'Captain Marvel' lacks wit and oomph
The first Marvel Comics woman superhero movie suffers from wooden dialogue and a misuse of good actors.
Brie Larson (l.) and Samuel L. Jackson sit down for a chat in a scene from 'Captain Marvel.'
Disney-Marvel Studios via AP
It鈥檚 not even the summer yet, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is once again upon us. 鈥淐aptain Marvel,鈥� the latest entry, is also among the most anticipated, largely because it鈥檚 the first Marvel movie to headline a female superhero.
This is an important sociological phenomenon, I suppose, but I find it difficult to get excited about the movie 鈥� as a movie. Directed and co-written by the husband-and-wife team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck 鈥� whose previous work, including the fine 鈥淗alf Nelson鈥� and 鈥淪ugar,鈥� is all in the indie realm 鈥� it鈥檚 a lackluster piece of Marvelized engineering. Lacking the wit and graphic oomph that sometimes rescues the Marvel franchise from terminal fatigue, 鈥淐aptain Marvel鈥� is yet another origin story for yet another superhero.
Brie Larson plays Vers, the amnesiac Kree inhabitant of the planet Hala and an elite Star Force pilot under the command of Jude Law鈥檚 Yon鈥揜ogg. She has unexplained superpowers (never clearly defined) and is plagued by flashbacks to an earlier life she can鈥檛 decipher. Her backstory is the origin story.
Caught in an enemy ambush by the shape-shifty Skrull, she escapes and lands on Earth circa 1995, where she connects with future SHIELD agent Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson in a de-aged digitization that makes him look a good 25 years younger. The effect is mighty creepy, though I don鈥檛 think it was meant to be. (If this sort of thing catches on in Hollywood, we may never see actors acting their true age again.)
The filmmakers have some fun with the 鈥�90s setting 鈥� Vers accidentally crash-lands into a Blockbuster Video store, she peruses a VHS of 鈥淭he Right Stuff鈥� etc. 鈥� but a little of this wink-wink stuff goes a long way. And the early revelation that Vers was Carol Danvers, an Air Force test pilot on Earth, isn鈥檛 exactly earth-shattering.
As usual in this franchise, a lot of actors who are too good for their roles turn up, including Annette Bening as a scientist with an invention both the Kree and the Skrull are slavering to possess, and Ben Mendelsohn, as the Skrull honcho Talos. And what of Brie Larson? She鈥檚 acceptable, which is more than I can say for most of the leaden dialogue she鈥檚 asked to deliver. It鈥檚 fun to see her zooming into the stratosphere like a human fireball, but I hope that the actress who was so startlingly good in 鈥淩oom鈥� and 鈥淪hort Term 12鈥� will not be deserting us.