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.

Thanks for reading!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Finally, I’ve had some time to sit down and write this Rogue One: A Star Wars Story review! In a way I have been a little nervous about this review, I liked the film but I didn’t fall as head over heels for it as other moviegoers seem to have. Read on to find out why. As per usual this review is SPOILER FREE.

Rogue One follows the band of rebel spies who attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star, who we first heard about in the opening crawl for A New Hope. The film stars a whole host of characters, most we haven’t seen before, played by a talented ensemble cast including; Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen. Now it should be noted that even though we have a female character in a central role, this film is still very dude heavy. It’s a diverse cast in terms of race but its lack of diversity in terms of gender still leaves a lot to be desired in this new age of Star Wars films. Don’t get me wrong, everyone in the cast is great, some a little underused, but I really hope Disney push diversity in their Star Wars films further as we go on.

Now onto the film itself. For the most part I really enjoyed it. There are some really great moments and some really badass moments that will make any Star Wars fan squeal with delight. The final act of the film is just pure enjoyment at its finest. However, I do feel like my enjoyment could have been heightened if I was more invested in these characters. Some of them get more time than others to shine but I never really felt for any of them that much, their backstories were summed up as they had all had bad things happen to them because of the Empire. Cool. Is that it? The main character Jyn gets a little more time devoted to her story so there is more of a connection with her, but considering this is very much an ensemble film it would have been nice do dive deeper into some of the other characters.

The story itself though is something that the prequels should have inspired to be. This film adds to A New Hope and makes the story richer because of it. If this is what we’re going to get from these ‘spin off’ films then I am totally in for more. If I had had the time I would have re-watched A New Hope right after this because I feel like my experience might be different because of this film. This is a really good thing.

Another thing I loved was the special effects, apart from the odd CGI character (they’re not awful but you’ll know when you see it), the effects in this film are pretty much flawless. Like The Force Awakens this film finds a fine line between practical and computer enhancement making this one of the best looking Star Wars films yet. Seriously, the Death Star has never looked better.

Now I know I keeping going back to negatives but this is my final gripe with the film; the score. Now I realise this was probably one of the most difficult decisions to make, do you go with a completely new score to differentiate from the episodic films or do you keep using John Williams’s iconic compositions. In the end they decided on going for something that was a bit of both, which for me just didn’t work. The music riffs off of the classic William’s music but changes little elements of it, so just as your humming along it takes a left turn, I couldn’t help but find this really noticeable and annoying, like a fan film trying to use the same music but can’t because of copyright issues, it kept taking me out of the film. I really wish they had just gone for something completely different.

Overall this film is a great time at the cinema, a good edition to the Star Wars lore that will make a lot of fans happy. For me it suffered with some of its character development and gender diversity but I was still won over by its special effects and some of its truly incredible sequences. If the spin offs can only improve from here, then we are in for some really great Star Wars stories in the future. I am giving Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a rating of 3.5/5. I preferred The Force Awakens but we still have a bright and hopeful future ahead for Star Wars films.

What did you think? Best Star Wars film yet or worse than the prequels? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!