Film Review: Captain Marvel

Samuel L. Jackson helps an amnesiac badass.

Some minor spoilers...

Captain Marvel is another sturdy entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson is this charismatic, low-key superhero whose past and powers are slowly being revealed to her. We get great action sequences but, like Black Panther, there's a lot of backstory to get through.

What bothered me most is when you boil it down, it's just another hero-with-amnesia story. Amnesia hardly exists in the real world, yet we get movies where amnesia is the main plot point all the time. The character has the "now I remember who I am," moment in the last ten minutes or whenever it's most convenient for the plot.

In fact, Samuel L. Jackson already made a film where he's on a road trip with an amnesiac badass when he co-starred with Gena Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight." If you look at some of their plot twists, this is close to being a remake. And I knew Jackson was in the film, but I just thought he'd be making a cameo. Putting him in the entire film just brought more attention to its "Long Kiss Goodnight" parallels.

And since this film takes place in the 90s, we get a de-aged Nick Fury so he's not as much a badass as he is in the other Marvel films and this kind of takes the fun out of it. Speaking of the '90s, why is the film set in the '90s? We get a '90s soundtrack, a Blockbuster Video joke and a Radio Shack joke, and that's it. There was nothing in the film that demanded it be set that long ago, nor do they press it. It could have easily started with a title card that said, "Five years ago..."

I wasn't too keen on the end when she escapes the clutches of death. She pretty much wills herself out of it.

I was also bothered by Goose the cat. He plays a prominent part but it's never explained where he comes from exactly, or how they found him where they found him.

It's a good night at the movies, just don't think too much.