Ali Plumb reviews Captain Marvel

The latest big-screen Marvel superhero adventure – how did you guess it was a Marvel movie? – takes audiences to two strange places: outer space and, um, earth in the ‘90s.

Oscar winner Brie Larson plays our hero, Carol Danvers (AKA Captain Marvel), a one-time US Air Force fighter pilot who possesses extraordinary powers: the ability to fire photon energy out of her fists, superhuman strength and perhaps even flight.

Taken in by the Kree, an alien race at war with the mysterious shapeshifting Skrulls, Danvers struggles with memory loss and maintaining control of her powers. Then, suddenly, she somehow ends up back on ‘90s Earth, scratching her head and thinking… have I been here before?

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Pros:

• Like Guardians Of The Galaxy and Thor Ragnarok, Marvel cranks up the wackadoo space sci-fi dial with, well, Captain Marvel – you’ll read the word “Marvel” a lot in this review, apologies – indulging in blue-blooded (and blue-skinned) extra-terrestrials, good ol’ shapeshifters, snazzy spaceships and general sense of Doctor Who-ish wibbly-wobbly comic-book rubber suitiness. This is very much a plus for me, and when this sci-fi silliness is combined with the inherent comic potential of taking the MCU to the Earth in the ‘90s, there’s plenty of fun to be had with space battles, Blockbuster stores and occasional blasts of No Doubt on the radio.

• That said, while its framework is somewhat wacky, at Captain Marvel’s core is an interesting and intricate puzzle box plot structure, flipping the traditional superhero origin story on its head as we meet a commanding, super powered protagonist who doesn’t remember how she became this almighty one-woman army. The audience discovers how she became this way as she does, after the fact, and it’s this piecing together of the truth that powers most of the movie. That, and seeing a de-aged Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson after some pretty impressive CGI facelifts) becoming best friends with Carol Danvers, making this film somehow both a Captain Marvel origin story as well as kinda-sorta one for our boy Fury too.

• Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson’s chemistry is one of the best things about the film: both actors are funny, and both characters are funny, and seeing them interact is a real joy. Because of the memory loss set-up, this is a film that asks its audience to watch it more than once, and Larson and Jackson’s witty interactions are a big reason to give it another spin. This film is fun, and funny, and maybe a bit dry at times too, and a bit po-faced here and there as well, but it’s trying a new way of tackling the age-old “We’ve seen it all before” origin story problem with a smile on its face (most of the time), and I’m certainly grateful for that.

Cons:

• If I could ask a favour of this film, I’d love a little less conversation, a little more action, please. Captain Marvel, while not the best-known name currently in the superhero pantheon, does have a grand heritage, and truly amazing, awe-inspiring, Superman-esque powers, and honestly I would have liked to see more of them, sooner. Here is a MCU movie, ten years and 20 films in, that finally puts an all-powerful female hero front and centre – this is not a duel-wielding Ant-Man And The Wasp thing – who is almost ridiculously powerful, and I wanted to see more fight scenes, more photon blasts, more battles… more often.

• As well as this lack of “SHAPOW!” – which it does deliver much more of towards the end, I should add – there’s a sluggish beginning that takes its time getting us back to Earth. There’s a lot of information to consume and come to terms with, setting up alien civilizations, power structures, military squadrons and a close to a dozen characters – some of which, head-scratchingly, we’ve seen before in different guises in Guardians Of The Galaxy, as this is, lest we forget, a film set in the ‘90s and therefore a prequel to all Marvel movies we’ve seen before (bar Captain America: The First Avenger) – and it’ll maybe be a bit much for some casual Marvel fans.

• On that note, I’m a tried-and-true Marvel fan, and even I was slightly worried I didn’t quite get all the references and allusions made here. I can’t reveal too much due to spoilers, but I was thinking as I walked out the cinema: I better rewatch this film ASAP, and maybe head onto Marvel’s wiki page to check on a few things before I do. This is what happens when you play with a memory loss structure, I suppose. A lack of memory also makes Carol Danvers a tricky character to properly bond with, as she’s not fully there yet, still learning who she is as we do, so sometimes you feel a bit disconnected with her as she punches a spaceship. But – and this is key, and actually one for the pro column – this film is very good at setting up who she is and why she’s so important for Avengers: Endgame, so make sure you stick around for both post-credit stings. The first one, which comes quite early, is the essential one, while the one at the very, very end is much more of a gag.

Three-word review: Inspiring, interesting… elaborate.