Marvel’s Captain Marvel represents a paradigm shift in popular entertainment. Much like Disney’s Moana, this is a film that’s more noteworthy for what’s not there; there’s no romantic subplot, no damsel-in-distress, no last-minute rescue by the guy who’s been standing around waiting for his moment, and perhaps most importantly, no awkward gender-reversal of tired tropes (see the endless double-entendres and payback-based objectification of Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman). When our protagonist is diminished and dismissed, it’s most often because she’s human rather than female.
Set in the 1990s, Captain Marvel tells the story of a Kree warrior come to Earth in search of answers to her forgotten past; it also happens that she has to fend off an alien invasion while she’s at it. Along the way, she meets SHIELD agents Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, (the actors are nicely digitally de-aged to their respective Pulp Fiction and West Wing appearance), and helps to put events and people in place to not only set off the eventual modern-day Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also change the rules of engagement for the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.
Keeping this post spoiler-free is going to be pretty difficult, but given that much of the story derives from comics published between 1977 and 2014, we have some latitude. If you haven’t read any of the Captain Marvel comics, I’ll still try to keep the spoilers to a minimum.
Also: If you think “Captain Marvel used to be a dude, but Marvel’s pushing their feminist SJW agenda,” I suggest you read Jim MacQuarrie’s explanation of the history of all the heroes named Captain Marvel, and accept that Marvel’s original hero of that name died in 1982 and was replaced by a woman, so none of this is new. The faux-outrage asserting that “this is not the real Captain Marvel” is merely the bleating of ‘Fake Geek Boys’ ignorantly repeating nonsense. I think 37 years is a long enough time for them to get over it.
That’s enough preamble. Here we go.
As established in the trailers, the woman named “Vers” (pronounced “veers”) has a hole in her memory. She thinks she’s a Kree warrior, but keeps having flashbacks to a life she doesn’t recognize. Events push her to Earth in 1995, where her mission to locate Skrull agents takes a back seat to learning the cause of her random memory flashes. In time the two missions merge into one, as she discovers that she was previously an earth woman named Carol Danvers.
And that’s all the synopsis you’re getting.
At first, I wasn’t completely won over by Brie Larson’s portrayal. I thought she came off like Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun, somebody who is working very hard at creating the impression they are more capable than they really are, more cocky than powerful. But then I realized this is exactly the point the film was going for. Carol is more arrogant than powerful, and very much like Cruise’s ‘Maverick’, and indeed very much like several of the real-life pioneers of space exploration. She would fit right in with the characters in The Right Stuff, a fact that is slyly referenced a couple of times. Since the main thrust of the story is Captain Marvel discovering who she is and what she can do, her portrayal is a good starting place for that growth. The Carol Danvers at the end of the film is not the same person who started the story, and the transition happens quietly without a lot of explicit explanation, showing rather than telling. Larson makes the transition quite believably, and we very much enjoy her demonstration of her ability.
The rest of the cast is equally solid, notably Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau and Akira Akbar as her 11-year-old daughter Monica, a name that ought to be familiar to long-time Marvel readers. I’m looking forward to the inevitable appearance of a 35-year-old Monica somewhere in Avengers: Endgame. The secondary through-line of the story, the evolution of Nick Fury, is ably portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, with great comedic support from Clark Gregg as Coulson. But the real scene-stealer is Goose, the orange tabby who provides a number of unexpected moments.
The filmmakers trust the audience and respect our intelligence. When something unexpected happens, or a character reveals their true nature, they resist the impulse have another character explain what happened; there’s no “gee, I guess he was [spoiler] all along!” It’s just assumed that we’ll get it without being told.
This is why the filmmakers were able to bring added depth and complexity to the Kree-Skrull War and to the persons fighting it. Jude Law’s Yon-Rogg, our hero’s mentor on the Kree homeworld, moves between encouraging and threatening, and as one of our primary representatives of the Kree, he clearly demonstrates that their image as “noble warriors” refers much more to their cultural traditions and self-image than to any actual ethical or moral conduct. When Roy Thomas wrote the Kree-Skrull War in the early 1970s, it was pretty obvious that the Kree represented the “heroes,” in other words, the US and its allies, while the deceitful and treacherous Skrulls were stand-ins for the Soviet Union. The film’s creators have wisely largely jettisoned that interpretation, creating a more nuanced conflict that carries more resonance in the current climate.
