Captain Marvel (2019) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Tagline: Discover what makes a (her)o

Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.

Storyline: After crashing an experimental aircraft, Air Force pilot Carol Danvers is discovered by the Kree and trained as a member of the elite Starforce Military under the command of her mentor Yon-Rogg. Six years later, after escaping to Earth while under attack by the Skrulls, Danvers begins to discover there's more to her past. With help from S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury, they set out to unravel the truth. Written by Blazer346

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, June 3, 2019 Captain Marvel's origins story has a lot riding on it, coming hot off the heels of Avengers: Infinity War when the title character was paged to come save the universe from a particularly nasty bout of mass extinction. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck give the character in this film an appropriate, if not somewhat routine, introduction en route to her part in Avengers: Endgame, this film being a necessary point of entry to establish the character's story, powers, and the possibilities that come with her. The retro origins story travels back about 25 years and folds in several characters and concepts that further ties the Marvel Cinematic Universe together, making it one of the earliest chronologically and most critical for the here-and-now.

Vers (Brie Larson) is a Kree and part of her people's Starforce, a critical military unit on the frontlines of a war against the shapeshifting Skrulls. Vers, who suffers from memory loss and possesses extraordinary powers, has been trained by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) to harness her abilities while her world's leader, an A.I. known as Supreme Intelligence (Annette Benning), appears to her as a figment of her imagination, an echo of a past she cannot remember. A skirmish with the Skrulls results in her crash-landing on Earth, in 1990s Los Angeles to be a little more precise. She quickly meets S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), who are startled to encounter not only her but the shapeshifting aliens in pursuit. As Vers slowly pieces her past together -- a past with origins on Earth -- she comes to learn the truth about not only who she is, but what she is fighting for and the origins of her powers.

Captain Marvel does absolutely nothing to reinvent the Superhero wheel, and the story is not as compelling as some of the other origins stories in the MCU -- those introducing Captain America or Black Panther -- but it's a reliably entertaining vehicle that lays some critical groundwork in the MCU past that will be a vital foundation in its future. The title character's story blends ideas and elements from various origin mythos, with hints of everything from Superman to The Incredible Hulk defining her journey to hero. It has content on offer that is not particularly bold in any directions taken or choices made; it's a comfortable journey that is perhaps more noteworthy for its ancillary content than its primary story drivers.

Beyond the narrative ebbs and flows is also a now-routine spectacle of sight and sound, of grandiose visual effects that play right into the long-established MCU style. A catchy 90s soundtrack pulses the movie's lifeblood through the speakers (No Doubt's Just a Girl blares as the heroine finds herself and hones her skills while kicking some bad guy behind later in the film) but it is Brie Larson who delivers a formidable performance as a character in search of herself. It is her arc that beyond the laser blasts and explosions and typically quick-move and high-impact visual effects truly grounds the picture. Larson never plays the part tiny, even when she is forced to question her own motives and wrestle with the realities of a life she knows and the truth about who she is, where she comes from, and who it is with whom she has allied herself. The character experiences a seemingly unending reveal of questions and answers, each one bringing a new weight to her shoulders until that moment when she brushes it all aside and rises to become the hero she was destined to become. One of the film's best scenes shows her as a youth, falling down after crashing a bike or being brushed back by a pitch in a baseball game, and standing back up. She builds a resilient hero, resilient certainly in terms of her physical prowess but also resilient in terms of her mental stamina. It's not a particularly novel arc but Larson and the filmmakers explore it convincingly, thoroughly, and agreeably, turning a fairly makeshift character into one worth cheering for.

Perhaps the most pressing question answered in Captain Marvel is the origin of Nick Fury's eyepatch, which is revealed in one of the film's best scenes. The movie is mostly a two-hour build-up to explaining the end moments of Avengers: Infinity War. Captain Marvel is a good movie, perhaps a little unimaginative in terms of narrative development and story execution, but the film fills in some critical backstory for the character, and beyond, and paves the road for a future where the title character is to play a big role in upcoming Marvel movies. Disney's Blu-ray delivers the expectedly healthy video, the expectedly volume-challenged but otherwise good audio, and a fairly robust package of supplements. Highly recommended.

[CSW] -3.6- First, this is not a gender-flip movie -- Carol Danvers has been an extremely powerful superhero in the comics for something like 40 years, under a half-dozen codenames. I liked Larson's portrayal (probably helps that I find confident women attractive, where many people seem disturbed by them), and Sam Jackson pretty much steals the show as a young, upbeat Nick Fury. Part of wanting to see this was because I know Captain Marvel will play a huge part in End Game. It was a little slow in places, and you do have to pay attention to follow the timeline. More of an "alien comes to Earth" plot than anything else, only becoming "superhero" right at the end.
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box really enhanced this movie.


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