Captain Marvel is a 2019 American sci-fi superhero film based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 21st film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet also contributing to the screenplay. Brie Larson stars as Carol Danvers, alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg, and Jude Law. It premiered in London on February 27, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 8, as part of Phase Three of the MCU. A sequel, The Marvels, was released on November 10, 2023.
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 So much for, well, living up to the name of Captain Marvel, but at least they tried.
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Plot
In 1995, the Kree are a military alien race that controls a large amount of the galaxy. One of their soldiers is Vers, a woman with incredibly powerful cosmic powers but amnesia. The Kree have a long-lasting war with the Skrulls, a race of shapeshifter aliens that stand against the Kree empire and are known to infiltrate planets by taking the form of the planet's inhabitants. Vers is assigned to the Starforce squadron and sent on a mission to rescue a Kree agent that the Skrulls captured. Ronan the Accuser recommends bombing the planet with ballistic missiles, but Starforce leader Yon-Rogg denies him. Vers is captured during the mission and taken to a Skrull ship where Talos, the Skrull leader, uses a device to look into her memories. Talos finds specific memories of Vers' previous life before her amnesia and a scientist on planet C-53 named "Wendy Lawson" who the Skrulls are interested in. Vers escapes and crash lands on planet C-53, which is planet Earth. She lands on a Blockbuster store and causes a ruckus, but for some reason, Vers feels planet Earth is familiar. The Skrulls also land on Earth and shapeshift into humans.
Nick Fury, a low-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, and his assistant Phill Coulson are assigned by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Keller to investigate the strange woman who crashed into Blockbuster. Fury confronts Vers who rambles on about "The Skrull invaders who can shapeshift," Fury intends to arrest her, but Vers locates a Skrull and chases after him. Fury and Coulson also chase after Vers, but during the chase, Fury receives a call from Coulson, who is still at Blockbuster. The call makes Fury realize that the Coulson sitting next to him is an impostor before they get into a crash car that kills the fake Coulson who reverts to his Skrull form. Vers also loses the Skrull she was chasing, so she decides to find some leads on "Wendy Lawson." Vers soon gets flashbacks where she had a life on Earth before, prompting her also to investigate who she was before her amnesia. Yon-Rogg instructs Vers to continue tracking the Skrulls until the rest of the Starforce can arrive. Nick Fury tracks down Vers and asks her about the Skrulls. She explains that Skrulls have shapeshifting powers which they use to blend with the natives of planets to conquer them, their transformations are so accurate that DNA tests would be unable to tell any difference. They can replicate the memories of those they imitate. However, they can only copy the short-term memory. After confirming that both Fury and Vers aren't Skrulls, the two agree to work together to get rid of the Skrulls and find Wendy Lawson before the Skrulls do. Fury and Vers travel to a S.H.I.E.L.D. the base where important archives are stored to investigate Lawson, Fury also covertly calls Director Keller using a pager. While exploring the base, the two find a cat named Goose who takes a liking for Fury.
Studying the archives makes Vers realize that Wendy Lawson was a Kree scientist. She was a member of project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. and was secretly working on a device called "The Light-speed Engine." However, Lawson was killed six years ago during a failed experiment with a spacecraft that crashed, and the pilot flying the spacecraft also died. To her shock, Vers finds a picture of herself about to pilot the spaceship Lawson had built and was standing next to a woman named Maria Rambeau, making her realize that she was the pilot in that failed experiment. Director Keller arrives at the base alongside multiple S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but Fury deduces that Keller is a Skrull when the latter calls him "Nicholas" instead of Fury. Realizing that his cover is blown, Talos, still imitating the S.H.I.E.L.D. director attempts to kill Fury, but Vers uses her photon blast to save Fury. Vers and Fury avoid the Skrulls disguised as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with Coulson's help and flee in a jet. To their surprise, Goose snuck into the jet. Vers shows Fury the picture of herself and Wendy Lawson and decides to find Maria Rambeau for answers. Meanwhile, Talos finds a recording of the incident where Wendy Lawson died and realizes something. Upon reaching the Rambeau residence, Maria and her daughter Monica are both stunned to see their friend "Carol" still alive, but also find out she's lost her memories. Maria explains that Vers' real name is Carol Danvers, she was a USA Air Force pilot alongside Maria, the two were close friends with Dr. Wendy Lawson, and Carol had been chosen to fly Lawson's spacecraft. During a test flight, something went wrong, and Carol was presumed dead. Carol is confused by how she ended up on Kree's homeworld with cosmic powers and no memories. At that moment, Talos appears in his Skrull form, Carol attempts to attack him, but Skrulls insists that he's coming peacefully with the answers Carol wants in the recording he found at the S.H.I.E.L.D. base. Fury and Carol cautiously decide to let Talos explain himself and start the recording. The recording reveals that the ones that attacked Carol and Dr. Lawson were the Kree. At that moment, Carol's memories are triggered, making her remember everything.
