Studio: Marvel (2hrs. 8 mins.)
Plot: Earth is caught in the middle of an intergalactic race war. Enter Captain Marvel to the rescue.
Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel l. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lashana Lynch
Rating: PG-13
Bottom Line: ***
By Laurence Washington
Warning: Prepare yourselves. The Stan Lee cameos in Marvel’s latest outing, “Captain Marvel” will make your eyes well up. So bring Kleenex, or your favorite facial tissue. OK, you’ve been told.
That being said, “Captain Marvel” does not disappoint in terms of leading you into the much anticipated “Avengers: End Game,” which debuts in a month. But before that happens, the movie answers several questions that have been left lingering in the Marvel universe ever since these films started a decade ago. We find out how Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) loses his left eye. And it’s in a fashion that most wouldn’t think, and for that matter, CGI took 30 years off of Jackson’s appearance. He looks so fantastic that you forget that his features are computer enhanced.
The same treatment was given to Clark Gregg, who plays the faithful Agent Colson as he begins his tenure with S.H.I.E.L.D. under Fury’s tutelage. We see the origins of the Avengers Initiative, which answers the question, how did Fury know about enhanced humans decades before assembling the Avengers team.
Academy-Award winner Brie Larson does a good job in the title role of Capt. Marvel/Carol Danvers, and audiences will root for her. However, in comparison to Gal Gadot in “Wonder Woman” (’17), she lacks the maturity and presence of Gadot. The filmmakers thankfully didn’t spend a lot of time laboring over Danvers’ origins. In a series of flashbacks, we discover Danvers is as a fighter pilot who was exposed to an alien explosion that zap her memories and gave her superhuman strength.
To the film’s credit, there is a plot twist and a storyline among all the usual special effects and the busy Marvel eye-candy. Cat lovers will love Goose the cat, who pretty much upstages everyone and saves the day. Marvel’s first female led film is a solid entry into the MCU universe and is ushering in a new phase of Marvel movies. And of course there are the usual after credit scenes, so stick around for the five minutes of rolling credits.
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