- Location: Regal Lakewood 15
- Of all the Marvel movies I've seen, I can definitely say that Captain Marvel was one of them. I just watched it two days ago, and already the details are starting to fade, possibly as a result of some sort of alien mind manipulation. Certainly I remember that Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) crash-lands on Earth and teams up with a young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to retrieve a familiar-looking MacGuffin designed by the mysterious Dr. Lawson (Annette Bening). In competition with her are the shape-shifting Skrulls, led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), who simultaneously find themselves hunted by Danvers' militaristic Kree teammates, including her mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and his team of space soldiers (Rune Temte, Gemma Chan, Algenis Perez Soto, Djimon Hounsou). There's a cat in there somewhere, too, but I've always thought of super-pets as more of a DC thing.
- Co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film features a lot of the usual space-fighting and some fairly forgettable offworld locations, but its best scenes are those that let Danvers pal around with some combination of Nick Fury, Danvers' childhood friend Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), and Rambeau's daughter Monica (Akira Akbar). Paradoxically, this is easily Samuel L. Jackson's most compelling outing as Nick Fury, despite the fact that his performance is filtered through a layer of (admittedly effective) de-aging CGI. The two members of the Rambeau family and even a few of the Skrulls provide a genuine emotional anchor to the film that, frankly, Larson's performance never quite reciprocates. Surprisingly, this may be the first Marvel movie in which the title character is also the least charismatic of the major players. A handful of compelling dramatic scenes are enough to convince me that Captain Marvel could inspire a much better sequel, although everybody would be better off if we just left the music, clothing, and sluggish data transfer speeds back in the mid-1990's where they belong.
- Also featuring Lee Pace, Clark Gregg, and your old pal Stan Lee as himself.