After their spacecraft had crashed, Dr. Lawson told Carol that her real name was "Mar-Vell" and instructed her to destroy the ship before the Kree could find it, but Yon-Rogg killed Mar-Vell. Carol, in a moment of desperation, shot the ship's engine, causing an explosion that released a large amount of cosmic radiation that Carol absorbed, giving Carol her cosmic powers but also wiping her memories. Yon-Rogg then kidnaps Carol and transfuses Kree's blood into her to make her a Kree-Human hybrid. The Supreme Intelligence that rules the Kree placed an inhibitor that restrains Carol's powers and takes advantage of her amnesia to make her into "Vers" with the intention of her being a Kree weapon. Talos also explains that the Skrulls are refugees trying to evade the Kree empire after their homeworld was destroyed, they use their shapeshifting powers to hide on other planets. Still, the Kree have been spreading fraudulent propaganda that depicts them as evil invaders. Mar-Vell was planning to use the Light-speed Engine to help the Skrulls reach a faraway galaxy where the Kree couldn't find them, but now Mar-Vell is dead, the Skrulls had come to Earth hoping to see what's left of her research and complete the light-speed engine. Carol is horrified to learn that she had been misled by the Kree this whole time and vows to correct the wrongs she had done to the Skrulls. Talos informs her that Mar-Vell's laboratory where the Light-speed Engine is stored is still near Earth's orbit, and they have a ship ready to go there. He then sees Goose and calls her a "Flerken" and one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe much to everyone's confusion. Carol, Maria, and Fury all agree to go with the Skrulls to Mar-Vell's laboratory. However, Carol also decides that she can no longer wear a Kree Soldier uniform, and with Monica's help, she redesigns it into a new battle uniform for herself. As everyone departs to Mar-Vell's laboratory, the Starforce reaches Earth, and Yon-Rogg realizes that Vers has figured out the truth about his deception, prompting him to contact Ronan the Accusor, and instruct him to bring a whole fleet to attack Earth.
At Mar-Vell's laboratory, the group finds a large amount of Skrull refugees, including Talos' family and the energy source powering the Light-speed Engine: the Tesseract, Carol realizes that the Tesseract is also the source of her power. However, they are ambushed and captured by the Starforce. The Supreme Intelligence uses the inhibitor to immobilize Carol and taunt her that without the Kree, she's useless. Still, Carol refuses to give up and manages to destroy the inhibitor, allowing her to overpower the Supreme Intelligence and unlock the full extent of her power. Carol becomes incredibly powerful and swiftly takes down most of the Starforce except for Yon-Rogg. Kree soldiers attempt to attack Fury and Maria, but Goose suddenly spawns massive tentacles out of her mouth and devours all of the soldiers. Carol asks Fury and Maria to take the Tesseract while she distracts Yon-Rogg so the Skrulls can escape. Still, Goose swallows the Tesseract, and despite the inconvenience everyone continues with the plan. At the same time, Talos disguises himself as a Kree soldier so he can help the Skrulls reach the ship with everyone so they can fly back to Earth. On the way back, Goose is angered and scratches Fury's eye. Ronan the Accusor arrives with a massive fleet ready to destroy Earth while Yon-Rogg takes an escape pod intending to go after the group and the Tesseract. Carol is thrown off Mar-Vell's lab and nearly crashlands again, but she uses her near-unlimited power to fly back into orbit and utterly destroy Ronan's fleet forcing him to retreat. Carol returns to the surface and confronts Yon-Rogg personally, Yon-Rogg is proud of Carol for unlocking her real power and challenges her to a fair fight, but Carol defeats him with a single photon blast. Carol chooses not to kill Yon-Rogg however and instead tells him to go back to Hala and tell the Supreme Intelligence that she intends to take down the Kree empire when the right time comes.
