroughly. One of the biggest reasons I did was that she didn’t need a male superhero to progress her story. Throughout the history of superhero films, minus Wonder Woman, a male superhero has always been there for the rescue but for Captain
The setting and time period were 90’s L.A and as much potential as it had it never seemed to really make much of a difference. However, while it wasn’t super apparent, it was also semi in your face when it came to some fashion and music. The soundtrack will sell/stream plenty and I know that was again a correlation with the success of the Guardians soundtrack. I don’t know if it had to be set in the 90’s or if it had to just make sense for the pager, but I still liked it.
The prosthetics and CGI have Marvel money thrown at them and it shows. Nothing looks bad and in fact, I was in awe that I finally, as a Marvel comics fan, got the see a Skrull on screen and it did not look completely ridiculous, which it very well could do. Carol’s powers look and feel at home in the Marvel Universe and I loved it. The same could be said for her costumes, which both looked great, made sense for the story. Again
The acting and script itself were on point throughout. No one gave a bad performance and my only real complaint (if I really have to have one) is that there wasn’t enough Lee Pace. Brie Larson was sweet, strong and charming the entire way and I honestly cannot wait to see her character interact with the rest of the Avengers. Samuel L Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn are both great and Mendelsohn actually does something I haven’t seen him do before, he has had quite a good range over the last few years and I really liked his performance in this film.
I’m equally annoyed and happy that I’ve now seen a strong female superhero lead from Marvel. I’m annoyed because it has taken over a decade for a movie like this to finally come out and I’m happy because it finally happened. I’m even happier that it was a genuinely fun, entertaining and enjoyable movie. The overall theme of this movie was Carol’s discovery of herself but not just as Carol but as a powerful and strong superhero and it was a triumph in every sense of the word. Please go see this movie. Not because its going to feed into other Marvel films and make Disney more millions and billions. Not simply because it’s a female lead superhero movie, although you should support that. Go and see it because it’s a fun, genuine and entertaining film that is a big moment in entertainment history which is very important to a lot of people.