Captain Marvel

Here we are, film 21 one of the MCU and there is no denying, it's a little bit embarrassing that this is the first film in the franchise with a sole female lead. I'm happy it's here now but there is no doubt it has been a long time coming.

Captain Marvel follows an extraterrestrial Kree warrior who finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between her people and the Skrulls, whilst simultaneously fighting with the recurring memories of her - unknown to her -  former life as an Air Force pilot on earth.

The title character is played by Brie Larson and she is joined by Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Lashana Lynch and with it being set in the '90s, a digitally de-aged Samuel L Jackson and Clark Gregg reprising their roles as Nick Fury and Phil Coulson.

You can tell Marvel no longer want to do origin films but with a character like Captain Marvel, it's hard to do without one because her story is a mix of the earth and cosmic based lore, which is unlike anything we've seen before. It's also quite confusing; I didn't actually know that much about Carol Danvers going in so I can't comment on comic accuracy but I can say that it takes a little while to get your head around everything going on. You can tell the film is struggling as well, exposition is clumsy and contrived, the opening is just a little more disorderly than we're used to from a Marvel film.

When we get to Earth things are a lot smoother, it feels a lot more familiar, reminiscent of phase one of the MCU. However, I think I might be as torn as Marvel must have been on this film. I want something different, and they definitely cater to that but it's confusing and messy, but when it's familiar it feels bland and too much 'been there, done that'. It comes together in the third act, which makes the good parts of this film quite difficult to talk about without spoilers, but I will say that when certain story elements are revealed, it really elevates the film to something quite different and something a bit more poignant.

Brie Larson is a great addition to the MCU, though I think we've just seen the tip of the iceberg of her potential in her first outing. She clearly has the acting chops, but the writing did sometimes let her down (this is not Marvel's funniest film) and despite her doing a lot of training for the action the editing and camerawork does not showcase just how hard she worked. That being said, she plays the stoic hero very well and her more human moments are touching. It'll be interesting to see how the Russo brothers handle her in Endgame, as they really seem to have a handle on character, story and structure within the confines of a feature film. Not that this film handled it badly, it was just a lot of new and complex balls to juggle. With the information dump out the way, the future can only be less complicated.

One element of this film that was great to see, was the Skrulls faithfully realised on the big screen. The make-up and costuming look awesome and Ben Mendelsohn absolutely kills it as Talos, making for yet another unique and complex antagonist. Marvel really seems to have a handle on that now. They've also got a handle on the de-aging CGI process, with younger Nick Fury looking pretty flawless. Coulson looked a tad smooth at times but I'd be surprised if general audiences would even notice. It's a cool technology that's well used here.

Overall this is quite a middle of the road Marvel film, it's quite the complex story to tell and it does struggle but it's an okay start for the new Captain. The stuff it does well, which is unfortunately spolier-y, is very good; you've just got to sit through some pretty so-so stuff to get there. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, it was okay. I'm rating Captain Marvel a 3/5. I'm still excited to see where they go next with the character.

What did you think of the film? Love it or hate it, let me know in the comments below.

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Ruby Sparks

I am a sucker for romance films with some kind of genre twist, I wrote a whole case study about it for my media studies course! So when I heard about Ruby Sparks I knew it was a must watch and that feeling was solidified when it got such good reviews in the states, but now it is out cinemas over here in the UK and after the screening I was glad it had hit all expectations, but still took twists that I had not seen coming, making it different from any other romance I have seen before.

It's been six years since the directorial team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris brought us the incredible Little Miss Sunshine, it has been long awaited there next project and it was definitely worth the wait. Ruby Sparks is about a novelist struggling with writer's block and finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character, Ruby, he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence. The script for the film was ironically written by Ruby Sparks herself, Zoe Kazan. Zoe Kazan is also the real life partner of Paul Dano who plays the novelist Calvin. No wonder the two of them had great on screen chemistry!

The directors had a host of stars to play with in this film, such as Steve Coogan, Antonio Banderas and Annette Bening, they are all great fun even though most of them don't get that much screen time. Though it is Dano and Kazan who make the film work, not that we were expecting anything less. Has Paul Dano ever had a bad performance?

The story in this film is great, it's kind of sci-fi element creates a lot of fun to be had and a lot of thinking about morals and life from the audience. The script is great and there are some really great lines that make you think about your own life and relationships and brings a great new perspective to them. What makes a perfect girl? Would you change anything about your partner? These great questions are asked over again throughout the film and depending on what kind of person you are, shapes how you feel about the characters. I found myself switching sides a lot throughout the film.

I love the theme of morals and doing the right thing, the film reminded me a lot of my favourite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there were a lot of things similar to this. Though the film was less arty then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind it did however go much darker, much darker then I thought it would and this was just emphasised by the unnerving soundtrack.A scene in the final act also feels like it has come from a horror film, but don't worry this isn't all doom and gloom, in fact it is quite a feel good film by the end of the rolercoaster ride of a journey. A journey enforced with an incredible cast, script and very natural visuals that almost make this film feel as if it was real.

The film unfortunately is not as good as Michel Gondry's masterpiece, neither is it as good at the directors previous work Little Miss Sunshine. It is not a bad film but it did not grip me in the way the other two did. It is still however, up there with a lot of the best romance films and is definitely another contender for best films of the year, that is why I am rating Ruby Sparks a  4/5.

What did you think of the film? Genius or pretentious? Another great indie romance or just another quirky girl love story? Please comment below!

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