WisePass released daily access to CGV movie theaters for a year now. This article is a review on the movie Captain Marvel produced by the Marvel Studios
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe also known as the MCU has now more than 20 movies under its belt. It started in 2008 with the movie Iron Man where Robert Downey Jr portrayed the character Tony Stark and rapidly had many other characters that we all know today such as Captain America, Thor, Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy.
What’s making the MCU quite unique is that it created a universe throughout 20 movies over the past 10 years with the same actors. It is quite unprecedented in the movie industry. Making a single movie itself is already a challenge. Building a trilogy is even harder. Kevin Feige, the man behind the MCU, has delivered 3 trilogies ( Iron Man, Captain America, Thor ) and is about to complete a couple of other ones ( Ant-Man and Guardian of the Galaxy ) certainly within the next 5 years.
What makes the MCU even more unique is to have a flagship movie assembling all these characters from the same universe and connect them all within a single movie they call the Avengers. With 3 Avengers movies done and another coming soon next month on April 26th, 2019, Captain Marvel is a new character where the audience gets to discover her origins story and enjoy seeing again in Avengers End Game as well.
The Origins Story
For every Marvel movie, the recipe doesn’t change much. It’s following the 3 act story arc that has made them quite successful. Starting from the set up with the Kree on the planet of Hala to her self re-discovery on Earth and eventually to the resolution where she will end up knowing who she is and what she wants. We can follow her journey that is more spiritual rather physical as the explanation of why she is also explained as a flashback.
For each origins story, it is really tricky for the director as it focuses mostly on introducing a new character and ensure the audience can connect with. Usually, the end of the movie would end with a final battle with a villain and you would see the credits rolling.
The end of the movie was quite imbalanced with Carol Danvers having no resistance from the villain. That is a big concern as it reduces the suspense of the movie as the audience can connect better when the main character is vulnerable. In other words, we don’t see significant character growth aside from the fact that Captain Marvel knows where she’s coming from and who’s she’s fighting for.
When we look at a previous Marvel movie origins story such as Black Panther, we can see it still followed a 3 act story arc but it managed to deliver a more interesting universe ( Wakanda) and set up a complex and strong villain driven by a deep and meaningful motivation. Unfortunately, we don’t see that with Captain Marvel.
The 90’s
Captain Marvel is taking place in the ’90s. When we’re thinking about the timeline of Marvel, it seems to be a great idea. We can use some characters like Nick Fury or Agent Coulson and de-age them. That was never done in the past and it is enabling Marvel to start putting some movies set during this timeline.
Some music from the ’90s are being used and some brands like Blockbuster are being used to refer to the environment during that time. Even though the environment and the music can bring some nostalgia to some people that were born to in the ’70s or ’80s in the USA, it fell pretty flat for a younger generation that never knew what a dial-up internet subscription meant in some other parts of the world.
In other words, the ’90s feel kinda old. From a business standpoint, it’s making sense to put a movie in the ’90s as Marvel didn’t have any movie fitting such timeline but it felt more like the choice of setting the period where the movie is taking place was more important. Writers came after and would work on fitting the requirements of the studios.
The First Female Super Hero
Let’s address the elephant in the room. It’s the first time that Marvel has released a movie with a female as a lead cast and we believe it is great. The problem is when it becomes a big key selling point and takes away the light on the story, the actors and the directors.
That approach has certainly created some backlash on the movie with trolls on Rotten Tomatoes trying to undermine that movie. However, that didn’t stop Captain Marvel from being a success at the box office with 1 billion dollars on the horizon. Hence, it is likely Marvel will release more female superhero as there is a market for it.
The main issue would be more about the directors and the budget they had to handle. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck might be great directors but they were not maybe prepared well enough to be taking over the production of such a movie. That is really cruel when we look at the action scenes, real or CGI. Compared to Aquaman, directed by James Wan, Captain Marvel hasn’t been able to show some epic moments that all fans could remember. Most importantly, the fight scenes are confusing and lack a lot of clarity.
When looking at some other directors like the Russo brothers directing fight scenes, it clearly shows some satisfying fight scenes with a great choreography like Captain America the Winter Soldier
Our biggest concern for Avengers End Game
Captain Marvel will be joining the Avengers. Half of the universe went away with the snap of Thanos. The big question is how the most powerful Avengers, according to Kevin Feige, will fit into this movie that may last close to 3 hours?
It is clear that Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans will likely have to pass the torch during this movie to a new generation of heroes. Phase 4 is likely to emphasize on the newest characters and it will be just natural that Captain Marvel will be the one taking over the leadership after Captain America is going away ( we don’t know if death will be used or not, as long as there is a strong emotional impact on the audience, it will do the job )
The Russo brothers have a track record to set a whole new situation. They’ve already done it in Captain America The Winter Soldier by breaking down S.H.I.E.L.D. They did again with Captain America Civil War by breaking apart the Avengers. Eventually, they’ve done it again by letting Thanos snapped half of the universe. Eventually, it is really likely they will be ending with a whole new frustrating cliffhanger making the audience what’s going to happen next.
It is going to be a critical transition and if Captain Marvel is taking the lead and replace Captain America, she will definitely need to be a hell of a leader during End Game. We have some doubts… until April 26th, 2019 when it will hit the theaters.
