So Captain Marvel is here. I have never really followed the comic book character, as she never seemed terribly impactful on the Marvel Universe when I actually read comics. Still, I was hoping, based on a pretty good track record, that this would be another fun Marvel flick. I was also hoping it would be one in the eye for the internet troll brigade.
It does have fun in it, though it's a little hard to find at times. The humor mostly works, some story turns are interesting, and most of the effects (other than Agent "Uncanny Valley" Coulson) are decent. But overall ... I just didn't dig it.
Maybe it's because the titular Captain is not a particularly engaging or sympathetic character. She's a quippy smartass from the get-go, and she never really changes very much. Despite life-altering experiences, her life isn't really very altered. She went from being a hotshot fighter pilot to a hotshot space warrior. She lost her memories, but that doesn't seem terribly important to the plot, nor does it really inform her character very much.
So many opportunities for a deeper, more interesting movie existed here, but were abandoned. Characters had only sketches of motivation, and the most serious moral choice in the film (whether or not a mother with a child should risk her life, possibly leaving that child motherless) had a frustratingly unsatisfying resolution. The movie seemed afraid to make any hard choices, which is almost exactly the opposite of the recent years' storylines of the Marvel Comics character (as I understand them upon a brief wikipedial review).
Honestly, I struggle for anything to say about this movie, other than my primary impression was that I found myself waiting for it to be over rather than engaged or excited. I do not remember feeling this way about any other Marvel film, even the lower-tier second sequels to Iron Man and Thor.
Well ... maybe Thor 2.
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