Captain Marvel (2019)

I'm finally caught up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Just hours before "Avengers: Endgame" hits theaters, I sat down to watch "Captain Marvel". The pieces are coming together, the clues and hints left in earlier movies are adding up, and as we're about to dive headlong into the future, the MCU decided to go with what was essentially a prequel.

If you really want to dig deep, there is interesting research available when it comes to the in-universe timeline of the MCU. According to most, Iron Man 2 & The Incredible Hulk & Thor all take place within about a week, which must have been an absolutely bonkers week to be on the news. We've had flashbacks before, and Captain America obviously goes back to World War II, but the time frame of Captain Marvel fills in the gap between Cap's disappearance and the emergence of Iron Man.

In the mid-90s, Carl Danvers is a test pilot for the Air Force, and gets involved with a brilliant scientist trying to develop a light-speed engine. An alien conspiracy is revealed, and Danvers is transported to another world, with most of her memories erased. While she believes she's part of a virtuous intergalactic police force, we learn that everyone is the hero of their own story, but they might not necessarily be in the right.

The plot was good; I liked the storyline, I felt like it was a solid way to fill in the time and see what SHIELD was up to before The Avengers Initiative. I felt like the action scenes were a bit lacking, suffering from too much cutting and editing. I know it's just a sign of the times for action movies to have frenetic editing, but for some reason this time it really bugged me. The soundtrack was a huge plus for me, since mid-90s alternative is my wheelhouse - I also loved seeing the hero wearing a Nine Inch Nails shirt for a good portion of the movie.

Where things really fall apart for me is Brie Larson. I've seen her in a few movies but all in smaller roles. The most work I've seen from her was in Trainwreck (still waiting to watch Room). My main issue with her in this movie was that I was distinctly aware that she was acting. I'm not entirely sure how to describe it, but it just felt like she had memorized what she was supposed to say, was waiting for her costars to say their lines, and had memorized what she was supposed to say in response. I can blame the script a bit because most of her jokes felt forced, and I'm not sure what actor I would've preferred or who could have pulled it off, but Larson just fell flat. This feels blasphemous, but I felt like Sam Jackson was even dragged down a bit. I can attribute some of that to the digital de-aging, but regardless, it wasn't Fury's best. On the flip, I thought Jude Law was solid, and Ben Mendelsohn is awesome.

The MCU has been mostly hits, a few misses, and a few mehs. While I'm still stoked for "Endgame", my issues with "Infinity War" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and now "Captain Marvel" make me feel like MCU is slightly limping toward a conclusion.