The Marvel Cinematic Universe has just gotten a lot bigger, and a whole lot weirder, in all the best possible ways.
Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jude Law, managed to burn through a bunch of story in a fun, fast-paced adventure that sets up some exciting things for Avengers: Endgame. Not only that, it plumbed the depths of Marvel Comics lore, bringing the long-awaited Skrull aliens into the MCU, along with the legendary Kree-Skrull War that comics fans have been reading about for decades.
But a movie jam-packed with this much awesome stuff might be a little tough to follow from start to finish. In the course of two hours, we visit three different planets, several different spaceships, meet various alien species, and unpack a ton of pseudo-scientific technobabble while trying to figure out just who the heck this Captain Marvel lady really is. If you’re looking to make sense of it all, look no further: let’s photon blast our way through the plot of Captain Marvel and explain just what the ending might mean.
Strap in: major spoilers ahead.
Best Vers-ion of yourself
Captain Marvel begins on Hala, the Kree homeworld. We meet Vers, a member of the planet’s group of Starforce warriors, and she’s been having nightmares. During training sessions with her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg, we learn that Vers is being trained to suppress her emotions, stop questioning her mysterious past, and fight without using her powers, which seem to consist of having super-hot hands. But Vers sucks at emotion suppressing, and she loves her whole hot-hand thing, so after a few too many photon blasts, she’s sent to be admonished by the Supreme Intelligence, the AI leader of the Kree on Hala. The Supreme Intelligence appears differently to everyone, and in Vers’ case, it appears as a mysterious woman. Good thing, too, because the Supreme Intelligence is butt ugly and also supremely gross.
Soon, Vers, Yon-Rogg, and the rest of Starforce head off on a mission to rescue an undercover Kree operative. But the whole thing turns out to be a Skrull ambush, and Vers is captured and interrogated with a mind-scanning machine. That’s where we conveniently catch more glimpses of Vers’ hidden memories, and the life she used to live as an Air Force pilot on Earth. After mustering every ounce of willpower, Vers escapes captivity, busts up a Skrull ship, and zips down to Earth in an escape pod, followed by a squad of Skrull warriors led by a guy named Talos. Their mission: find a hidden lightspeed engine developed by scientist Doctor Wendy Lawson.
Wild Goose chases
After crash-landing into a Blockbuster Video, Vers finds herself stuck on Earth, a wasteland of flannel, Radio Shacks, and pay phones. With the help of the latter two, she places a long-distance call to her Starforce buddies to tell them she’s going after the Skrulls. It isn’t long before Vers encounters the local law enforcement in the form of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD. Just as Fury and his partner, Agent Phil Coulson, are about to arrest her for the crime of busting holes into video stores, she’s attacked by a Skrull sniper and gives chase. Fury and Coulson likewise chase the chaser, and soon Los Angeles has its most dramatic vehicular action since that whole white Ford Bronco thing you may have heard about.
(Excerpt) Read More at: Looper.com