Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel finds herself stuck in a war between two alien races. 

Rating: 9/10
Genre: Fantasy
Related Titles: Avengers: Infinity War, Iron Man, Spiderman: Home Coming, 
By Leanne Harragan

Captain Marvel is the first female Marvel superhero and as much as I loved DC's Wonder Woman the other year, it's literally feminism the movie and it's a bit heavy handed that she's a female superhero. Captain Marvel while being no less empowering is much more subtle and without the stuck in addition of romance subplot, it overall comes across as a more solid film.

Being a superhero film, Captain Marvel follows the usual pattern of a hero is called in to save the world from some form of impending doom. Along the way she makes and breaks some friendships and learns the hard way about trust. There is an interesting plot in that the film opens with Carol Danvers living on an alien planet, after landing on Earth it seems that there is much more to the story and her secret past. This plot is simple enough but intriguing enough. There is also the plot alongside it, that involves the defeat of an invading alien nation. There are plenty of twists and turns and I'll admit that although it may be considered predictable, I didn't see it coming. I personally preferred the story line of her rediscovering her life, past and rekindling her friendship with Maria. 

I think I was always going to enjoy this film as I'm a big fan of Brie Larson and the representation of female characters is so, so important. This probably led me to accept the simple story line at face value and take the impact of the film as more important. Larson's portrayal of Carol is good, I thought she did a great job and her constant smirking is becoming an internet gif favourite. Other performances in this film are good too, Jude Law is great as Yon-Rogg, no doubts there as he has solidified himself as a great actor across the board. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is great and paired with Larson it works out to become a great buddy cop combo.

The time period of this film is given away by the references of the references, on arrival on planet Earth, Carol bursts through the roof of a Blockbusters, she goes on to wear a Nirvana tee and carries around a Fonz metal lunchbox. All these references plus her general attire scream 90s to me. During her flashbacks references are made to Amelia Earhart and the nickname of Goose, which I can only assume as a reference to Top Gun. The soundtrack is full of great 90's tunes including Nivana's Come as you Are, Salt-N-Pepa's Whatta Man, TLC's Waterfalls and my personal favourite No Doubt's Just A Girl, playing loudly over a montage of Carol kicking ass. It was definitely one of my favourites scenes and the choice of song definitely made it even better. 

Captain Marvel seems to have divided opinion overall but it'll come as no surprise that I really enjoyed it. Although some it's fight scenes were a little sloppy and it's story line is a tad basic, it's definitely picks up as the film goes on and it'll be exciting to see how this affects the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. I can't recommend it enough and I will definitely be watching it many more times! 

Rating: 8/10

By Rebecca Mannick 

Like pretty much every Marvel movie, I've gone into this blind. Absolutely no knowledge or backstory, only that Captain Marvel is a female superhero and automatically I'm super psyched about it. I obviously knew that Brie Larson was going to play Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers and a lot of people were already writing her off - which I do disagree on. Ultimately I do love the picture, and its does meet that Marvel expectation in my opinion. 

Vers (Captain Marvel) starts the film off on the Kree's Empire Capital planet Hala. Her mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) teaches her to control her abilities. The Kree's including Vers go on a rescue mission to get a commander infiltrating the Skrulls, who are shapeshifters and are at war with the Kree's. Vers is captured and she ends up stranded on Earth - this is as she has some memories of this land. Now on Planet Earth her presence attracts S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury and Phil Coulson. 

The most interesting aspect for me about Captain Marvel is how Vers re-explores Earth as an 'alien' and how performing tribal tasks are quite interesting and funny. Also there is a conscious effort to present the year and era Earth is in. Right from the get go you know its the mid-nineties as Vers crash lands into a Blockbuster video store. Also the soundtrack matches and there are some great tunes from the nineties. Can we also talk about Carol's wardrobe, she actually is badass and she's super grungy and punk. One of her outfits involved a Nine Inch Nails T-Shirt which was awesome. 

I also particularly liked the friendship between Carol and Maria. They met in the Air Force, both as pilots (also badass) - they just seemed to have a mutual respect for each other. The audience warms to Maria's character pretty quickly - you can feel her pain from essentially losing her best friend and someone who was a vital part of Monica's (Maria's daughter) life.

This will not do as well as most other Marvel movies but I do love the strong representation of women. Good representation is so vital and key in movies today - and I feel like Captain Marvel is a catalyst for a movement. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, it was funny, gripping, full of action and had a few twists. I highly recommend.