Now Watching: Captain Marvel

I didn’t go into Captain Marvel with very high expectations. I don’t typically enjoy the ‘origin’ style Marvel movies, usually ranking them on a scale of ‘it’s okay, I guess’ to ‘meh, whatever’. But I actually really enjoyed Captain Marvel and I’d say it’s one of, if not the best ‘origin’ movie so far.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have any problems. The opening act is a little muddled, suffering from an information overload. It takes a little time for the film to find its feet. Following a shaky opening, it’s when Captain Marvel finds herself grounded on Earth that the film also begins to feel grounded.

 

Seeing Captain Marvel interacting with human characters like a digitally de-aged Nick Fury rather than a bunch of po-faced, weirdo aliens, injects some much needed life and personality into the plot. And we get to see Captain Marvel begin to grow as a character as she discovers more about her past.

I’m not really a fan of the ‘amnesic hero’ character – see my Ghost in the Shell review – because it’s usually used as a poor excuse for a blank and uninteresting character. Thankfully, they seemed to remember that just because Captain Marvel can’t recall her past, doesn’t mean she has no personality of her own.

And it’s when she’s on Earth that we get to see that personality shine through. Which is pretty important when origin movies like this really live and die on how engaging the protagonist is. Too often they forget that the hero has to be at the core of the story.

It would have been very easy for Captain Marvel to become consumed with its own plot and world building, focusing more on those than the character. But fortunately, it keeps Captain Marvel front and centre, smartly weaving her personal journey with the central plot. One cannot exist without the other – another thing Captain Marvel gets right compared to other origin films, which so often disconnect the hero’s journey from the plot.

The action, often a weak point of Marvel films, is fast, fun and tightly shot, without too much CGI bullshit. There’s a couple of ‘full body’ CGI moments, but thankfully that’s only used sparingly and where it must, unlike the absolute garbage that was the final fight in Black Panther. A few jokes fall flat, as they sometimes do in these Marvel films, but Captain Marvel gets the balance mostly right, knowing when to be silly and serious in just the right amounts.

Overall, once Captain Marvel finds its feet it keeps running to the end, delivering a well paced and very enjoyable origin story for a character that I now hope to see more of in the future. Recommended.

7/10