Directors: Anna Boden,
Ryan Fleck
Notable Cast: Brie
Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Lashana
Lynch, Annette Bening, Gemma Chan, Clark Gregg, Lee Pace
It’s that time of year again. That’s right, it’s the first
Marvel film to hit the big screen for the year (with two more on the way by the
time July rolls around) and with it comes the usual banter about the substance
and quality of the superhero genre takeover of the box office. This first film
of 2019 belongs to Captain Marvel, a
film that Disney and Marvel seemingly pushed forward as scrutiny from its
dedicated fanbase began to criticize the juggernaut company for taking so long
to produce a female lead superhero flick. It’s not often that the live action
DC films beat Marvel to the punch, but in this case they did. Still, there was
a lot of momentum going into Captain
Marvel. Not only was this their first female lead film, but it was riding
on the coat tails of a highlight year for the company. In 2018, both Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War came out blazing to massive box office numbers
and incredible critic and fan praise. Hell, the former even won a couple of
Oscars and was nominated for one in the best picture category. Ant-Man and the Wasp aside, which came
and went with little in the way of punch and pizzazz, that’s some huge momentum
going into Captain Marvel and it was
going to have a lot to live up to in terms of quality and expectation.