Captain Marvel Review (SPOILERS)

After seeing the Captain Marvel movie over the weekend I couldn't not review it. This is my review of Captain Marvel (SPOILERS AHEAD). 

Over the weekend I got to see the new Captain Marvel Movie and it was definitely the Girl Power movie of the year, so I knew I couldn't not review it. (WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD)

(LAST SPOILER WARNING)

As you may or may not know I am a huge Marvel fan I read Marvel Comics more than I read my school textbooks (kidding... but not really) and the MCU movies are pretty much the only movies I go to the movie theater the day they are released (or sometimes the day before thanks to early showings). As all of you know I am a huge fan of all things Girl Power too, so when Marvel announced they were making a Captain Marvel movie their was no doubt about it that I would be watching the movie. 

Normally I would have gone to the early showing on Thursday March 7, but since Friday was International Women's Day I decided to use every ounce of patience in my body and wait to watch the movie on Friday so I could watch it on International Women's Day. To my surprise when I walked into the theater it was no where near full, which is extremely rare for a Marvel movie. The last time I had seen such an empty theater had been when I went to see Ant-Man and the Wasp the day it was released. I hoped the emptiness of the theater was not a result of people not wanting to watch a female-led superhero movie. Later I realized that the emptiness of the theater in reality was probably since there had been several showing on Thursday and quite a few showings prior to the one I went to on Friday. 

As with any movie before you actually get to watch the film, you must sit through previews. I have to say I was quite disappointed because I expected an Avengers Endgame trailer or at the very least a Spider-Man Far From Home Trailer, but to my surprise we did not see a trailer for either movie. After a few minutes of trailers the movie began and as with all Marvel movies it started with the iconic Marvel logo/opening. This time though the opening did not show pictures of the MCU superheroes, but rather of the late Stan Lee who created many of the beloved superheroes from the Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe. The tribute was a nice nod at the creator of the comics and in my opinion got fans even more excited for the movie. 

The movie for those who are unaware takes place in the 90's before all the other MCU movies and is a prequel of sorts. Most of the beginning of the movie was Carol Danvers or as the Kree called her "Vers" trying to remember her past on earth. Eventually Carol ends up on earth following a series of events between the Kree and Skrulls (if you don't have any idea who the Kree and Skrulls are please reference the movie or comic books). The scene where Carol ends up on earth is quite funny and she lands in a Blockbuster.  

Once Carol is on earth she meets Agent Nick Fury (who has been absent from too many of the recent Marvel movies in my opinion). Eventually Carol and Agent Fury team up to try to stop the Skrulls who at this point they believe to be the villains. We also see a glimpse of Agent Coulson in his early days at S.H.I.E.L.D. and later on in the film he even helps Carol and Fury escape during a battle, but that's another story. 

As the movie goes on Carol starts piecing together her old life. She realized she was in the Air Force, she finds her best friend from her past, discovers the real villains are the Kree not the Skrulls, finds out she was thought to be dead, realizes her mentor from her time on earth was creating some top secret technology and teams up with the Skrulls and Agent Fury to defeat the Kree. (That's the condensed version of the plot in case you were wondering). 

As the movie goes on Carol begins to realize just how powerful she really is. We see a montage of Carol falling several times throughout her life, which we had already seen earlier in the movie but this time we see that each time she has the strength to get back up. We also learn that the technology Carol's mentor created was actually the Tesseract which holds and infinity stone. We also find out her mentor's real name was Mar-vell (for those who don't know in the comic books Carol is originally Ms Marvel, who you may know now as Kamal Khan and the original Captain Marvel was actually Captain Mar-vell although in the comics Captain Mar-vell was a male not a female), which I thought was a nice nod at the comics. 

Carol, Agent Fury and the Skrulls are able to retrieve the tesseract. At this point pretty much the entire Kree civilization is after Carol, but she has already realized the full potential of her powers and easily is able to destroy ( hundreds?Thousands?) of Skrull in a matter of minutes. We also see a familiar Skrull, Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy (not to be confused with Ronin, Hawkeyes new identity). Carol doesn't kill Ronan but she scares him off. 