Other commentators have talked about their qualms with the message of Captain Marvel and its retrograde form of feminism, which is essentially the old Annie Get Your Gun number, “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.” Indeed, some of the more deliberate female empowerment bits feel a bit manufactured and trite; the montage leading into the finale feels very much like a Nike commercial with the theme, “You Go, Girl!”
Whether we like it or not, Captain Marvel is going to be compared to Wonder Woman, and the comparisons will not always be accurate or fair. As the reviewer linked above argued, it is possible to classify the feminism of Captain Marvel as merely “girls are just as good as boys,” which does come up short against Wonder Woman’s more progressive “why are men the standard?” In truth, each film does better than the other in specific points; where Wonder Woman’s message is more progressive, there are a great many story points that are a bit cringe-worthy, most of them involving the character of Steve Trevor. In Captain Marvel, for most of the film there’s no male character trying to cling to their dominant role, no male figure trying to romance the heroine, no sexualizing of the costume, and no fumbling over gender roles at all. Everyone has a job to do and stays on-task. Even though Wonder Woman was noteworthy for its distinct lack of the the Male Gaze, with no camera leering at the tanned and toned Amazon bodies on display, Captain Marvel avoids the situation by not having any bodies on display. Somehow Carol gets through several intense action scenes without ending up in an artfully torn costume or stripped down to her Kree Underoos. Almost all of the misogyny takes place in flashbacks. While the overt message of the film’s story is a rather superficial one of female empowerment, the film itself is blessedly free of the systemic sexism of most movies in the genre.
Compared to other Marvel films, I’d place this one in the upper half of the pack, way ahead of the second Thor, second and third Iron Man, anything with Hulk in the title, about on the same level as most of the individual hero films. There’s a lot to like. But given the expectations that have been heaped onto Captain Marvel as the first Marvel movie with a woman in the title role (the Wasp had to share hers), I hope that’s enough. There are those who will consider anything less than perfection to be a failure. They’re wrong. Captain Marvel is a solid mid-range Marvel movie; if you like them, you’ll like this.
Since I haven’t seen the movie yet (scheduled to see it Sunday night), I can’t really comment on it. I am curious, though, to see if I’ll agree with your assessment of the paradigm-shifty nature of this one.
And since you mentioned Moana in that context, which is a fun movie, I have to say I think Brave (from 2012) is also a good example of what you’re talking about (and, just as an aside, I still think both it, and Moana for that matter, are far superior to Frozen at so many levels).
I’ll probably be back with more thoughts after Sunday…
O.k. I’m back; saw the movie last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. And I agree with all of your main points.
I’ll just add that the subtext to the presentation of the Kree-Skrull conflict – related to your point about it carrying “more resonance in the current climate” and underscored by that one Kree making the ‘shithole’ comment – could be the subject of an entirely separate discussion.
I thought it was ok. Larson was great. I think it is most hurt by taking place in the past and falling into the trap that Rogue One and Solo fell into where they over explain the origin of little things.
We also don’t really get a good explanation of the Kree or their real motivation. And why do either the Kree or the Skrulls need a faster than light engine when they seem to be warping from planet to planet just fine the way it is?
In my brain, “lightspeed” is more of a brand than a description. I think it’s supposed to provide interstellar travel without using the jump gates or whatever they were called in previous movies.
I watched it last night, and enjoyed it a lot. I had slightly lower expectations because of some middling reviews, and I liked it more because of it. I would put in the top third of Marvel movies.
Two points:
1) the pre-discussion sucked a lot of fun out of it. Trolls managed to catch way too much spotlight, and it’s tiresome, and it makes the movie become more than it is. All these dudes who cry that politics ruins everything are the ones ruining things for me.
