
Flicks, Steve Newall
There’s a hell of a lot of pressure on Captain Marvel’s shoulders ahead of the release of Avengers: Endgame next month. Not only did co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck need to introduce the MCU’s most powerful and crucially important hero, but they had to do so in the shadow of a film that will pick up after the death of half the universe. In exploring Captain Marvel’s origins with a mysterious, slightly non-linear narrative; following a space war to mid-90s Earth (a "shithole" in an alien's timely description); and having a perfectly-cast Brie Larson as its self-possessed and cheeky hero known initially as Vers, the results excel in keeping us riveted—for better or worse—on the film at hand, at least until its closing moments.
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