With the Kree defeated and the Tesseract still inside Goose, the Skrulls are offered to stay on Earth as they don't have a new planet to inhabit, but Carol, wanting to finish what Mar-Vell started, offers to help the Skrulls find a new home. Before leaving, Carol gives Fury, who now has a blind eye due to Goose's scratch, an improved pager he can use to contact her while she's in a different galaxy but asks that he only call her during a critical emergency. Fury accepts and briefly calls her "Captain Marvel," a name she likes. Fury learned from recent events that there are many other alien threats out there that Earth is entirely incapable of defending itself against, but also witnessed what a superpowered individual can do to protect Earth. With Danvers a couple of galaxies away, however, Fury created the "Protectors Initiative", a protocol meant to find more people around the world with superhuman abilities and gather them to be Earth's protectors. After learning that Danver's call name at the US Air Forces was "Avenger," he renamed the protocol into "The Avengers Initiative" shortly after that Goose vomits the Tesseract.
For the next 23 years, Fury kept the pager for himself as a secret, opting only to call Captain Marvel as a last resort and instead rely on the Avengers to protect Earth. It wasn't until the Avengers failed to stop Thanos from erasing half the population of the universe that Fury decided it was time to call Danvers right before Fury himself also succumbed to the decimation. The Avengers that survived the Decimation found the pager and took it to Avengers HQ, where Captain Marvel soon appeared and asked about Fury's whereabouts.
Bad Qualities
- Compared to the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films and sometimes the weaker films, Captain Marvel and its story are rather dull and cheesy while this story's structure is very formulaic which is a recurring problem with most MCU films, like Ant-Man and Doctor Strange.
- Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is easily the least interesting title lead protagonist in any of the MCU movies so far, even compared to Edward Norton's version of Bruce Banner or Thor from his first two films. She's just a heavily overpowered character with no real development beyond an overused amnesia arc.
- She is also rather overpowered from the get-go due to how suddenly she got her powers and becomes somewhat more overpowered after she becomes Captain Marvel and the final fight between her and Yon-Rogg is abrupt and disappointing, as a result, she is harder to relate to and her character arc is ruined, and thus she comes more across as a plot device than an actual character.
- Not to mention that she is also mean-spirited at times. For example, she steals a Motorcycle from Someone named The Don just because he flirted with her. Sure, he isn't exactly innocent either, but that's still no excuse to steal someone's vehicle.
- While setting the story in 1995 provides for a nice nostalgia trip, it ends up having very little relevance to the overall story. They could have set it at any point before Avengers: Infinity War, and the differences would have been minimal.
- It is speculated that the 1995 set was added at the last minute to match the 1987 setting of Bumblebee, which was released earlier in the previous year for December (around the same time in Japan).
- While it is nice to see them again for 5 years after Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, Ronan the Accuser and Korath are once again underutilized as a one-note henchmen working for a bigger villain.
- Walter Lawson was genderswapped and renamed Wendy Lawson and never donned the Captain Marvel alias first.
- Despite being an origin story, Carol never became Ms. Marvel first and never wore the black suit. Presumably, this was to avoid confusion with the recent miniseries featuring the Kamala Khan version of Ms. Marvel on June 8, 2022, for Disney+, but it disrespects the character's history story.
- The CGI sometimes can be relatively mediocre, and the action uses way too many quick cuts, which sometimes makes the movie feel more like an indie film rather than a big-budget production for Marvel.
- Some scenes can be somewhat dark and hard to see.
- Despite teasing her in the post-credit of Avengers: Infinity War, the movie is more of an origin story for Nick Fury than it is for Captain Marvel.
- The music and songs don't always fit with the scene, unlike in the three Guardians of the Galaxy films where the songs naturally fit the scene.
- Very predictable use of the poorly executed "twist villain" cliché. And on top of that, Yon-Rogg is a very mediocre villain.
- The acting, though great, can sometimes be somewhat mediocre at times.
- Brie Larson's acting, in general, was a mixed bag. While giving a decent performance overall, she does come across as a little bland.
- The post-credits scene where Goose the Flerken throws up the Tesseract is a bit gross, despite being a bit humorous.
- The plot twist on how Fury lost his eye was pretty stupid: Goose clawed his eye out, and before the film's release, fans unintentionally predicted this scene through memes.
- It also completely contradicts the epic scene from Captain America: The Winter Soldier where Nick Fury removes his eyepatch and says the last time he trusted someone he lost an eye. A cat isn't someone, to begin with.
- A continuity error on how the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division has an abbreviation of S.H.I.E.L.D. when it got it in Iron Man, which takes place after this movie.
- There's a weird ending twist where it turns out that Carol's callsign, "Avenger", was the inspiration for the team name of the Avengers. It's a decent idea and scene, but it just feels like an attempt to make the character far more important to the MCU's backstory than she is.
- Sometimes, the pacing isn't that great.
- The Skrulls not being villains is nonsensical and contradictory to the lore.
