Captain Marvel - Killing time till Endgame

Marvel is known for consistently making good quality films, so far, there's no single movie that's totally unwatchable or horrible or even boring. Some people call Iron man 2 the worst but I found it very much entertaining, not even close to a bad movie by my standards, maybe Thor 2 or Thor Ragnarok, both those movies were enjoyable in their own way, maybe had some plot holes or character inconsistencies. They literally made magic so believable and cool with Dr. Strange, a movie that could have failed miserably but turned out to be one of their best, and the same thing goes with the guardians of the galaxy. But even the best people have bad days and Marvel finally made a movie that comes very close to unwatchable and boring to death.

Captain Marvel, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck stars Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, and Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, it is the first female solo superhero movie in the MCU. The movie takes place in the year 1995 where we follow Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, a hero who meets with an accident which gives her a confusing set of powers which include shooting stuff out of her hands and managing to stay young for decades even they don't actually mention the latter.

Nick Fury meets Captain Marvel due to some events and then they team up to fight a bunch of alien villains. Throughout the movie, Carol has flashes of her past life as an airforce pilot and her childhood. It's sad to say that there was not a single scene in the entire movie that made me even remotely relate with her character. Her past life was poorly explained, she has no idea what's going on at times and we the audience also have very little idea what's going on at times.

I found myself scratching my head wondering how Marvel can make a movie with such little exposition and a so many plot holes. It doesn't even feel like the movie tried hard to be what wonder woman tried to be, a movie about a strong female hero who little girls can look up to. Brie Larson does the best she could, with the same vacuous expression throughout the movie, with robotic behavior and zero life. She's the complete opposite to what Gal Gadot was in Wonder Woman. I guess anyone else in her place would have done the same because the fingers should be pointed at the directors. But still as an Oscar-winning actress much more was expected of her and she was an overall disappointment.

My last hope was Nick Fury, I hoped that they would really do justice to his character but unfortunately I was let down again. This doesn't feel like a young Nick Fury to be honest, he feels much softer than the man he was in the Avengers and he just felt like comic relief at times. He gives us a couple of laughs but that's about it. I was really curious to find out how he lost his eye and that scene in Captain America the Winter soldier where he says 'The last time I trusted someone I lost an eye' was pretty cool and I really expected something dark and awesome but when I found out what happened, I was just cringing so much. I don't even know why they did that. They could have just left that eyepatch bit a mystery instead of turning it into the lame joke it was. The only reason I wanted to see this was to learn about Nick's past but unfortunately it was a huge letdown and extremely inconsistent considering the guy he is now. At times I was hoping maybe his experience from Captain Marvel hardened him but now I'm just confused wondering how he became the badass director of SHIELD. 

The CGI was good, a few fight scenes were cool and there were a couple of laughs here and there. This movie could have at least tried to be a full on comedy like Thor Ragnarok but unfortunately, even the humor notes weren't on point and that's the least we can expect from a Marvel movie. The soundtrack was below average and the villain, as usual, was weak but considering how weak this movie was overall, we can't blame this too much. The de-aging effects used on Nick were fantastic, making the CGI the best part of the movie. 

There was very little hype generated from the trailers that were released and our greatest fears of Brie Larson's same expressions in almost every scene came true. In the end, I'm not even sure what this movie was trying to be, a strong female superhero movie or a good solo Marvel movie or a mini-Avengers movie, in the end, it just felt like Marvel killing time till Avengers Endgame. Am I excited to see the Avengers come back in Endgame, a huge yes but would I like to see Captain Marvel in Endgame, that's a huge no. I swear, if I see her motivating or leading the Avengers against Thanos in Endgame, I'd be walking out of the theatre if it isn't Steve Rogers or Thor or Tony doing the leading. This isn't a sexist comment from my part, this is coming from me because I was infuriated after seeing such a poor film from the MCU. This is really the first time that the MCU managed to leave their fans disappointed.

They should have just made a Black Widow movie instead of Captain Marvel, I swear her flashback during Avengers age of Ultron made me feel much more than what I felt in Captain Marvel. I do not look forward to seeing her in Endgame but unfortunately, we're all going to. I didn't have expectations but I've gone with the same attitude for so many other Marvel movies but they've all managed to prove me wrong, I never thought that Marvel studios had it in them to make a movie as boring and cringy as this, I really hope that they stop experimenting by changing their storytelling style and stick to their roots because it works well and I don't find it monotonous, hopefully, this is something they learn from and come back stronger the next time.

Verdict
Fan in me: 3/10
Critic in me: 4/10

You don't have to see this to understand Avengers Endgame, if you can skip it, please do, but if you want to get a glimpse of what happens after the ending of infinity war then definitely go for it because the post-credits scene and the last few minutes of the movie are really great maybe just go to the theatre about 2 hours late and you won't be disappointed. The whole Rotten tomatoes controversy is really getting on my nerves. They keep deleting so many reviews masking this movie and trying to save it from falling apart, initially, there was a 29% fan rating now it's 51%, if you really want to know how legit they are, just remember that Avengers Infinity War has a lower rating than Captain Marvel and black panther. They've been doing this nonsense right from Batman v Superman, in my opinion, the critics should be banned from posting any reviews for comic book movies, they are made for the fans and we will always be there to judge them for what they really are and our opinions matter more now and always.