[Take Me to the Movies] Captain Marvel

"There is no need to waste your time working to be anything other than you." - Brie Larson

Hello! Welcome to the first post in my Take Me to the Movies series (no spoilers). As many of you know, Captain Marvel was released today which happens to be International Women’s Day. Coincidence? I think not! Not only that but this is a HUGE release for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as it’s the final piece to the puzzle leading up to Avengers: End Game. I’ll start with my ratings for the six categories I have and for a seventh bonus category. My boyfriend is also a huge Marvel fan so we discussed our thoughts in depth.

Screenplay/Originality - I’m sure this was a difficult screenplay for the writers. Not only is this an origin story for Capitan Marvel but also the Avengers. For a two hour movie, it’s quite tough to bring

those two together. There were some things left out, a few “whys” with a few of them being pretty important. Maybe those whys will be answered in End Game but we’ll see. Also, one of my biggest pet peeves in movies that have flashbacks is when they bounce quite a bit with a lack of clarity as to where we are. With Captain Marvel specifically, there were a few scenes where they identified where they were but not with all of them. It made a bit of the flow confusing considering we knew there would be flashbacks. For originality, this was not to the T Carol’s story and of course they had to make creative decisions to tie in so many other story/plot lines from other MCU movies. So the originality was not that bad.

          Rating: 3

Acting (including acting direction) - For this category we want to start off by saying that the casting was fantastic. Every person selected for their role was definitely well done. However the acting itself was meh due to the direction the actors were given. Brie Larson for example is an INCREDIBLE actress and did fantastic for the direction she was given but I felt they could’ve given her more of a range. Unfortunately, the same could be said for all of the actors - they’re capable of so much more than what they were given.

          Rating: 3.5

Entertainment Factor - In case you were curious when you could go to the bathroom during this movie, the answer is go before and don’t drink anything during the movie, ha. This movie was super entertaining. They used every minute they had and the flow in entertainment was great. No scene was too short or too long and the action scenes didn’t drag on forever (unlike Venom). The downfall was that it’s hard not to compare an MCU movie to the others. This one wasn’t the best but it wasn’t at all near the bottom. By the end of this movie I was SO hyped for End Game. April 26th can’t come soon enough!

          Rating: 4

Audio - This category includes soundtrack and sound editing/mixing. The sound editing and mixing was great. As a 90’s kid, this soundtrack was amazing to me. The songs with at were chosen were played at all the right times. However taking it into consideration that the soundtrack may not be everyone's preference ("Ugh, they could've picked such a better song.") is why I took a smidgen off.

          Rating: 4.5

Visuals - One thing I can’t stand in movies is when two people are sitting at a table facing each other and the screen flip flops back and forth from facing each actor as they speak. If they’re talking quickly it’s just so flip-floppy and I find it easier to spot differences in the cuts since usually they film one actor at a time while using a stand-in for the other. I also found their was no consistency in the theme of the cinematography The special effects were great though.

          Rating: 3

Trailer - Honestly, the only thing that made me excited to watch this movie when I saw the trailer is knowing that it was the last one before End Game. If I hadn’t already known what this movie would be about, I wouldn’t have really known from the trailer. Maybe, maybe not, maybe just a little. Would I have still watched it if it wasn’t the last before the big dance? Yeah, I still would have - only because it is part of MCU, Brie Larson is in it, and I like to support strong women.

          Rating: 3 

Bonus - Mid-Credit Scene - We are rating this solely on Captain Marvel and not comparing it to all of the MCU mid-credit scenes. For this movie and for knowing what movie is coming next, we loved this scene. We had discussed what we were hoping to see and we got it. We were immediately hyped up for more.

          Rating: 5

The overall rating of this movie in my book is a 3.71 out of 5.

With all of that said, I do want to discuss a few things. I am very real - I speak it and keep it real. I have very strong opinions on some of the viewer reviews on IMDB. First, I’d like to say that I think, very unfortunately, that a lot of people (especially men) tend to be anti-feminist and believe in stereotypes. I read A LOT of reviews on IMDB, easily a hundred. I became infuriated about how many reviews gave this movie such a low rating and attacked Brie Larson, her acting, her character, and feminism in general. I even read one that stated that just because she’s meant to be a strong female doesn’t mean she should be so emotionless. I also read comments about the movie having a “not so subtle feminist them” and how this movie has such an agenda. I looked at the usernames of all of these bad reviews and (no surprise to me) a lot of them had (commonly) male names. Why is it that she basically has the same level of emotion as a lot of the other MCU leads but yet she's the emotionless one? I believe she did show emotion. I thought Carol followed her gut and heart. I appreciated that she wasn’t forced to have a love interest. And beyond all else, I very much appreciate that she allowed herself to be open about the need to find herself and who she is. I have a true belief that you need to discover yourself before you can do things for others fully.

Two things I want to say about this movie, I LOVED the 90’s nostalgia. Seeing a Blockbuster, Radio Shack, the outfits, the music, ahhh - it brought me back. If I could raise my kids (that I don’t even have yet) in any decade, it would so be the 90’s. And last but not least, I LOVE Goose the cat! He’s an integral part of this movie.

If you’ve already seen it, share your thoughts below! I very much enjoy and appreciate other’s perspectives. 

Until next time, 

PS - Marvel created some amazing character movie posters for Captain Marvel, which is where I got the one posted above. To view the rest of them you can either click the movie poster above or  here.