Captain Marvel: A Mediocre Super Hero Origin Story Grade: C-

Source: IMDB

Before seeing Avengers: EndGame, I might as well check out Captain Marvel because... I don’t know. Captain Marvel tells a story about a fighter pilot Carol (Brie Larson), whom belongs to a group of outer space civilians named Crees. Carol has memory lost, so she can’t seem to remember her past. While finding her true identity, she must take down aliens known as skrulls, as they are Crees biggest threats in the galaxy. The Cinematography was alright, there was one shot dealing with Carol going back to I believe the 70’s that I liked, besides that it was alright. The Score was truly forgettable, I didn’t like the one song selection in the epic battle scene, thought that was pretty lame and misplaced. The visual effects were alright, it just reminded of films that have done what they done already or they have done it better than this film. One visual effect that is certainly a standout, is the de-aging Nick Fury special effect, I thought it looked pretty good. Of course when Nick Fury had to run or get up off the ground, it showed that Nick Fury wasn’t young at all. But overall it was a pretty nice job regardless. The cast of this film was... Fine. The best performance by far is Samuel L Jackson playing Nick Fury, he was pretty good as always. Delivered a couple good moments of comedy material, especially near the end referring towards a scene with the cat. Of course topic of discussion was how was Brie Larson as our hero Captain Marvel?! Honestly: Below mediocrity. There is not one moment, where you believed Brie Larson is this super heroic figure. I really did not enjoy how she delivered her lines, as it’s strictly monotone, she never changes her facial expression once, it looks as if she’s completely bored playing this role. Comparing her to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, it’s no comparison. Regardless of what you think about Gal Gadot’s acting ability: She sells the fact that she is Wonder Woman, that she is a hero that can seriously whoop some serious ass. I can’t get that with Brie Larson as Captain Marvel at all, which is a bummer because she’s the main vocal point of this film, so if her performance is not up to par then certainly this entire film will not work. Captain Marvel is a film that doesn’t do anything seriously bad where you hate the film, but certainly does not do anything well. One of my issues is the flashback sequences, they are a tremendous mess especially early on, it’s very distracting. The tone of this film was inconsistent, one moment it’s a serious origin story, the other it’s a light hearted comedy film, with an epic finale battle playing “I’m just a Girl” which made that entire sequence corny... Pick a tone and stick with it. The cat character didn’t annoy me, but however the way they used this character near the end I thought it was blatantly stupid. The entire third act sucked, it just reminded me of other films that have done this same thing, only done way better, it was flat out boring, I didn’t enjoy it at all. The villains are whatever, they have motivation can be easily forgotten within the hour. The whole story to me was just whatever, just another origin story retold again. In my opinion: I don’t really see the point in this film existing, it just exists without any moral purpose other than making cash. Take Black Widow for example: Her character doesn’t have her own movie, why?! She doesn’t really need one, but she worked out fine in Marvel as she’s a beloved character. So is there much of a reason to have a Captain Marvel film existing?! Did this film needed to be released before Avengers EndGame, so we can understand the film and this character more? Not really, like it or not this film didn’t have to exist. Overall, Captain Marvel is mediocre and shall be forgotten by the next day. I don’t recommend this film at all, you honestly don’t need to watch this at all. I will say it’s better than Thor and Ant Man as far as origin stories, but nothing worth talking nor praising about. -Mitch Smietana