I saw Captain Marvel a few days ago and I just wanted to get my thoughts down on the blog while they were still fresh. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it had tonnes of charm, was extremely well made, great characters, great time setting and was a very good introduction to the Captain Marvel character.

Here are my thoughts in my usual quick bulleted form. Some possible spoilers below.

BAD POINTS

  • It was slightly confusing at points about who was who, who were the goodies and who were Skrulls in disguise. I know some of this was obviously part of the plot but I hope some viewers didn’t get turned off by how confusing it got in places. I have always gotten the Kree and Skrull names mixed up in my comic reading history, which didn’t help things
  • The story and premise in general was very good, but just not great. It didn’t totally blow me away. But there was nothing in there that annoyed or frustrated me at all.
  • I normally have a long list of little things that I think could have been done better, but to be honest I can’t think of anything else. This is one of my shortest ever list of ‘bad points’

GOOD POINTS

  • Brie Larson – I didn’t really know Brie Larson before this but I certainly know her now. I thought she was fantastic. Her energy came across extremely well in the character. And her general posture and body language just oozed strength and attitude. Very impressed.
  • Samuel L Jackson’s youthfulness – I’ve seen de-aging techniques before, particularly with Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy and Robert Downey Jr in Civil War, but it’s always been done in a way that is very impressive but it is quite obvious that it’s a visual effect. With Samuel L Jackson in this movie I honestly could not see the seams. I was amazed the first time I saw it and then I totally forgot about it and just though I was seeing a young Nick Fury. Amazing. I’ll definitely be looking up the VFX reel for this one.
  • Samuel L Jackson’s acting – Like most people I definitely appreciate Sam Jackson’s coolness, but to be honest I often find that he just plays the same character in movies these days, and sometimes it can get a bit samey. And Nick Fury can also sometimes come across as a bit of a moody dick. But I thought the writers, and Jackson’s acting, really made this a thoroughly entertaining character.
  • Ben Mendelsohn – I’ve not been totally convinced by Ben Mendelsohn in the past to be honest. I thought he was pretty good in Rogue One but I didn’t really like him in Ready Player One. I need to watch Mississippi Grind as I’ve heard good things about that film. But, and call me stupid here, I only realised that he was playing the main Skrull dude when the credits came up. And during the whole movie I was thinking to myself I wonder who is under that make up because I think he’s really good. This is despite my first reaction to the character being that I felt that his make-up was making his voice muffled. I soon got over that and started really enjoying the character. So fair play to Ben Mendelsohn.
  • Jude Law – I know some people don’t like Jude Law, but I do. I think he’s perfect in roles like The Holiday, but I’ve never really seen him in a role like the one he plays in Captain Marvel. But I thought he pulled it off well.
  • It’s obviously fantastic having a strong female in the lead role of this movie. I really hope Marvel do more. And as a father I can’t wait for my daughter to watch that montage scene where the young Carol Danvers keeps getting up after getting knocked down. That scene certainly got me.
  • The retro vibe – obviously I enjoy a bit of retro, and this film leans heavily on the retro references. It could have been overly done, or too in your face, but I thought it was pretty well done. Firstly there was the Blockbusters video store, picking up The Right Stuff VHS, the Radio Shack, the pinball machine and Centipede cabinet (I’m pretty sure it was a Centipede – it probably was because Centipede is a Marvel reference for a weapon that made super soldiers). But I also loved the other retro references like Captain Marvel running out of payphone quarters and the biggest laugh of the movie for me was possibly when they put the CD into the PC and Danvers asks “What’s it doing?” and Fury calmly replies “It’s loading”. This could have been done in a more cheesy way, similar to a lot of the Thor Ragnarok jokes, but I thought they did it very well here.

RANKING
This list is getting harder to curate, as it gets longer since I watched some of these films. I probably have it at the same level or slightly higher than Black Panther. I know many people will argue that, but right now, while it’s still fresh in my mind, I think I enjoyed Captain Marvel more than Black Panther. So I’l put it in at the no.8 slot. For the record I still haven’t managed to watch Ant-Man and the Wasp, so that’s why that film isn’t on this list yet.

1. Avengers: Infinity War
2. Captain America: Winter Soldier
3. Captain America: Civil War
4. Avengers
5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2
6. Iron Man
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming
8. Captain Marvel
9. Black Panther
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
11. Iron Man 3
12. Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
13. Ant-Man
14. Thor
15. Dr. Strange
16. Thor 2: The Dark World
17. Captain America
18. Thor: Ragnarok
19. Incredible Hulk
20. Iron Man 2