Since Iron Man in 2008 the Marvel Machine has been churning out hit after hit for years, without much as missing a beat. 21 freaking Movies and the only truly bad one was probably Thor 2. The rest are extremely watchable and many of them are very high level movies. It is truly an incredible accomplishment what Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel/Disney crew have done (I will probably be saying the same thing in a month when Endgame comes out).

Marvel has made it a habit of finding up and coming directors and putting them front and center. They did it again this time with Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck directing their first major, major movie. You can tell they put their own spin on a story, while still keeping the tone in the Marvel mode. That is one of the great things about these movies, how different yet how similar they all are. Captain Marvel coming right before Avengers: Endgame meant she was going to play a major part in the upcoming events. Walking into the theater to see that this movie was more or less an origin story was very interesting. You learn about the Kree Skrull war, there’s a lot of humor throughout, and a battle at the end where she learns how to become the hero she always was. After a very slow build, I was a little worried about this; however by the time she gets there, I will say it is pretty awesome. She really shows that she is probably the most powerful superhero we have seen yet in the MCU.

Stock Watch

Stock Up – Brie Larson‘s stock was very high when she won her Best Actress Oscar for Room, but it is infinitely higher now. She is the first female Marvel hero to star in their own movie and she does not disappoint. She is powerful, charming, hilarious, and eats up the screen anytime she is on it. I walked out saying how much I would love to see her and Robert Downey Jr. in a room together (soon hopefully).

Stock Down – Jude Law was so great in the Crimes of Grindewald as Dumbledore that I was excited to see him keep that momentum going. Maybe because the material was not great, he just did not seem fully engaged, and I did not buy his character.

Stock Up – Ben Mendelsohn has become typecast as as a villain in a lot of movies these past few years, so I thought his character would be very similar to that in this movie. He was a revelation though, even behind a ton of makeup he was still very funny, and his arc was kind of the emotional beat of the film.

Stock Neutral – Samuel L. Jackson, even de-aged he is still the man, and I just love how he keeps getting them checks.

*A couple other tidbits

• Seeing Clark Gregg back in the movies (shoutout Agents of Shield fans) was really fun.
• All of the 90’s references were great, and the music choices felt very on point at all times.
• Djimon Hounsou always needs a shoutout no matter what he is in.

This is just another chink in the Marvel Machine, and should make every fan of these movies extremely excited to see Captain Marvel show up in a month and fight with the other Avengers.

Juice Rating: 86/100

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.