BLOOD WORK: MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019)

The cosmic realms of the Marvel Comics universe is something we here at Blood Work have a strong affinity for. We'd much rather read comic books about Quasar and Silver Surfer than Captain America or Spider-Man (it's not them, it's us. We're just strange like that). So, understandably, we feel the same way about the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies. So far we've only been privileged to two purely cosmic MCU films: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 & Vol. 2. Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War, we feel, are half cosmic and half something else relatively. So, needless to say, we were quite excited about the next cosmic franchise in the MCU.

CAPTAIN MARVEL is one of our favorite characters in Marvel Comics (as evidenced by the many top ten lists we've posted). And there have been many characters to have carried the title in the comics (most of which we love). When it comes to the MCU and their attempts at adapting the cosmic characters, it appears that Marvel Studios is far more loose in their adaptations of the comics than with the earthbound characters (although there are arguments that the Earth heroes' films are just as loosely adapted).

Anyway, while we're excited for Captain Marvel we're also very cautious. We want to be realistic about it. Given the MCU's track record with cosmic material (and our feelings about them) we're prepared for anything, or so we think. This won't be the comics Captain Marvel, it'll be the MCU's Captain Marvel. And given the way this film is being promoted, we're prepared not to see Captain Mar-Vell at all in the movie. The verdict is still out on Brie Larson too (the trailers haven't really sold us on her just yet). Honestly, we're most excited to see the Kree and the Skrulls! We're stoked about seeing Starforce, possibly seeing Kree Sentries, and possibly seeing the Supreme Intelligence!

And of course we're excited for any hints at Avengers: Endgame plot revelations! So let's get going to the movie already!

THE PLOT

The year is 1995. Deep in the far reaches of outer space a war has been raging for years. The alien races of the Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls are locked in combat. The Kree super hero team, Starforce, is dispatched to a border planet to retrieve a covert spy before the Skrulls get their hands on him. Upon arrival Starforce finds themselves in the middle of an enemy trap, losing one of their own in the process. Starforce operative, Vers, finds herself a captive of the enemy and having been transported to the other side of the galaxy. Alone and outnumbered, Vers must somehow survive on a strange backwater planet called Earth and uncover the Skrulls' next move, lest the Kree lose the war.

INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

SPOILERS AHEAD! (obviously)

The short: We liked it! Go see it!

For the long winded, pull your hair out, "scream at us to shut up" full review, READ ONWARD!

Let's begin with the mewling fanboys that just can't be pleased no matter what they're given. Seriously, I should just shut up and be grateful a Captain Marvel movie even exists! Because it is both insane and amazing that a CAPTAIN MARVEL movie exists! 'Ahem' onto the critique...

Back in 2011 when Captain America: The First Avenger (CATFA) came out there was this "obligatory" feeling about the movie. We all knew AVENGERS was coming the following year and we all knew Captain America was going to be in it. Regardless of quality, the stakes in CATFA felt somewhat diminished. And after seeing super hero origin films done to death, the premise already felt somewhat tired and formulaic. There was a "stepping stone" feeling, that we had to see this movie to get to Avengers. We're just saying CATFA had all of these undercurrents, not that it was a bad movie. Captain Marvel seems to possess many of the same undercurrents.

The film has one foot in the cosmos and one foot firmly planted on Earth. The outer space stuff is great, but just as it gets going and we're thirsting for more, the story takes a detour to Earth, a place we've already seen explored to the nth degree in previous MCU films. And there are no new revelations about our home planet. Where Guardians of the Galaxy demonstrated that we don't need to spend much if any time at all on Earth (save for the first three minutes), Captain Marvel is less progressive in that respect and feels like a step backwards. The movie feels like a Phase 1 MCU film as opposed to a more daring Phase 3 film. The ratios are off like in the first Thor: Too much Earth and Not Enough Asgard.

From a world building prospective Captain Marvel does very little if at all. The Kree homeworld of HALA feels generic and dull compared to what Black Panther and Aquaman achieved building their respective worlds. There are no Kree Sentries anywhere (that we saw) and no Supreme Intelligence on display (not like in the comics, although it is alluded to). When you're expecting to see a building sized green head with tentacle hair in a jar of liquid and all they show you is Annette Bening looking like she does in real life, no fancy CGI or wild costume, there is a level of disappointment (if Julie Andrews can voice a kaiju in Aquaman then surely Annette Bening voicing a giant green head should be easy). And if Black Panther can show us Wakandan Battle Rhinos, why not a Kree Sentry?

