WARNING: SPOILERS
By Maggie Aschmeyer | Deputy Editor
As a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), lady action heroes, and cats, I walked into the theater in March ready for Captain Marvel to take me “higher, further, faster,” as the film's tagline promised me it would. Did it deliver? Well… kind of.
It’s difficult to objectively assess Captain Marvel as a film without letting a mountain of outside factors cloud your judgement. Firstly, it was sandwiched in between Marvel’s two-part finale, arguably one of the biggest events in pop culture history, and any Marvel film that came out after Infinity War but before Endgame was inevitably going to be felt by some as a roadblock rather than a welcome addition to the franchise. You also have the fact that Captain Marvel was the MCU’s seventh attempt at an origin story in the past ten years (superhero fatigue is real), and then you have the inevitable politics and arguments that come from releasing a solo female-lead action film, ala Wonder Woman. Finally, you have the Brie Larson controversy.
Said controversy started because some Marvel fans didn’t like that lead actress Brie Larson asked the media to hire more people besides white men to review movies in a speech she gave in 2018. This statement was interpreted to mean that Brie hates white men, which made white men mad, and then, the internet exploded. However, there’s been a ton written about the whole debacle already, and it is not what I’m writing about today; it is simply important to be aware of the somewhat complicated baggage that comes with talking about this film.
So, is Captain Marvel a basic rehash of the origin story or refreshing new take on an old formula? Are Carol’s extreme powers too much of a deus-ex-machina? Is our hero confident or cocky? And are we only asking these questions because the main character is a woman and the lead actress is an outspoken feminist? You can’t Google anyone or anything associated with the film without all this coming up, and since these are the types of topics that spark anger and strong opinions, naturally, everyone reviewing the film is going to want to give their two cents. Here’s mine:
If you just look at Captain Marvel as another addition to the MCU, it’s a good, solid watch. The story has a clear through line and poignant major themes, and it’s fun to see Carol slowly discover her full power. The villains are pretty standard Marvel-fare - not particularly compelling or deeply explored - but they get the job done and make excellent punching bags. The de-aging technology works surprisingly well on Samuel L. Jackson, and his character’s rapport with Carol is snappy and delightful. The cat/flerken is also adorable.
As a whole, Captain Marvel really doesn’t stray from the origin movie formula at all, despite the addition of the whole amnesia plot. She still gets powers and then learns to control said powers while battling some inner and outer demons: pretty standard stuff. Most of the fight scenes are by-the-numbers, the pacing is inconsistent at times, and the first third of the film that is set in Kree territory feels like it could be from a plethora of other bland GCI alien movies. Would all of this CGI and worldbuilding have been a lot more exciting if Captain Marvel had been released with the other Phase One origin movies? Probably, so I give it extra points for having to be the seventh. I did leave the theater feeling as if the movie was missing some special ingredient that would have made it as good as Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Black Panther, although these solo films had the benefit of a previously established title character.
All that said, though, I think Captain Marvel has one incredibly refreshing element; Carol Danvers is a female character whose existence is not connected to a man in any way.
The MCU has a plethora of wonderful female heroes, but they’re either in a romantic relationship with one of the main guys or a side character introduced in someone else’s movie. You might not think that the fact that Captain Marvel is named after Carol and only Carol would make it feel that different from Ant-Man and the Wasp, but it does. Carol is the knight-in-shining armor. She, a woman, is the only person who can save the day. The whole world of the movie revolves around her, and it feels so empowering to watch.
I also felt that surge of empowerment when I watched Wonder Woman, but this time, the leading lady didn’t have a boyfriend and was wearing full body armor instead of a mini-skirt. I’m not trying to bash Wonder Woman; there are so many different types of women in this world, and Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel simply provide us with two different versions of a female hero. One shows you that being feminine doesn’t make you weak, but the other demonstrates that not being feminine doesn’t make you, for lack of a better word, bad. Carol is snarky and stoic and to quote Nick Fury, “look[s] like someone’s disaffected niece,” but the movie frames those things as just personality traits that make Carol who she is.
I’ve seen so many internet articles and comments claiming that Carol is painfully unlikable and arrogant. I thought Carol came off funny and confident for the entirety of the film, but I can see what they mean, especially in the earlier parts of the movie. The thing is... well-rounded characters have flaws. Unlike the untouchable goddess Diana (again, I love her dearly), Carol is a female character that is allowed to be unpleasant at points but still be a hero. If you think that Tony Stark, an extremely cocky man who indirectly kills thousands of people through his weapons manufacturing, is an ultimately good character, but that Carol Danvers, a snarky woman who steals a guy’s bike at one point, is unredeemable, then I’m afraid your opinion is heavily based in sexism.
The film also does a good job of acknowledging that Carol is going to have a different experience from the male MCU protagonists because she is a woman without making the whole thing about Girl Power™. The montage of Carol getting back up over and over again when she’s knocked down serves both as a gender-neutral moment of truth that shows us the courage and bravery that are at the core of her character, as well as a poignant reminder that Carol has been knocked down a lot because she is a woman interested in male fields, such as racing or the Air-Force. And when Evil Jude Law keeps telling Carol to control her emotions despite her seemingly stoic facial expressions? That’s the film making an argument against detaching yourself from what makes you human, while also representing the real life phenomenon where women are told they are overly emotional when they get angry. Carol is treated as a character first and a woman second; her gender just adds more complexity and depth to her already fully-formed arc.
I agree partially with the argument that Carol’s insane powers that allow her to blow up spaceships without breaking a sweat might pose a problem for the future MCU movies. I mean, what’s the point of Spider-Man if Carol can just swoop in and blow up the bad guy’s lair? Well, I see it as the difference between a sledgehammer and a scalpel, and Endgame did an okay job coming up with an excuse as to why Carol couldn’t solve all the Avenger’s problems; outer space keeps her in high demand. Especially in the case of her own movie, however, her powers did not feel like an overly convenient plot device. Just like Thor, another powerful, (some might even say god-like), character, she had to overcome mental obstacles in order to access her full potential. She also proves herself worthy of these powers by willingly sacrificing herself in order to save a race of people she doesn’t even know. On a basic level, she and Thor have the same character arc, only everybody loves one and questions the other. Carol’s arc does happen over a shorter time period, but that doesn’t make it bad, just different. In my opinion, getting to watch Carol, her hair in a mohawk, blow up an entire fleet of alien ships in a blazing fire of glory was entirely worth potentially risking the integrity of the MCU; I may have teared up a bit in the theater during that part.
Despite all my ramblings, the fact that Captain Marvel is a great piece of feminist media doesn’t mean that it’s neccesarily a great movie, hence my hesitation at the beginning of this article. Actually, it’s almost as if its basic origin movie structure is what made it feel so empowering, because it allowed a woman to do what so many men have done dozens of times before. I’ll admit, it’s not perfect in the realm of representation; the film has Maria Rambeau, a female, African-American fighter pilot, but the main character is still played by a conventionally attractive white woman. However, a step in the right direction is better than standing still.
So, did Captain Marvel take me “higher, further, faster”? As a film critic, no; it was about on par with the other MCU movies. But as a woman who is dying to see confident, well-rounded female heroes kicking-butt and taking names on the big screen, Captain Marvel had me soaring among the stars.
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