Thursday, March 7, 2019

Captain Marvel Is A Force To Be Reckoned With


By Darlene Donloe

There are several reasons to like Captain Marvel.

This is one of the most highly-anticipated films of 2019.

Let's start with the fact that the character, played by Academy Award-winner Brie Larson, started out as a man in the 1967 comic books, before finally becoming Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel in 2012.

Next, Brie Larson, who is fantastic in the film, is the first female Marvel character to front her own movie, which is a major social milestone. The movie is led by a woman superhero who is the A story and not the B story.

Captain Marvel’s aka Vers (rhymes with cheers) Carol Danvers’ best friend is a black woman named Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) who is also pretty kick ass in her own right as an elite pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

Lashana Lynch 

The person that has Captain Marvel’s back is a black man named Nicholas Fury, played by none other than Samuel L Jackson.  By the way, the digital CGI process by which Jackson’s face looks decades younger (1995) is brilliant.  Jackson is a big part of this movie. In previous installments, he’s pretty much had cameos. He also carries this movie along with Larson.  Of course, anyone familiar with the Nicholas Fury character knows he wears an eye patch. The reason he lost his eye is finally revealed in this film. It’s interesting - so it won’t be revealed here.

Samuel L Jackson

Best of all, Captain Marvel is unapologetic, witty, loyal and kicks all kinds of ass in this movie.

Those should be enough reasons.

The story goes something like this. It’s set in the 1990s during a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel world. While a galactic war between two alien races reaches Earth, Danvers finds herself and a small team of allies at the center of the turmoil.  Earth is referred to as C-53 and Marvel is pronounced Mar-VELL.  Who knew?  The war is between the Kree (Ver’s people) and the Skrull.  The Skrull are gangsta. They are creepy looking folks with green skin who have the ability to morph into anyone they want to be.

Annette Bening makes a welcomed appearance in the film. You can never go wrong with Bening. One must decide just who she is. Is she this or is she that? I don’t want to give it away because it could be considered a spoiler.  What’s interesting is that not everyone and not everything is what they - or it -appears to be. It makes for some cool suspense. Not even Vers or Carol/Captain Marvel is sure who they are – or who she is.



What follows are epic battles, clever repartee, and, of course, an ending that sets up the next Marvel installment called Avengers: Endgame, set for release in about two months.

It’s kind of hard to review a film when you can’t give away certain aspects of the film for fear of revealing some of the juicy plots.

One can always deduce that someone wants to rule over someone else and that someone else is not having it. The someone else’s intend to fight to the death for their freedom. Got that?  All superhero movies really come down to good vs. evil and this one is no different.

Just know that Captain Marvel is definitely a keeper.  It’s not as HUGE as let's say, Black Panther, but it holds its own as a singular entity without the support of the other Avengers.

Captain Marvel can stand on its own.

The film stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Rune Temte, Algenis Perez Soto, Mckenna Grace, with Annette Bening, with Clark Gregg, and Jude Law.

Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel is produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Jonathan Schwartz, Patricia Whitcher, and Stan Lee are the executive producers. The story is by Nicole Perlman and Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse, and the screenplay is by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Jac Schaeffer.

RATED: PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language)

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (oh, yeah) and E (excellent), Captain Marvel gets an E (excellent).


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