a review of 惊奇队长

Captain Marvel has the makings of a great MCU movie. All of the expected elements are here. There's the humor, the action, the sentimentality, and the desire to provide non-stop entertainment. The problem? Its hero is kind of boring. The story is decent, but at no point fleshes Carol Danvers out as anything more than a basic character archetype. It being the protagonist that tries way too hard to come off as tough and cool. We catch glimpses of earlier stages of her life that portray her as a girl that just wants to prove she can be as strong as the boys, but the snippets only last seconds so there's no real journey for her to go through in order achieve that goal. Danvers starts the movie off as a super powerful hero and ends it the same way. So there's no way for her to grow and endear herself to the audience. Something is also a little off with Brie Larson's performance. She plays this character very, very woodenly. No real emotion seems to come out. Not even in the more energetic sequences. This stiffness is especially a problem every time they try to make Danvers funny. The jokes and one-liners fed to her simply fall flat on their faces. A shame because some of them could have been great had they not been delivered in such an awkward manner. Larson shines brightly during the action sequences though. Making for a very believable butt kicker when blows start being traded. You can tell she put a lot of work in. Almost as much work as Marvel put into improving their visuals. The MCU's CGI has been dodgy for a while now. Looking great in some movies and like total crap in others. Captain Marvel can most definitely be counted in the former camp. A good thing too as so much of it is made up of Guardians of the Galaxy style sci-fi scenery. With its main hero falling short, it's up to the movie's supporting cast to carry the show. Luckily, Samuel Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn prove up to the task. Jackson is just as entertaining as ever and as much the star of the film as Larson herself. Fury stands beside Danvers every step of the way and he develops a few more layers as a result. Mendelsohn is straight up hilarious. I really want to see his character return at some point because he's a laugh riot. I was also caught off guard with how his arc turned out. It's a pretty big twist that changes the course of the movie. Lashana Lynch is good, but her role ends up being a bit of a disappointment as it solely revolves around being Carol's previously established friend from a time we only get brief flashbacks to. Jude Law isn't given much to do, but he's pretty great whenever he's onscreen. Captain Marvel ultimately ranks among the mid to low-tier MCU flicks, and it's all because they never allowed Danvers to open up to the audience in the same way the other heroes have. It's still very well made movie with plenty of entertaining moments. It just falls short at what is arguably the biggest reason the MCU has been able to keep going for so long; turning previously established superheroes and their properties into something the masses can actually care about.