Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel is an American superhero film based on the Marvel comics character Carol Danvers and is Marvel Studios first female superhero to headline her own film. The film is written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet also contributing to the screenplay and stars Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Lashana Lynch, Ben Mendelsohn, Annette Bening, Clark Gregg and Jude Law.

The film tells the origin story of Carol Danvers, with viewers first meeting her, six years into being a member of the Kree Starforce team and going by the name of Vers. She has been living on the Kree capital planet of Hala training to become an elite warrior under her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) using powers given to her by the Kree after they rescued her. Vers doesn’t remember anything about her life before arriving on Hala and struggles to know who she is without knowing her past.

When a Starforce mission goes wrong, Vers is captured by the Kree’s enemy the shape-shifting Skrulls and they dig into her memories giving her more insight into her past than she can remember. These memories lead her and the Skrulls to mid-90’s Earth where they are searching for a lightspeed engine developed by Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening).

With the help of S.H.I.E.L.D agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Vers digs deeper into her history and learns she was once test pilot Carol Danvers and Lawson was her boss. This leads her to track down her best friend Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) and her daughter Monica (Akira Akbar) who are able to tell her more about who she was before the accident that found her on Hala.

This knowledge changes how Carol feels about the war between the Kree and the Skrulls and as she learns more about her abilities she must decide who she wants to be and what that means for the ongoing conflict between the two alien races.

Captain Marvel offers a fresh spin on the origin story of a superhero by not telling a linear, chronological story of the events that leads to an ordinary human gaining their powers but instead introduces the character already with powers and shows them delving into their past in order to move forward with their story.

Brie Larson gives a charismatic performance as Carol Danvers and really shines in her scenes opposite Lynch as Maria, with the friendship between the two characters being the heart and soul of the film.

Captain Marvel has plenty of humour too and the banter between Danvers and Fury works really well with Samuel L. Jackson being impressively de-aged as we also get to see the origins behind the Avengers. There are some great scenes between Fury and Goose the cat with the cat stealing every scene it is in!

Captain Marvel is a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and in Carol Danvers we have a strong female hero who tells us that we can achieve whatever we want when we stop looking for others to give their approval.

With Captain Marvel poised to become a bigger part of the MCU going forward this is a must see-film for fans and, as with all MCU films, don’t forget to stay for the end credits!