The movie ends with Carol leaving earth, but not before leaving Fury a pager (we've seen before) and telling him to use it if he ever needed anything and then going off to defend the people on other planets and galaxies who needed her more than earth did. We also get to see Goose the cat who Fury took a liking too scratch his eye after being show too much affection, which is apparently the reason Fury loses his eye (quite dramatic since Fury once told Captain America that the last time her trusted somebody he lost an eye). 

The best scene in the entire movie (in my opinion) was the end credit scene although it might be tied with the great battle scene at the end. During the end credit scene we see the Avengers (or the remaining ones anyway) Steve Rogers, Black Widow and Bruce Banner standing around the pager wondering what it is and why it was so important to Fury. As they're staring at the pager Captain Marvel appears behind Black Widow asking where Fury is. This scene is clearly from Avengers Endgame and after seeing how powerful Carol is, I was so excited to see her around the other Avengers especially seeing her next to Black Widow because who doesn't love a great Girl Power moment. 

Overall the movie exceeded my expectations, not to say I didn't expect it to be great but the movie was beyond great and the trailers did not do it justice. Even my uncle who entered the movie less than excited and expecting it to be just a blah Marvel movie left the theater excited to see what role Captain Marvel would play in Avengers Endgame. After watching the movie I had no doubt Captain Marvel could defeat Thanos and there was no arguing Captain Marvel is the strongest Avenger/ Marvel superhero so we don't leave Doctor Strange, The Guardians and other non-Avenger heroes out of the mix.  

The movie has the typical humorous Marvel movie moments and a lot of those were thanks to Goose the cat or whatever species Goose is adding some humor. I also liked the plot twist because I really thought the Skrulls were the villains, but turns out I was wrong. I was pleasantly surprised by the end credit scene, and it made up for not seeing a trailer for Avengers Endgame before the movie. I also really enjoyed seeing moments where Carol pieced together her past, and the moments with her best friend showed a more human side of Carol that I could appreciate. The soundtrack was also great and during the final battle they played one particular song "Just a Girl" by No Doubt that I liked so much I ended up adding it to one of my most played Spotify playlists. I also really enjoyed that we got a backstory for Agent Fury we learned why he chose the name Avengers, why he decided to create the Avengers and how he lost his eye. 

One thing I felt the movie lacked is an explanation for why Carol decided on the name Captain Marvel. For starters they never actually called her Captain Marvel once throughout the movie. I would've liked first of all for someone even Carol herself to call her Captain Marvel and also for us to get some kind of reasoning for why the name Captain Marvel. One can assume it's because of her mentor's name Mar-vell but it wasn't clear enough in the movie plus we completely left out her Ms Marvel stage, which if Kamala Khan (the current Ms Marvel) is ever in the MCU it will make the connection between Carol and Kamala less strong. Also I kind of wish the movie has been titled "Captain Marvel: The real first Avenger" because it has become clear Steve Rogers AKA Captain America wasn't quite the first avenger. 

As far as the future of Carol Danvers in the MCU, I can't wait to see how she is incorporated into Avengers Endgame. I'd like to see her fight side by side with Thor since their powers and even their stories are somewhat similar, I'd also like to see a big Girl Power moment between the female heroes hopefully with Scarlett Witch, Gamora, Shuri and The Wasp all alive. As far as a sequel I think it is highly likely that their will be a Captain Marvel 2, I think it would be great to see another prequel, that takes place after this Captain Marvel movie but before Endgame. It would be great to see what Carol has been doing all these years on other planets, I'd also love to see some kind of interaction between her and the Guardians even though its quite unlikely unless this interaction takes place during or after Avengers Endgame. Most of all I'd really like to see Kamala Khan/ Ms Marvel play some kind of role in the sequel. 

To sum everything up, and if you're still reading this thank you I really appreciate it. Captain Marvel was a great movie, perhaps one of the top 5 Marvel movies to date. Carol Danvers is an extremely powerful character, and I can't wait to see what the future of the MCU has in store for her. If you haven't already I highly recommend watching the movie (also shame on you for reading spoilers) and if you have already seen the movie you should go see it again, because I know I'm going to.