Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Captain Marvel

June 25, 2019

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Captain Marvel started with two strikes against it, because it’s an origin story and a prequel. There have been so many origin stories for super heroes released over the past decade plus that audiences have grown tired of them. Furthermore, prequels are difficult to do right, because it’s much harder to surprise audiences. Can this film overcome these obstacles? Or should fans of the M.C.U. just wait till the sequel comes out when this character can really shine?

The Movie

The film begins with Vers having a dream, one she is not interested in continuing, so she pesters her mentor / squad leader, Yon-Rogg, into sparring with her. He’s trying to teach her that to be a warrior, she needs to let go of the past and have no emotions; however, when she has an emotional outburst and blasts Yon-Rogg across the room, she’s forced to commune with the Supreme Intelligence, ruler of the Kree. (Although she questions why she was given the power, if she’s not supposed to use it.) Despite her “emotional outbursts”, she is given a mission.

Yon-Rogg, Vers, Korath, Minn-Erva, and others are to travel to a border planet, find their spy, Soh-Larr, and rescue him before the Skrulls find out they were there. However, it’s a trap. The Skrulls are shapeshifters, so the Kree have passwords subconsciously inserted into their minds, but some how Talos knows Soh-Larr’s code and this lets him capture Vers.

Once Vers is captured, the Skrulls probe her memories looking for something, but at first Talos is confused, because Vers’ memories are not what they were expecting from a Kree. They find part of what they were looking for when they spot Dr. Wendy Lawson in one of Vers’ memories and realize she’s on Earth. However, tracking Vers’ memories allows Vers to realize what’s happening and break out of her imprisonment. She attacks Talos thinking he implanted those memories, but he makes it clear it was the Kree that messed her up like that. While Vers tries to escape, she accidentally breaks the ship and her escape pod crashes into a Blockbuster.

On Earth, Vers meets Nick Fury and Agent Colsen. At first, they think she’s a nutcase talking about shapeshifters and spaceforces. However, when one of the Skrulls attacks her and Nick Fury sees a shapeshifter firsthand, things change. Soon they partner up to stop the Skrulls, but what they learn is shocking... unless you’ve seen the other movies in the M.C.U.

Let’s start with the most obvious part of the review. It’s hard to get too involved in the early parts of this movie, because we’ve seen a couple of these characters in a previous movie and know they are the bad guys. It isn’t until halfway into this movie that the main character learns the truth and it doesn’t have the impact it would have had, if this movie had not been a prequel. Additionally, the film does suffer from some of the same problems most origin stories have, although they do switch it up by having Captain Marvel start out fully powered and her having to learn the source of her power. These are the only real problems I have with the movie. I do have some more minor quibbles, like there’s not enough Agent Colsen, but that’s true of most things in life. Also, like so many other M.C.U., the villains are the weakest part of the movie, as most movies in this franchise are more concerned with the hero and their journey than with the villain. I prefer this than the other way around when the villain is more engaging than the hero.

I really liked Captain Marvel as a character and I thought she and Nick Fury had good chemistry together. Brie Larson’s performance had a goofy charm to it that contrasted well with the overly serious nature of most of the Kree, but also made her a good foil to Fury, who is also appealing in that way. There are some fun action scenes, but not many of them are particularly inventive and I wish the Skrull’s ability to shapeshift was utilized in inventive ways, like the shrinking ability that was used in the Ant-Man movies.

Overall, it is below average for a M.C.U. movie, but that still means it is worth watching with a high replay value.

The Extras

Extras begin with an audio commentary track with co-writers / co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who also provide an optional two-minute intro to the movie. Up next are six featurettes with a total running time of 23 minutes. There is a play all button, so that’s nice. The cover topics from the character and her place in the history of Marvel and the M.C.U., origin of Fury, ... the cat. Up next is six deleted scenes with a total running time of nine minutes. Finally, there are two minutes of outtakes.

This is a standard collection of extras for a wide release. Solid, but not spectacular.

The Verdict

Captain Marvel is a great movie and I’m looking forward to the inevitable sequel, but it is not among the best of the M.C.U.. The DVD / Blu-ray / 4K releases have more than enough extras to be worth picking up and it is even a contender for Pick of the Week.

C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Video Review, Captain Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant-Man, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Ryan Fleck, Clark Gregg, Djimon Hounsou, Brie Larson, Ben Mendelsohn, Lee Pace, Anna Boden, Gemma Chan, Chuku Modu