Yes, okay. It took 20 films to get here.
Supporting roles that grew from strength to strength, we finally see a woman take the lead in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
And sure, DC Comics beat them to the punch with a helluva film in Wonder Woman, but that doesn’t mean there’s not room for both! (It means there’s room for more!)
So now we’re going higher, further faster baby as Brie Larson steps up to the board in a film that has The Right Stuff.
Set in 1995, Captain Marvel follows Carol Danvers, a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, as she turns into one of the galaxy’s mightiest heroes and joins Starforce, an elite Kree military team, before returning home with questions about her past and identity when Earth is caught in the center of a galactic conflict between two alien worlds.
The only way to bring Carol forward is by taking her back.
And take her back they do, as Directors and Screenwriters, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, put her firmly back into the 1990’s, before any of that Iron Man mumbo-jumbo takes place.
Of course we don’t know this as the film has fun with the displaced Captain Marvel, flicking us around like we’re a magical space-time vessel traversing large distances in an instant.
Showcasing her life as a “noble warrior hero”, we meet her and her intergalactic team, STARFORCE (not some sick 80’s glam-rock band, but I should check). Jude Law and his damn beautiful face leads this team of Kree on a mission that ultimately starts to unravel Carol’s history and purpose.
By way of deus ex machina, this sends Captain Marvel hurtling back to Earth, where she meets a young Nick Fury who, yes, is played by an incredibly de-aged Samuel L. Jackson.
This wonderful wizardry though, also allows the best supporting character in all of the MCU, Phillip J. Coulson, to return because Clark Gregg is a goddamn MAN.
OH! Skrulls also show up where Ben Mendelsohn, maestro of villainy, emotes the heck out of every scene he’s in under that crazy, goddamned Skrull suit of his.
So where does this leave Captain Marvel?
In a terrific place for future movies along with the ensemble Avenger flicks.
Larson absolutely delivers on a character that varies greatly in comparison to the MCU versions of characters we have; Tony Stark fights because he believes he’s the only one who can protect the world. Steve Rogers fights because he hates bullies. Thor fights because he’s a God and he likes stuff that is not-godly, so he wants to protect that.
But Carol?
When you’re involved in a system that works to keep knocking you down, she chooses to face it all and get back up; She doesn’t see walls, she sees objects to be moved. And with this comes a refreshing change of pace, where we see a character enjoy the havoc they sometimes find themselves in, especially in a universe of powered beings;
Smiling, making faces and banter joins the hoots and hollers she makes as things around her go crash, bang and pop.
And an Oscar winner does this effortlessly, with support from an equally illustrious cast (freakin’ Annette Bening is in this! And Djimon Hounsou!).
Marvel have a formula and it works. And while the film steps away from it slightly at the start, which I personally found to be much like Carol’s presence in battle (…refreshing), the indomitable machine that is the MCU keeps moving forward much like Carol.
And if they keep this up, then higher, further, faster is going to be much higher, much further and much faster than we thought.
Summary
A must-see before Avengers: End Game, Captain Marvel is playful in its nods to what we've seen from the MCU, while introducing one of its most powerful heroes yet.
And she's not only powerful because of her strength, but in what she represents in the current discourse.
Also, Goose the Cat will be your new favourite character in the MCU.
