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Captain Marvel Returns to the '90s


It's 2019, and Captain Marvel is going to take you back to 1995. This was my favorite part of the movie - it takes place in 1995 and totally uses the aesthetics and attitude of that era. Captain Marvel herself is a wise-cracking, boisterous, hell-raiser, fighting against powerful odds with barely more than her courage and photon-blasting hands. The movie has the same kind of jokey action, examinations of assumptions vs. reality, and unlikely partnerships between heroes that you might find from action/sci-fi films from that era. It really reminded me of seeing movies like Men in Black, Steel, and Mars Attacks! at the theater when I was little.

Just like those kinds of films, there's comedy and weird action all over Captain Marvel. There is also an intersectional feminist theme to the plot of Captain Marvel, and it works okay. The 'tude of our heroine, and the comedic straightman role of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, fits the era and was amusing, but it clashed a bit with the more solemn elements of the film. Of course, Captain Marvel is a superhero, and these characters are, by their nature, larger than life. It's a cool juxtaposition to see Marvel's new identity and powers contrasted with her former life on Earth as the story is revealed.

To give a short summary, the main character is a Kree soldier at war with the shape-changing Skrull. On a mission that goes awry after an ambush, Vers ends up on Earth in 1995 where she must find her way back home and discover her past and the truths of the universe. Samuel L. Jackson, Lashana Lynch, and Ben Mendehlson work excellently in their roles beside Brie Larson as the title character. Larson, herself, does a good job portraying a somewhat normal person gifted with super powers, someone who has still not come to terms with her new identity as the movie gets started.

The amnesia and rebirth gave the film a slightly religious tone that compared to Alita: Battle Angel. The main characters, futuristic settings, and retro aesthetics also match up nicely. I wonder if one studio took notes from the other? It's hard to say. Both teams did a good job, especially with the alien nature of their settings, but if we're comparing the two, I did like Alita a bit more.


Anyway, Captain Marvel was a fun throwback to the 1990s in setting, design, dialogue, and themes. It was fun to see another move, after the late-80s-styled Alita that took elements of classic films from my childhood and made used them for something new. Captain Marvel was a pretty good movie, even if it ultimately doesn't break new ground as a big-budget popcorn maker.

Captain Marvel receives a Good.

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