“Captain Marvel” Falls Short of Expectations

Courtesy of Marvel Studios.

The movie “Captain Marvel,” directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, is the most recent Marvel movie, released on Mar. 8. In the movie, Carol Danvers, played by Brie Larson, fights in an intergalactic war between two alien races. As I have never seen any of the Marvel movies before, I had no idea what to expect walking into the theater.

I was pleasantly surprised by the dedication put into creating the unique world in which the movie takes place. The movie primarily takes place on Earth in the 1990’s; however, the movie follows the war between two alien races, the Skrulls and the Kree. The complex world added a lot to the movie. The attention put into making both fantastic and modern aspects of the movie made even the implausible events feel as if they could have taken place. For example, at the beginning of the movie Carol Danvers crashes through the roof of a Blockbuster. The set looks extremely realistic and reminded me of when I was a young child and used to go there to rent movies. Seeing a hero in an ordinary location would usually make the  scene seem impossible, but with a blend of amazing special effects and a realistic set, the movie managed to bring it to life.

Although the world in which the movie takes place blew me away, the plot of the film paced strangely. The movie begins with mostly background information needed to understand the movie. It continued with background for most of the movie, then rushed the plot towards the end. The pacing made me lose interest towards the beginning, causing a bit of confusion when the plot finally came into action. I felt as if I spent a lot of the two hour movie just waiting for the main events to take place and the set up to end.

The movie’s plot was also a bit unoriginal. It seemed similar to the plot of many other movies and the plot twist was pretty easy to predict. At the beginning of the movie, Danvers, who went by “Vers” was fighting for the Kree in an intergalactic war. She had very little memory of her life before. Later in the movie, she discovers the true motive of the opposing side, the Skrulls, was only to live peacefully, while the Kree were fighting to take over. She then switches sides and fights alongside the Skrulls. The lack of information about the motives of the Kree and Danver’s lost memory set up the twist in plain sight, making the reveal less dramatic. It was also similar to other films because the movie was about a hero trying to fight evil and retrieve a special object, in this case the tesseract, in order to accomplish the goal.

The main quality that set the movie apart was the characters. The addition of aliens, including the Skrulls, Kree and a cat-like creature called a Flerken, added a unique touch to an otherwise bland movie. Overall, “Captain Marvel” was worth seeing for the characters and unique world, but I’d suggest waiting to watch it at home instead of going to the theater.