The Reel Review
Behold Marvel Comic nerds! The long-awaited Captain Marvel has arrived, starring Brie Larson as the Air Force pilot turned super hero, caught between warring alien races, the Krees and the Skrulls.
For their first big blockbuster film, director/writer duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have crafted a creative and complex story set in 1995, starting with the alien wars and gradually backing into how Larson’s Carol Danvers came to be aligned with the Krees. The duo weave in a fun hodgepodge of pop tunes and technology throwbacks (Blockbuster Video stores, clunky computers, and floppy disks) from the era. And they also cleverly play on moviegoers’ own preconceptions, making for some interesting plot twists with a surprisingly amount of heart. There are a LOT of fight scenes, some pretty impressive (but not overused) special effects and a solid supporting cast (Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Bening, Lashana Lynch, Ben Mendelsohn, and Jude Law) that plays well off Larson, who makes Captain Marvel the rare superhero film that is not only throughly entertaining but has a relatable lead character.
REEL FACTS
• Captain Marvel is the first Marvel film with digitally de-aged characters (Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson) for the entire film. It has been done in four prior Marvel films, but only in flashback scenes.
• Other actresses rumored for consideration for the title role were Emily Blunt, Natalie Dormer, Rebecca Ferguson, Katie Sackhoff, Yvonne Strahovski and Charlize Theron.
• Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance, filmed prior to his death in 2018. His final cameo reportedly is in Avengers: Endgame
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