Good Qualities
- The idea of a Marvel superhero film that involves a female-lead Captain Marvel in the movie is not so bad, but it's pretty nice to have a female-lead superhero lead in this Marvel film despite its boycotting.
- On that topic, it has a great soundtrack consisting mostly of '90s alt-rock songs like "Just a Girl" by No Doubt and "Come As You Are" by Nirvana.
- The original soundtrack by Pinar Toprak is also excellent, having an epic otherworldly tone to it.
- Kelly Sue Deconnick (the writer of the very run that kick-started Carol's years as Captain Marvel in the comics) makes a cameo.
- Amazing visuals on Hala.
- The intro is also a tribute to the late Stan Lee where instead of being Marvel Actors, it's Stan Lee cameos, who sadly for a lot of people passed away back in November 2018, 4 months before this movie came out in theaters.
- Samuel L. Jackson gives a good performance as a younger Nick Fury, giving insight into why he's so devoted to finding individuals with supernatural powers to be Earth's protectors, which could be why it feels more like an origin story for him than Captain Marvel.
- The de-aging CGI used for Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg is nearly flawless.
- As a callback to the Phase One MCU movies, S.H.I.E.L.D. once again takes the role of supporting allies.
- It has some nice nods to the Kree Skrull War in the comics. It also shows more of the Kree empire, which before this movie had appeared occasionally as minor antagonists in other MCU films and shows.
- Similar to Bill Foster in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Monica Rambeau (the second Captain Marvel in the comics) appears as a secondary character but this time as a child, which is a nice way to reference an important character, and set her up for future appearances.
- Unlike other films that have used the problem of making a propaganda-type character (e.g the infamous 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters, The 355, Black Christmas, Charlie's Angels, and Wonder Woman 1984), it did not fall victim to the "all men are evil or straight up idiots and all women are smart and good people" mindset, which is good because that's an overused stereotypical mindset trope that should not be used, to begin with.
- Decent cinematography.
- It's nice to see Ronan the Accuser again as mentioned above.
- The action can be fun to watch depending on your view.
- Decent direction by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
Reception
Captain Marvel received generally mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, though it was met with more mixed or panned reviews from audiences and fans. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 79%, with an average score of 6.8/10, based on 523 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Packed with action, humor, and visual thrills, Captain Marvel introduces the MCU's latest hero with an origin story that makes effective use of the franchise's signature formula." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences of the film polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A" on a scale of A+ to F, while PostTrak reported that filmgoers gave it an 84% overall positive score and a 73% "definite recommend". 58% said it met their expectations, while 35% said it exceeded them. Unlike Wonder Woman, which was watched by more women than men, Captain Marvel's initial audience was 61% male, according to PostTrak. Discussing these statistics, Deadline Hollywood's Anthony D'Alessandro praised CinemaScore and PostTrak for taking scientific polls that identified how the audience was feeling about the film, and criticized the Rotten Tomatoes audience score as an "ancient 1990s means of collecting opinions online" that is influenced by "ugly Internet troll noise". It collected a 6.8/10 rating on IMDb and a 3.0/5 score on Letterboxd.
Critics praised the '90s feel, its solid characters, the backstory of Nick Fury, and how the movie answers some questions before the release of Avengers: Endgame, but were critical of its formulaic structure that felt repetitive after more than 20 Marvel films. The controversy sparked when Brie Larson made some pro-women comments during interviews before the movie's release, after which some people began boycotting campaigns claiming that Brie Larson "doesn't want white males to watch the movie." It resulted in a few attempts to review bomb the movie on Rotten Tomatoes. It was quickly noted that those notions and boycott claims were a complete overreaction and misunderstanding as Brie Larson never said such quotes and Rotten Tomatoes deleted most of the review bombing attempts.
Videos
Trivia
- As an homage to Stan Lee, who passed away a few months before the movie's release, the usual MCU introduction logo features many of Stan Lee's cameos throughout the franchise.
- The DC Comics character Shazam was initially named "Captain Marvel" before its name was changed due to a legal dispute with Marvel Comics who also owns a character named Captain Marvel. By complete coincidence, both Captain Marvel and Shazam had their first live-action film adaptations released around the same time in Spring 2019.
- Keanu Reeves was in talks to portray Yon-Rogg, but turned down the role due to prior commitments to John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
Comments
- Mediocre media
- 2010s films
- Superhero films
- Live-action films
- Science fiction films
- Action films
- Adventure films
- Controversial films
- Average films
- American films
- Marvel films
- Based on comic strips
- Bad movies from good franchises
- Disney films
- Box office hits that received negative feedback
- Internet memes
- Overhyped films
- Space films