“Captain Marvel” is a plucky and pleasing, if predictable, excursion that burns brightly, if briefly. Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden have crafted a superhero character study that is bit of a feminist “Lethal Weapon,” a retro buddy cop charmer that drives home its female empowerment themes with needle drops of every popular hit by female-fronted ’90s rock bands. If only it weren’t also saddled with so much tremendously silly outer space alien mumbo jumbo.
Rubber masks, ray guns and spacesuits abound in the world of “Captain Marvel,” especially when we first meet the powerful Vers (Brie Larson), a member of an extraterrestrial race of noble warrior heroes known as the Kree. She has a Jedi master-type named Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), not that you’d have the foggiest idea that is his name. The Kree wage war and launch stealth missions against the lizardy green Skrull aliens. The Skrulls capture Vers in hopes of finding a mysterious energy core, and during her ensuing escape, she ends up crashing into a Blockbuster Video on the planet C-53, aka Earth, in the mid-’90s.
At first she’s a little like the Norse god Thor, all space jargon and hubris, bashing and crashing throughout Los Angeles, making an unlikely ally and friend in Special Agent Nick Fury (a digitally-smoothed Samuel L. Jackson). She discovers through her hazy maze of memories that she is Carol Danvers, a hot shot Air Force pilot who disappeared in a test flight crash six years ago, leaving behind a best friend, Maria (Lashana Lynch).
Carol’s journey on Earth takes her back to herself, returning to her values, idiosyncrasies, the things that make her unique — flawed, brave, quirky and deeply human. While Yon-Rogg has been coaching her to keep her emotions controlled in battle, it’s only when Carol unleashes the full extent of her fury that things really get interesting, learning to fully unleash all the potential she contains in her powerfully electro-charged fists. But most importantly, she rediscovers what’s worth fighting for.
“Captain Marvel” hits every beat like clockwork, pulls every required emotional string, cues every favorite song, slides in all the quick burns and fan-serving asides. But it feels like formulaic, box-checking filmmaking. That’s why oddball anomalies like Ben Mendelsohn’s dry, sarcastic performance as Skrull leader Talos and an overly-affectionate orange cat named Goose steal the show — they’re the only elements that are different, fun and exciting.
MOVIE REVIEW
“Captain Marvel”
Grade: C+
Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson and Jude Law. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
Rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language. Check listings for theaters. 2 hours, 4 minutes.
Bottom line: Hits the right notes, but it's predictable
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