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'Sara'S' review: Anchored by a powerful script, this simple film breaks the conventions of the feel-good template

Jude Anthany Joseph's third feature, after Ohm Shanti Oshana and Oru Muthassi Gadha, released on Prime Video at midnight today. This seemingly feel-good film, also seemingly made in limited spaces and with a shoestring budget, tackles a concept and issue never tested before in Malayalam cinema  circles. In Sara'S, we follow the life of Sara Vincent (Anna Ben), a young, bubbly, yet unapologetic filmmaker who struggles to make it big in the industry. She continuously assists male directors and is in the scripting works of her dream film. Sara has decided, from her school days, that she would not bear any kids. This is when she meets Jeevan (Sunny Wayne); her relationship with him subsequently brings her ideology and decision into a confrontation with the established norms of society, family and child-rearing.  Anna Ben in Sara'S The best aspect in which Sara'S has excelled, without doubt, is its hard-hitting taut script. Debutant Akshay Hareesh deserves praise for managin

Captain Marvel Trailer- Breakdown

 Captain Marvel has already created news since it's announcement as the first movie in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe with a female lead. The wait for the 21st installment in the MCU, spearheaded by the highly talented Brie Larson, reached unimaginable heights with the breathtaking post credit scene in the colossal Avengers: Infinity War. Since then, diehard fans of the MCU had been eagerly waiting for some news on the upcoming flick. It seems that the studio has finally satiated their desire by releasing a 2-minute trailer that came out just hours ago, through the ABC show Good Morning America. Considering that Captain Marvel would act as a prelude to the much-awaited Avengers 4, Reviewer -The  Blog tries to breakdown the trailer, giving more clues and keys to more possible theories about how the movie would pan out.




So, let's start from the beginning.

1. The Explosion and Landing

 The trailer opens up with an on-air blast sending a disintegrated spaceship and a uniform-clad Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel colliding into Earth, behind a Blockbuster Video, which is clearly an allusion to the fact that the movie is set in the 90s. The landing is not obviously the origin sequence, as Carol can be seen wearing a Starforce uniform. So, why is Captain Marvel cruising into the earth after an explosion in space? 


2. The Wake-Up

Danvers wakes up inside the store and is seen to be walking out into a train station, looking completely dazed and confused. She is still in her green and black Starforce uniform. But why would Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot, look perplexed as she views her surroundings? An answer could be that her mind was brainwashed while serving for the Kree Empire, removing all details about her human life. 


3. The Fingerprint Scan and S.H.I.E.L.D facility

As we move on, we can see Danvers scanning her thumb to gain entry to what could possibly be an underground S.H.I.E.L.D facility. She is seen wearing the same S.H.I.E.L.D baseball cap and civilian outfit we had seen her wearing in the exclusive photos released by Entertainment Weekly, barely a week ago. 


4. The Autopsy

Next, we can see a wide shot of an autopsy, with a coroner doing the proceedings and Nick Fury in the side, which leads us to assume that what is going on is an alien autopsy. The body looks very much like a  Skrull, so we can guess that the Skrulls are being captured and surgically analysed, possibly the work of Carol Danvers herself.


5. The Energy Beams

Carol Danvers is seen to jump on top of a moving train and shoot her famous energy beams. The shot indicates that a high-octane fight sequence ensues between Carol and a Skrull.



 6. 90s Nick Fury

 What follows is Carol being gestured from outside a telephone booth by none other than Nicolas J. Fury, but without his signature eye-patch and bald hair. Samuel L. Jackson's face has been digitally de-aged for this movie and Marvel has done a marvelous job with that. Nick Fury would not be the director of S.H.I.E.L.D but rather a "disc jockey" who works for the espionage organisation. My hopes for the movie are high that it will answer the question of how Fury gets his eye-patch. Recall Fury's dialogue from Captain America : Winter Soldier- "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." Considering the Skrull's involvement in this film, we can expect Fury losing his eye (although he wouldn't...)

 


7. The Kree World

Next, we see Carol waking up at a shelter in an alien planet, possibly Hala, the planet of the Kree. This should confirm that Carol is spending her time serving for the Kree Starforce in their home planet.

