Captain Marvel Blu-ray Review – Looks Great and has Fun Extras
You won’t regret taking home this popular film.
Kidzworld reviews the Blu-ray for the ultra-popular film Captain Marvel. It looks great and you will enjoy the extra features. Great for collecting and gifting.
By: Lynn Barker
In Captain Marvel, it’s 1995 and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, lives as Vers, an alien warrior on an elite Kree military team. The Kree are an alien race fighting shapeshifting invaders known as the Skrull. When the Skrull head for Earth, Danvers will emerge as one of the galaxy’s most powerful superheroes. Can she control the massive power she acquired after a quantum drive accident or will her feelings and self-searching get in the way? Who is the real enemy and what is Carol’s true identity?
Captain Marvel Bonus Trailer
Kree Training
Kree warrior Vers is trained to use special powers by her mentor Commander Yon Rogg (Jude Law) a devoted leader of the Kree Starforce. She’s been having nightmares, snipped from another life that disturb her. Rogg tells her to learn to control her emotions or she will never be a great warrior in the planet’s war against shapeshifting aliens the Skrull. Visiting the A.I. leader of the Kree, the Supreme Intelligence, who appears to Vers as a confident older woman (Annette Bening), Vers is told to master herself to accomplish her mission against the Skrull.
Anti-Skrull Mission
It’s a rescue mission for the warrior team as they must fly to another planet to rescue their spy whose cover has been blown.
The scruffy local populace turns out to be Skrull shapeshifters and they’ve walked into a trap. Vers is captured and the Skrull probe her mind for memories that place her on Earth as a child then as a pilot with another pilot friend named Maria (Lashana Lynch) and an Air Force Commander and scientist boss named Lawson, the same older woman appearing to Vers on her planet earlier. The two women seem to be on a plane that crashes.
Crash and an Escape
Confused by these memories, Vers learns that the Skrull want to know about Lawson’s light speed engine. Vers has no memory of this. She escapes in a pod but crashes on Earth circa 1995. Several Skrull follow her and shapeshift into surfers one of whom follows her to her crash site on top of a Blockbuster Video store. She is a stranger in a strange land and encounters S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and rookie Coulson (Clark Gregg) who have been assigned to this crash/disturbance. Using Radio Shack parts, Vers contacts Rogg and tells him what the Skrull are after and that they too are on Earth. When the Skrull attack, a chase results as Vers fights back atop a train with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents following. One of the Skrull is killed and Fury and agents examine it at a lab. Yep, it’s not human.
Tracking Lawson
After stealing a motorcycle and some more earthly clothes, Vers heads to Pancho’s, a bar where pilots hang out. A picture of a plane on the wall seems familiar. Fury has tracked her there and admits, okay, there are aliens on Earth. She explains who she is (or thinks she is) and where she’s from, who the Skrull are and that she has to stop them from getting Lawson’s light speed drive. Fury senses she has a personal stake as well. He takes her to a government facility under a mountain where several high tech planes are housed.
Kitty Friend and Research
In the facility, Fury and Vers fight shapeshifting Skrull and find a friendly orange cat named Goose who follows them around. Records show that Lawson was Kree but died in a crash of her test plane back in 1989. Finding herself in a picture with Lawson, Vers reasons that she could have been the pilot of that plane.
She tells Rogg what she has learned. He knows Lawson was a Kree named Mar-Velle and they could really use info on this light speed engine before the Skrull get it. Now S.H.I.E.L.D. is also after Fury for cooperating with Vers. They escape the facility in a plane flown by Vers.
Tracking Down Maria
To learn more about the crash, Vers tracks pilot Maria to her home in Louisiana where she lives with young daughter Monica (Akira Akbar). After their initial shock, Maria and Monica show Vers pictures of her past and their friendship when she was Carol Danvers ace pilot and she and Maria were testing engines on planes for Dr. Lawson. Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) arrives and says the cat is an alien being. Vers/Carol remembers the crash. Rogg was there and shot Lawson! He wanted the core to the test plane’s engine. Carol blew it up, releasing massive quantum energy that went into her body!
Good or Bad?
Vers/Carol realizes that Rogg is a bad guy. Talos tells her the Skrull are victims in this war. It is the Kree who invaded their world and are tracking down the last of the race. The Skrull only want peace and safety. They need a light speed ship to escape the Kree who don’t have that capability yet, and find a safe home. The core of the engine, the true power source is in Lawson’s lab which is orbiting Earth. Who will Carol believe? Will she help the Skrull get the power source or help the Kree? What is the power source really? Did Rogg give her her power or was it hers the minute the test plane engine exploded and she absorbed it? Can she ever truly control it?
Watch a mid-credits scene involving the Avengers and a cute post credits scene featuring kitty Goose.
Special Extra Features
- There are Six Featurettes - Becoming a Super Hero – Brie Larson on becoming part of the Marvel universe, what the role means to her and how stoked she is when little girls dress as the character. Brie goes up in F-16’s with female fighter pilots as research. Filmmakers on Brie as the character as well. All cool!
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Brie with real-life fighter pilotCourtesy of Marvel Studios
- Big Hero Moment –the filmmakers and Brie on the importance of the Captain Marvel character, a “bad ass with emotion”. The Origin of Nick Fury is a great examination of the Fury character as he is presented through several Marvel universe films. Actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans talk about Nick as well as Samuel L. Jackson who plays him. Cool!
- The Dream Team focuses on writer/director team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck who come from the indie film world. Some on set stuff and actor comments. Nice.
- The Skrulls and the Cree examines who is a good and bad guy in the Captain Marvel universe. Interesting.
- Hiss-Terical Cat-titude is on set action with the cats playing Goose.. some real, some not.. My fave! It’s cute and sweet and funny! Sam Jackson loved Reggie the main kitty actor.
- Deleted Scenes – Six of them, all worth a watch, many serve to better explain the storyline and fill in some blanks. Very good.
- Gag Reel is the usual line flubs but more action with actors dropping props, making faces, dancing and singing and playing with a fake cat. One Skrull actor gets a bug up his nose.. funny.
- Audio Commentary with Director/Writers Anna and Ryan is thorough as they begin with the film's Stan Lee tribute and cover the plot, how they shaped various scenes and performances, the time period chosen and more. A nice listen.
Wrapping Up
Captain Marvel was hugely popular world-wide and this home entertainment set does it justice with excellent video and good sound (seems I always have to crank up the sound on Disney/Marvel Blu-rays for some reason). Extras are fun although I wish Brie Larson could have been on the audio commentary track and that we had more on set action than is presented.
The film is a great mix of action and heroics with character building emotion and conflict. Brie does a great job. This one is a definite must for your collection and for gifting. We go 4 stars.
Captain Marvel Blu-ray Rating:
Buy Captain Marvel starting Tuesday, June 11th .
Will You Collect the Captain Marvel Blu-ray?
Were you a big fan of the film? Are you more into Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman? Do you wish they could be on a team together? Talk all things Super-heroine and leave a comment or chat it up on your Kidzworld profile page.