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**This Review will Contain Some Spoilers Turn Away Now if You Want to Subject Yourself to this Movie Without a Fair Warning**
I have watched every Marvel film that’s been produced in the last two decades. As a kid, I was a closeted comic book geek; mostly because my mother thought that comic books were for boys and contained questionable material. Still, I loved the stories. The idea of good fighting evil. If you read my Wonder Woman Movie Review then you know how much I loved that movie. I mean it made me cry! So I am all for watching more powerful women on screen and seeing their stories of perseverance. Even though the story of Carol Danvers has never been one that particularly appealed to me and I wasn’t quite convinced about Brie Larson as the heroine, I went into watching this film with an open mind. After all, it was the Mouse behind this production and the Mouse has a pretty amazing track record for producing compelling stories. 
From the moment that Vers, as played by Brie Larson, appeared on screen I had a hard time feeling anything for her. Pretty strange considering that a big theme in the entire film is emotionality. Over and over again people warn Vers aka Carol Danvers about being too emotional but all I saw from her was stoicism. I’m not sure what Brie Larson studied to prepare for the role but it must have been the Terminator because that’s who she reminded me of. We spend the entire film feeling like she’s pretending to be human when she’s been human all along. To me this character was miscast. Someone like Bryce Dallas Howard or Jessica Chastain probably would have done a far better job of being arrogant and angry. The most emotion we get from Brie Larson is awkward “is this how you human?”-smirks.
Now it’s possible that the lack of feeling is the result of poor writing, the result of having too many cooks in the kitchen. At times the dialogue felt either dry or forced. The fact that the directors of the film had never directed an action movie certainly showed with the choices made for the fight scenes. The fight scenes might have actually been choreographed beautifully but you’ll never know because the shots of those scenes were all so tight that it made it very hard to tell what was going on. Additionally, the overall look of the film was a lot more kitschy than the typical Marvel film, I suppose because they were throwing it back to the 90s. Now, if you lived through the 90s you may find these references patronizing. I figure they were written for people who weren’t actually alive in the 90s. All together I just didn’t enjoy the look and feel of this movie, it didn’t make me feel anything.
I was actually starting to get sleepy up until the point where we meet Goose the Cat, who shockingly ends up having the most charisma of any of the characters in the movie. That being stated, I hate that they used Goose the Cat to explain Nick Fury’s lost eye. Really, that’s the last person Nick Fury trusted, a cat?! The Marvel superfans know the line I’m talking about. I mean Nick Fury’s a certified badass and they’ve managed to turn him into a joke. Not cool!
Now let’s talk Skrulls. Anyone who says that this movie was not actually political despite everything that was discussed during the press tour must have missed the part where the all-time Marvel bad guys are suddenly the good guys. But not only are they good guys but they’re refugees being persecuted by the big bad Kree empire.Hmmm…I’m just going to let that one simmer and you all can decide for yourselves what the writers and directors of the film were trying to get at with that plot twist.
Finally, I just need to express this one final point, $152 million on this movie and that’s the best hair they could get for Brie Larson. Did the hairstylist even look at any of the comics before coloring her hair; or styling it for that matter? I kept getting distracted by how blah it looked but to be honest it matched the blah delivery of her lines so maybe it does work.
It was surprising to me that a film that is expected to earn upwards of $150 million domestically this weekend would have a half-empty theater but that was the case at the theater where I caught my matinee. I say if you’re looking for a girl power fix rewatch Wonder Woman. And let’s all hope that if there is a sequel to Captain Marvel that they use the Monica Rambeau iteration of the character and that she’s got some actual fire. This one is a definite thumbs down for me.
If you’ve seen the movie let me know in the comments what you thought. And keep checking back because I’ll be posting more in the coming weeks.
Remember you don’t need a movie to remind you that you’re a badass,
