Big Picture Big Sound

Lady Heard

Comics have often served as mirrors of their cultural context, with many characters and stories offering some sort of allegory about racism, mental illness, cultural identity, and so on.  Accordingly, it is interesting, and eyebrow-raising, that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been slow in giving recognition to gender equality, one of the most pressing topics of our time. Hundreds of hours of interconnected intellectual property have yielded plenty of interesting and capable female characters, but none who have enjoyed the principal limelight.

That ends here and now.  "Captain Marvel" directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, is an undeniable force-both in this move, and in the wider MCU.  This snappy and well-crafted offering delivers the sights and sounds we all expect in an MCU film, with some smartly developed heart and a deft touch on its central message.

Brie Larson ("Room") commands throughout this adventure through space and - for the audience - time as Vers, a superpowered member of a Kree special forces team who struggles with visions she does not understand.  After a battle with the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifters and mortal enemies of the Kree, Vers is stranded on Earth, where she's forced to reckon with puzzle pieces to her identity that are given new meaning on our world. Throughout the story, Larson's Vers deploys confidence and willingness in confronting danger, but with just enough self-doubt generated by the visions that haunt her.

Through the increasingly effective Marvel de-aging digital magic, Samuel L. Jackson ("Glass") returns as a younger, greener, S.H.I.E.L.D Agent Nick Fury. The always welcome Clark Gregg (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D) plays a rookie Agent Coulson, who's at his side for the pair's first exposure to life, and danger, from beyond their homeworld.  Agent Fury delivers some of the film's smartest and funniest moments; but not to the point that it's just Samuel L. Jackson being Samuel L. Jackson.

Lashana Lynch (Brotherhood), a relative newcomer, brings familial warmth as Maria Rambeau, a pilot with connections to the mystery of Vers's past. Rambeau also delivers some serious chops at the control stick of the Quad (not yet Quin) Jet; I look forward to her return in future outings.  Young newcomer Akira Akbar plays Maria's daughter Monica with just enough precociousness, and she delivers a more than a few great moments with Larson. This is where the film has its greatest strengths: the core sentiment of support for the ones you love and care about.

I'll be intentionally vague about how the other major supporting characters play out, as the story does have a few twists and turns that would be spoiled by sharing more. It's worth mentioning that Jude Law, Annette Bening, and Ben Mendelsohn are all particularly effective in their roles.  Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou make returns as characters we've already seen in "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Also, there's a cat (GOOSE!), and both Nick Fury and I do love a good kitty (spoiler warning: link to trailer & rampant fan speculation).

An MCU movie, at this point, should have great visual and sound effects as table stakes: they know what they are doing in this department and deliver consistently.  "Captain Marvel" does not disappoint in this regard.

Much has already been discussed about the 1990's setting - Blockbuster! Radio Shack! Flannel! Grunge music! - and I'll register my agreement. As someone who was a teenager at that point in time, I'll say that they've done well capturing a lot of the right notes to build that world.

"Captain Marvel" is not a flawless film. As an origin story, it's stuck with a lot of structural baggage. But as origin stories go, it's very far from the worst. It's also clear is that this movie is a middle story in a grand series, and therefore a not-small portion of the dramatic stakes are removed. We know that many of these characters WILL live on to fight another day, because we've already seen that other day in several prior MCU films.  But impressively, the movie acknowledges and leans into that "fight another day" factor and delivers strong connective tissue to the broader MCU - so I'll give them some room to maneuver.

Some of the establishing structure of the story is a little TOO mysterious and vague, so it jumps into the plot without giving you a sense of who and why. I also want to touch lightly on the superpowers on display. I know that we're being prepped for Captain Marvel to be a force ready to stand toe to toe with Thanos, but I'm a little worried that it will come at a greater narrative cost: Swiss-Army Super Space Hands that can solve any problem the writers can dream up.  I say touch lightly because it's not a central concern in this movie, where she's just getting a sense of her capability. But I hope that they are judicious with the use of that power going forward. One of the main reasons why Superman struggles to be compelling is that he's just too unstoppable.

There are some technical issues here as well. A few moments in the hand-to-hand combat scenes feature editing that is a little too frenetic and jumbled - but we've seen that before, and we'll see it again. (This may just end up being my "hey you kids, get off my lawn!" argument about modern movies.)  There are also several moments where the actors portraying Skrulls are clearly talking through heavy makeup - where was the ADR on that? Lastly, the score, while serviceable, is not memorable...and this lack of a good leitmotif is INCREDIBLY noticeable when the movie hits that "Avengers" theme to remind you of what's coming in a few short weeks. Captain Marvel deserves a suitably super theme.

All told, I think that "Captain Marvel" will find its way into debates about the best MCU films. It will also definitively end the conversation about why Marvel hasn't delivered a movie about a strong female character.

PS: Bring Kleenex for this one.  The Stan Lee tribute comes straight at you, and they did it right.