Since the release of “Avengers: Infinity War,” fans have awaited, with much anxiety, the release of the next title in the superhero saga. While “Avengers: Endgame” won’t yet come to theaters for a few weeks, Marvel gave us a little amuse bouche last month in the form of “Captain Marvel.”
It served its purpose well as a prologue for the next “Avengers” title, and though its dialogue didn’t always land as entirely believable or engaging, it managed to deliver an interesting stand-alone origin story for the MCU’s newest captain.
“Captain Marvel” tells the perhaps lesser-known story of Carol Danvers as she strives to find out the truth about her past. Over the course of her journey, she beats up aliens, befriends some familiar faces and eventually unlocks the true potential of her Thor-rivaling powers.
Excessively powerful characters providing well-deserved poundings always proves satisfying, and a lot of the jokes land pretty well. We expect a certain level of comedy from Marvel movies in the form of witty quips and dialogue interspersed between bouts of action. “Captain Marvel” did well on its creators’ unspoken promise, at least for me, as I found it one of the funnier Marvel films I’d seen in a while.
The plot of the film, too, drew me into the experience. I’d never heard much about the character of Captain Marvel before, yet the director managed to sell it to me in spite of my ignorance. I enjoyed most of the characters followed the story with interest, and of course, had a blast watching the numerous fight scenes.
The dialogue, however, did not win me over by the end of the movie. It often felt inorganically direct and scripted, leaving many scenes with a sense of predictability that sometimes became boring. Some lines of dialogue just felt a bit too on the nose; I ended up wishing they’d trust their audience more and let us infer some things for ourselves.
Even the send-off words on screen at the end of the film — the specifics of which I will not divulge so as to avoid spoilers — felt unnecessary and out of place. We know that, Marvel — we’ve been paying attention. Still, I had fun watching “Captain Marvel.” I aww-ed at the Stan Lee cameo, and the quality of the computer-generated young Samuel L. Jackson amazed me. What’s more, the ending left me excited for “Avengers: Endgame.”
The whole movie ties together some things from the end of “Avengers: Infinity War” and directs fans’ eyes to what they should know about the context of its highly anticipated sequel. So, if you’re a long-time Marvel aficionado, just a fan of the superhero genre in general, or even entirely new to the scene, consider giving the film a shot.
