Captain Marvel (4½ Stars)

This was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film to be released after Stan Lee's death. It begins with a tribute to Stan Lee built into the opening credits. The words "Thank you, Stan" at the end of the credits are a massive understatement. His contribution to modern culture can't be overestimated. My three-year-old grandson doesn't yet know the name Stan Lee, but he knows Spider-Man. He wears a Spider-Man jacket. Stan Lee's name will be remembered long after Martin Scorsese is forgotten. I would go as far as to call him the greatest man of the 20th Century. He will live in the hearts and minds of his fans forever.

The film contains a brief cameo that was filmed before his death. He's sitting on a bus attempting to learn the line for a film script. The line for this very film? Maybe. Captain Marvel walks past him and smiles down at him.

This is out of character. There's no logical reason for Captain Marvel to pay attention to an old man on the train when she's in the middle of a battle with a Skrull. This is Brie Larson smiling at Stan Lee. She loves him. Who doesn't? Every actor who ever appeared in a film with Stan Lee was in awe of the great man, a giant towering above normal mortals.

This film tells the origin of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, but in a way it also tells the origin of Nick Fury. In 1989 he was a young agent, new in his job at SHIELD. He didn't believe in aliens from other planets until he saw one with his own eyes.

Captain Marvel has spent the last six years believing she's a Kree. Now she finds out that she's a human. She's had dreams about Earth, but now she finally discovers why. The dreams have been revealing to her the secrets buried deep in her mind. She comes to Earth to pursue the Skrulls, the arch-enemies of the Kree, but she discovers that she's been fighting on the wrong side of the war. The Kree have been the bad guys all along,

In the comics themselves it wasn't so clear. Both the Skrulls and the Kree are evil races, determined to conquer the universe. In the film the Skrulls aren't conquerors, they're just refugees fighting to survive. The Skrull leader, Talos, admits that he has blood on his hands, but it was in the past. Now he just wants to spend time with his family.

"Captain Marvel", the film, is yet another example of how Marvel has adapted the comics for the big screen. Random names are copied from the comics, but they're completely different characters. For instance, in the comics Mar-Vell is a male Kree warrior who comes to Earth and adopts the identity of Dr. Walter Lawson, a scientist who he witnesses being killed. In the film, Mar-Vell is a female Kree scientist who lives on Earth, calling herself Dr. Wendy Lawson. I frequently complain about the MCU getting the skin colour of its characters wrong, but mixing up the gender is a whole different level of blunder. Usually the word blunder is reserved for accidental mistakes, but I call this mix up a blunder, even though it's deliberate. I understand that it was a deliberate decision, intended to make "Captain Marvel" even more of a feminocentric film. All the major characters are female, and Captain Marvel herself is the most powerful character in the MCU. I'm surprised Nick Fury didn't turn into Colonel Nicola Fury. What about casting Octavia Spencer as Colonel Fury? Hmmm..... somehow that doesn't seem so bad.

That's a nice shirt, but don't you think it would look better without a bra? Aren't the women in the Kree Empire liberated enough to burn their bras?

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