 

8. Danvers and Rambeau

We see Carol, possibly in her flashback, wearing an Air Force uniform, with sunglasses accentuating her retro look. Accompanying her is Maria Rambeau, portrayed by Lashana Lynch, who appears to be her best friend before the accident that gave Danvers her cosmic powers. What excites us is the possibility of whether Rambeau's daughter, Monica Rambeau aka Photon, would feature in the movie. If she does, she would be a wonderful addition to the gigantic MCU.



9. Origin Story

Although it has been declared that Captain Marvel would not be the origin story of how Carol Danvers got her powers, we can definitely see sequences which reveal how she got them. It looks her body is being permeated by cosmic energy beams, which might have fused her DNA with that of Kree's.






 10. Incarceration or brainwash ?

What exactly is happening here? We will have to watch the movie to find out. Either she is being imprisoned and tortured in the alien style (remember Ebony Maw torturing Dr. Strange?)  or she is being brainwashed to remove all memories of her human existence.



 11. Starforce Assemble...

 We see Carol Danvers walking with her Starforce accomplices, possibly to fight a battle. here we get a look of how the elite military team of the Kree Empire looks like. The Starforce was described by the directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck as the SEAL Team Six of space (sounds cool!). In the trailer, we see Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan) and an unidentified Starforce warrior. We also know that Korath (Djimon Hounsou), returning from 2014's smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy, would be a member of the Starforce.



 12. Mar-Vell

We do not get a lot out of Jude Law's enigmatic character, Mar-Vell, which is MCU's own interpretation of the character, from the trailer. However, with his hawk-like yellow eyes, he is sure to play a huge role in the story. It has been revealed that Jude Law would play the role of " a mentor to Danvers ".


13. Skrulls

Behold! The much revered and notorious alien race in the comic book world, the Skrulls, cunning for their shape shifting abilities, are being introduced into the MCU. Ben Mendelsohn would play the Skrull leader Talos, and is also seen donning the role of a  S.H.I.E.L.D chief, which could have more ramifications to the story. Known for their exceptional shape shifting powers and their ability to infiltrate, it is safe to guess that Skrull's could have a bigger role to play in the MCU even after the events of Captain Marvel. 

 

14. The old lady in the train

I mean, really...who punches a hapless old lady who relies on public transportation? (and with such an innocent smile) The octogenarian could possibly be a Skrull impersonating an old woman. Danvers senses it's presence and punches it right in the face.



15. Ronan is back...

Another character who makes his appearance in Captain Marvel is the nefarious villain from Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace), who was vaporised by the Power Stone at the end of the 2014 blockbuster. We can assume that Ronan would be portrayed as a Kree Elder, before he became the accomplice of Thanos we know he came to be. He could also display his first signs of villainy in this movie and explain why he went out of his way to serve the Mad Titan.



16. The Pager 

The pager that left audiences cheering despite the horrific end of Avengers: Infinity War is also being shown in the trailer. The pager could well be the device used by Nick Fury to contact Danvers in times of need, which is exactly what he did in the post-credit scene of Infinity War.



17. Agent Coulson is back

Clark Gregg is back as Agent Coulson in the silver screen. The character, despite being impaled by Loki in The Avengers, was resurrected for the ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The character's history in the MCU could be explored more in this movie and explain how he came to be Fury's most trusted agent.



18. Battle helmet and mohawk

Danvers is seen sporting a mohawk and wearing a battle helmet along with her Starforce warriors, presumably about to fight a battle. Her exploits as a Kree soldier could well be depicted in these sequences. It also delights comic books lovers that the studio has gone to the burden of adapting accurate details pertaining to Captain Marvel, including her costumes and features.






19. I am not what you think I am...

Cheers are guaranteed in these scenes which appear at the end of the trailer. Danvers is seen to be wearing the iconic red-and-blue Captain Marvel uniform with cosmic energy beams pulsating through her body and with eyes glowing full yellow. Captain Marvel could turn real powerful in these sequences and justify the reason why Kevin Feige called Captain Marvel "the strongest and most powerful character in the MCU yet." Make way Superman... You are about to get blasted (literally!).






And we wrap up our breakdown for the just released Captain Marvel trailer. Action-packed like every MCU movie trailer, the trailer does great work in not revealing crucial plot points of the story. While several questions are expected to be answered, the wait to know where Captain Marvel was all these years would find closure with the release of the movie. However, fans will have to wait till March 9, 2019 when the movie hits theaters. 

Fingers crossed... 

Reviewer-The Blog©

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