It's smart, it's funny, it has an amazing star, it's deliciously 90's retro, it has the best MCU soundtrack, it has the best message.
And it may actually have a worthwhile villain for once. Or at the very least a villain who represents everything wrong with his culture.
Brie Larson was without doubt the perfect choice for this role... she does badass exceptionally well, she does snark exceptionally well and she commands the cameras attention.
Also, she can stand toe to toe with Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law or Annette Bening and still do all those things.
Co-directors and co-writers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have put together a great story and a great movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect, there are still a couple of things I was slightly confused by (which, I will be honest, make more sense after some internet sleuthing where the history of the blue MacGuffin was all laid out), but I still enjoyed the hell out of it.
I also loved the call backs from the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and Stan Lee's final (?) cameo (not to mention the all Stan Lee footage Marvel Studios logo they used at the start of the movie), actually as Stan Lee for once.
As I said at the start of the review, the movie is deliciously 90's retro, with a kick-ass 90's soundtrack where most of the artists are either female or bands with a female singer. And I love the fact they didn't hit you over the head with the decade it was supposed to be set, but casual references to both Blockbuster and Radio Shack (along with a wall full of band posters) were enough to clue you in.
And without giving anything away, the pivotal moment towards the end of the movie reminded me very much of Buffy's speech in the episode Chosen... specifically the line "Every girl who could have the power, will have the power. Can stand up, will stand up." It's not perhaps an original thought (hero discovers the power was in them all along), but it is quite beautifully done in this movie.
It was also a nice change of pace that this wasn't an origin story... or at least not in the classic sense... it was more of an origin by way of flashback story... which is unusual, but it suited the story.
Of the very few things in the negative column, the main one was the somewhat crunchy CGI, mostly whenever Goose the cat needed to be not a real cat... but also when Larson had her helmet on, especially at the end, it very clearly became a CGI puppet at that point.
But those are very minor complaints on what was an otherwise excellent movie.
yani's rating: 5 pagers out of 5
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