Captain Marvel

Single superhero movie and an origin story are the perfect components of a boring movie that I usually avoid watching. The trailers did not get me excited at all. Well except for the part where she punches the old lady in the train but that is not a good enough reason to make me want to watch the movie. I asked my friend who watched it on the opening night and he said it was boring. He is more into superhero movie than me so things really looking not so good. At the end of the day, we all know that Captain Marvel will appear in the Avengers: Endgame and somehow the hype for Avengers: Endgame is the reason for me decided to watch.

Once you are able to accept that it is unavoidable that an origin story will tend to be boring, Captain Marvel is not as bad as expected or as what people say. While it is not fantastic either, I think it is okay and is still quite enjoyable. Perhaps it is our expectations that are getting higher.

Although it is wedged between Infinity War and Endgame, Captain Marvel is a still a well-thought standalone movie. The story is substantial enough on its own and it does not suffer from simply filling in the gaps or feeding in information with respect to the other movies in the MCU. Nick Fury and the Tesseract are the only two things in common from Captain Marvel and the present MCU. The Tesseract is not connected to the Infinity Stone at all while the Nick Fury part at least gives us more glimpse on why this guy is unfazed and not freaking out to see aliens invading the Earth (in the first Avengers movie) as he has been caught in between of an intergalactic war between 2 alien races. These things enrich the MCU without taking away or affecting Captain Marvel too much as a movie. MCU solid plot across the movies and across the years is also seen in the explanation of Captain Marvel's absence from earth all these while. It feels believable and still gels with what Captain Marvel movie is all about, rather than something that is being forced along the way to fit into MCU.

Unfortunately, that solid plot across the universe does not translate to solid plot for this movie. The back story on how Captain Marvel gets her superpower is quite wtf. Considering at the start she lost the memory of her earthy life, the way she navigates in the earth while searching for information does not feel as if she is new to earth. The lead up to the climax is also kinda convenient. For someone who just realised that she had been brainwashed all her life, she simply believed all the stories she heard from people she just met as truth. If I know that I have been brainwashed, I will definitely have some trust issues.

I am not sure if I like the changes made from the universe in the comics. In the comics, the Krees and the Skrulls have been at war for the longest time and it is unclear who is good or bad as both are simply threats to the earth. The movie changes this as the Skrulls are depicted to be the good side and trying to escape the Krees' annihilation and their only aim is to preserve their race. This is the first time we see the Krees and Skrulls in the MCU so as long as this change is good for the overarching future stories, I think I can live with that. However, I am irritated that Mar-Vell is gender swapped to a female. Nothing against the females but I just generally hate gender swaps whether it is in comics, animes, movies, books, etc compared to the original materials. You can find and exercise your creativity in many better ways.

It has been mentioned that Captain Marvel is the strongest superhero in MCU and we really get a glimpse of this. She basically can go super saiyan in the outer space without requiring any special equipments and then single handedly destroy alien ships and swat off alien army from attacking the earth. That outer space scene looks sleek and after catching a glimpse of the behind the scenes, it is not surprising: Brie Larson was hoisted to a horizontal pole which can be turned/rotated/directed and then she struck the all the cool fighting and flying poses.

The biggest surprise and the most exciting part of the movie for me is the mid-ending credit scene where we get the first glimpse of Captain Marvel's encounter with the remaining Avengers after the events in the Infinity War. Seriously this makes my friends and I even more hyped for Endgame. I guess this just reinforces what I said in the first paragraph lol.

Being the first Marvel movie to be released after Stan Lee's passing, it is a very touching tribute that instead of using the usual MCU opening sequence showing the various superheroes, the MCU opening sequence for Captain Marvel shows Stan Lee's previous cameos. He will definitely missed and lets hope the new generation of writers do not destroy his legacy.

For now, it is about 6 more weeks until the Avengers: Endgame. The hype is real and I really cannot wait :D