Transitions can be hard — moving out of your parents’ house and actually paying bills, or when your university changes from Pepsi to Coke. #neverforget
With Marvel’s highly anticipated “Avengers: Endgame” premiering late next month, “Captain Marvel” sneaks in as the last superhero introduced in Phase Three, Marvel’s timeline of character storylines, thus transitioning into the next chapter of the Marvel Universe. The movie isn’t anything too spectacular; it doesn’t help that it’s placed in the middle of “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” acting as an appetizer before we devour the main course.
Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) finds herself right in the middle of the war between the warmongering Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls. With her mind swiped of her memories, Carol Danvers must hone her newly-found radioactive powers and regain who she is.
The storyline is solid, but the overall ideas and themes are overdone. You enter into “Total Recall“ territory with the lost memory premise and then combine that with an intergalactic war of “Star Wars” proportions and sprinkle in “Star Trek”-like cosmetics. Larson’s supporting cast is a bright spot of the film, which is led by Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) and Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One), and you can’t have a Marvel movie without the Kangol-wearing king of box office blockbusters, Samuel L. Jackson. It makes sense that casting for this film would be so strong, considering how importantly the storytelling in this film will lead into more to come.
In the comics, Captain Marvel becomes the new leader of the Avengers with Iron Man passing the torch to her. It seems to be the way the movies are heading as well, and Marvel’s decision to pick Brie Larson to wear the red, blue and yellow seems to be the best choice. The 29-year-old Oscar-winning actress has signed for a seven-movie contract, with Larson being paid 5 million for “Captain Marvel.” You’ll be sure to see more Larson for years to come.
“Captain Marvel” has similarities with last year’s Marvel hit movie “Black Panther,” in that both movies are showing how important representation is. It seems to be Marvel’s goal to show that, through the big screen, being a superhero can be achieved no matter what ethnicity, gender or race you happen to be.
Photo credit: Walt Disney Studios