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Created Mar 17, 2019 05:59AM PST • Edited Feb 02, 2021 06:57AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   So much fun! Captain Marvel is yet another marvelous Marvel movie. You can doubt investing political import in a superhero movie, but never doubt Marvel. The House that Stan Built launches three marvelous movies a year, been doing so for over ten years, ever since Robert Downey Jr. declared “I am Iron Man.”

   Captain Marvel isn’t only marvelous. It’s an ultimate Marvel movie, the ultimate Marvel origin movie: Nick Fury origin & SHIELD origin + Captain Marvel origin. About her, Marvel major domo Kevin Feige’s team have conjured a new Superwoman: a largely earnest übermensch with Superman-like superpowers.

   Brie Larson is up for the role. She’s not Marvel-defining the way Downey’s Tony Stark is, but she does reach bland Chris Evans territory, especially his original turn as Captain America. That ain’t too shabby.

   Nevermind that Larson’s first Marvel movie has become a feminist cause célèbre. I’m no feminist, yet found Captain Marvel to be terrifically entertaining: smart, witty, powerful, complex yet coherent, not a little surprising. Naturally. It’s a marvelous Marvel movie. Almost all of the dozens it follows were also.

   Its dings are few (turning terrorists into sympathetic victims is a woke step too far), its qualities many.

   • Marvel’s got its funny bone working, as usual.
   • Stan Lee’s final cameo is credited to Stan Lee. Yes!
   • Nick Fury gets more screen time than in any of the seven previous Marvel movies in which he’s appeared. In short, the Marvel man of mystery gets uncloaked in Captain Marvel. Hell, the great Samuel L. Jackson’s agent should DEMAND that Captain Marvel be subtitled Nick Fury.
   • S.H.I.E.L.D. and even The Avengers originate in Captain Marvel. Wow
   • Star Wars quality aliens: ominous and supremely powerful

   Captain Marvel ain’t no Wonder Woman, but so what. She’s marvelous in her own right and not too, too far behind. Can’t wait to see her next month in the most anticipated movie of 2019 — Avengers: Endgame.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Brie Larson emanates understated brio in each of her several identities: Carol Danvers, Vers, and especially Captain Marvel. She’s also got an understated wit that is subtly charismatic. Larson’s career has been rapidly ascending for years now, once a costar (Trainwreck & 21 Jump Street), then an Oscar winner for a movie nobody saw. Now she’s a huge moviestar. Hollywood’s been ’berry, ’berry good to Brie Larson.

   Samuel L. Jackson essays the young Nick Fury with the help of CGI “de-aging”. Hollywood should bottle that shit. Jackson is so far into moviestar immortality now, he deserves two lifetime achievement Oscars.

   • Ben Mendelsohn is somewhat insipid as a villain.
   • Djimon Hounsou underwhelms as another villain, same with Lee Pace.
   • Lashana Lynch is striking, as is Gemma Chan
   • Annette Bening has a credible level of gravitas as the immodestly named Supreme Intelligence.
   • Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson is always a welcome sight, even without being de-aged by 25 years.
   • Jude Law is serviceable as a commando leader.
   • Goose the cat is portrayed by four different cats, Reggie, Archie, Rizzo and Gonzo.
   • Matthew “Spider” Kimmel and Stephen “Cajun” Del Bagno are real life air force pilots. The film is dedicated to Del Bagno’s memory. He died a few months ago.
   • Captain Marvel comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick has a cameo in the film.
   • Stan Lee, co-creator of the first Captain Marvel and the primary creator of Marvel, appears posthumously as himself as a train passenger memorizing the lines for his Mallrats cameo.
   • Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo and Don Cheadle appear in the mid-credits scene, which ties directly to Avengers: Endgame.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

   Samuel L. Jackson

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

   Brie Larson

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars OK 2.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Marvel origin stories aren’t always great. Captain Marvel is great, meaning it’s better than others like Thor, which I scored as Very Good and I’m a Thor kid. Well, I was a Thor kid.

11. Direction Really Great 4.5

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Fierce 2.3

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Fantasy 4.4

    Superheroes are primarily defined by their powers, their superpowers, and then by their personas. But this is the section of the review about superpowers. Captain Marvel’s are Superman-like. Per Wikipedia:

    • She can “both absorb energy and project it in photonic form. She can also still survive in space. While she lacks a constant source of energy to maintain the abilities at their previous cosmic level, she can temporarily assume her Binary form if empowered with a high enough infusion of energy.”
    • She “possesses superhuman strength and durability, can fly at roughly six times the speed of sound, retains her ‘seventh sense’, and can discharge explosive blasts of radiant energy, which she fires from her fingertips. She also demonstrates the ability to absorb other forms of energy, such as electricity, to further magnify her strength and energy projection, up to the force of an exploding nuclear weapon.”

    IOW, she’s the bomb.

22. Circumstantial Supernatural 3.1

23. Biological Fantasy 5.0

24. Physical Fantasy 5.0