And then there's the case of Mar-Vell. Oh, Annette Bening, how you're disappointing us so much in this movie. Mar-Vell is played by Annette Bening too and, in a second instance, isn't anything close to the comic book counterpart. She's not even sporting any kind of super powers. This Mar-Vell isn't a shade of the comic book Mar-Vell, but is that a bad thing? More on that later. We were very much looking forward to Ronan's return, hoping he'd be realized a little more three-dimensionally. But Lee Pace is barely in the film and still one-dimensional. And Starforce, while cool in what screen time they had, were under utilized and dispatched rather quickly. Gemma Chan's Minn-Erva especially was sad to see bite the dust.

Enough! We said we liked it, right?!

Where we feel the movie shines is in the storytelling. Yes, we were dissatisfied with some of the adaptation from the comics. But when you look at the comic history of Captain Marvel and Carol Danvers, it is a miracle the filmmakers were able to make a story that is as true to the comics as it is. The story of Carol Danvers and Captain Marvel from the comics is a convoluted sticky quagmire mess, a convoluted mess that we here at Blood Work LOVE, but a mess all the same. This film manages to make an accessible and cohesive story out of it all which should be applauded. In addition to adapting many many comic stories to the screen, Carol's, Mar-Vell's, the Kree/Skrull War, and more, they also somehow service Nick Fury, the Tesseract, Phil Coulson, and the greater MCU, filling in blanks.

And there's the problem with Carol's story being very similar to Hal Jordan's story and telling the story in a fresh and different way unlike the 2011 Green Lantern film. And lastly, telling a very human and heartfelt story about Carol. The filmmakers manage to somehow do all of this without overcrowding or over-stuffing the film. Yes, they could've done well with more fleshing out of the Kree, but what this film accomplishes is staggering when you take it all into account. And we daresay it's a miracle that this film and its characters resonate at all when looking at it all. So, major bravo there, Marvel Studios.

Looking at the comics again, Carol doesn't have a particularly outstanding story (at least not during her time as Captain Marvel) nor does she have a powerful origin. This film gives the character what the comics haven't been able to. By making Mar-Vell a woman and more Harriet Tubman-esqe rather than super human enables Carol to be her own hero and not a derivative replacement (which is exactly what she is in the comics) while still being inspired by Mar-Vell. So, as much as we love the comic book Mar-Vell, this adaptation makes sense and works. And there are moments that still feel very true to the comics. The structure of the narrative was intriguing and exciting as well, despite being another Bourne Identity rehash. But because we know the comics so well, we knew almost exactly how the story was going to play out. What was enjoyable was seeing how it played out, in essence, they took a story we knew already and still made it interesting. Bravo again!

And the Skrulls! The Skrulls were great! And in an brilliant twist by Marvel, Ben Mendelsohn is playing a good guy! WHAT?! The humanity given to the Skrulls, while not very accurate to the comic books, was wonderful and added great depth to the story. But the Kree... We were looking forward to seeing the Kree so much, seeing more depth of character in Ronan and the others, but no. Other than Mar-Vell, the Kree are one-dimensional again and basically pure evil. 'Sigh' This film, unlike Black Panther, Infinity War, and Aquaman, lacks a layered and multi-faceted antagonist, another instance of this film feeling like a backstep.

Wheh! Just about done!

There are a few weak moments here and there, but overall we feel like Brie Larson won us over. We will follow her as Captain Marvel through a franchise for sure! It was pretty sweet to see her cut loose at the end. The No Doubt song was literally the perfect song for the moment as well as Nirvana's Come As You Are. And the CGI looked better than in the trailers. So high points there. And at the very end, when Carol wears the leather jacket, was a fun nod to 90's Avengers comics where the heroes all wore leather jackets over their super suits. It's also a direct reference to a pic from Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel run.

THE VERDICT

Captain Marvel is a good start to a franchise and a good origin story for Carol Danvers. The story is firmly about her and, while servicing a lot of characters and plots, the movie still feels focused. The closest MCU film that it compares to, in our eyes, is Captain America: The First Avenger. While a good film and a solid foundation to build from, we do hope the next Captain Marvel film vastly improves over this one. With a character as powerful as her, it will be challenging writing her going forward, especially if she beats the hell out of Thanos in the next movie. We hope in future installments that the story goes far into the cosmos and stays away from Earth. And give the Kree more depth and world building, please!

Overall Ranking: 6 out of 10