2) in the theater, nobody cares about the trolls. I made a point to take my daughter opening weekend. She likes the Marvel movies, but she really wants to see kick butt women (she’s down with Wonder Woman and Rey too). The moment the credits started, she turned to me and said, “I’ve just decided Captain Marvel is my favorite Marvel character.” I liked the movie already, but if she feels that way, then power to Marvel for producing work that lights her up. Ant-Man is for me, Doctor Strange wasn’t really for either of us, and now she has Captain Marvel.
I’m really glad she could experience a movie like that at her age (10). These things can have a major impact.
I find myself agreeing with Glen Weldon’s review, at NPR. It’s a good film; but not a standout, beyond it starring a woman, as the central character. It’s pretty much a by-the-numbers Marvel Superhero Film; which is to say, it ticks off the boxes of their story structure, is well written (solid, not earthshattering), well acted (not gonna win awards but serves the story and entertains) and entertains you while you watch. Pretty much the same as their comics, on average. Nothing in the story makes it rise to classic, nor in the performances; but, it does the job its supposed to and keeps you involved in the film, for the duration.
Paradigm shift? I don’t know. I’m a 52 year old white male, with no children,; I’m not sure I’m the intended audience. I don’t find anything overly inspiring, for a young woman, other than featuring a kick-ass female hero. Is that enough? I didn’t really find Wonder Woman that inspiring, tough thought it did a far better job at capturing the hero aspect than a large chunk of the Marvel films (but kind off went off the rails for the climax, story-wise). I don’t find it bad; just average Marvel.
There are good scenes and good chemistry; but, where I think it succeeds most is in Carol’s rapport with little Monica Rambeau (the future Photon?) Those are great scenes and it would be great, in a future film, to see the adult Monica interact with Carol and see how their relationship helped shape her.
The interplay with Fury is generally pretty good, though some of it feels like they are trying too hard. The cat is great, speaking as the human of a cat (you are always their human; they are not your cat).
To put it in comic terms, this is 80s Marvel, to me: solid foundation, formulaic storytelling, consistent presentation, pretty much the same experience as the rest of the line. It is not 70s Marvel, where creative people were taking real chances, doing something different and bold, even if it meant burning out quickly. Black Panther was more of that 70s Marvel (starting with adapting a 70s BP story); but I think it will take a sequel that tries harder to move captain Marvel into that territory.
I do think, based on trailers, it will be remembered far better than the other Captain Marvel’s film will be, though only old farts like me will know there is another Captain Marvel film, featuring a character who beat all the rest to the silver screen (beating the first Fleischer Superman cartoon to theaters by 6 months). I do have to say, though, I found Agent Carter to be a more empowering and engaging character.
To me, the paradigm-shift is that Marvel is now overtly making films that are targeted at audiences distinctly different than they have in the past. Making a movie that women like is different from making a movie specifically for women. The same thing was illustrated by Black Panther; if you thought the Martin Freeman character was underdeveloped, just recognize that he was playing the role usually played by the black guy. White guys are going to have to accept that we are no longer at the center of every story, even in genres that are supposed to be aimed at us. And that’s fine, if we get our egos out of the way.
I finally saw the movie 3/28.
I will admit I was going in with a high amount of skepticism and reservations. The trailers were leading me in a negative direction. The arguments against the film were also seemingly leading in the direction I was afraid it was going to go. Even your review, Pat, lead me to think that the screenwriters screwed the pooch on this.
Blessedly, my concerns and fears were addressed, and not just addressed well, but almost perfectly. The only thing “missing” from this movie is that they didn’t acknowledge the original military specialty in military intelligence that Carol had been in the original canon, which I think should have been addressed in some fashion. (Fury could have figured it out by back checking her and then giving her an official SHIELD status before she left earth, for example, or Yon-Rogg could have said her military intelligence background makes her too important to just kill off and that they need to keep her alive until they’ve figured out everything she knows about the Kree / Skrulls before she lost her memory.) But even with that said, I do understand why they chose to leave the specificity of that out either by design or via editing, and there’s certainly nothing to throw a tantrum about just because it’s not there. (It can be readily addressed in AVENGERS ENDGAME by showing her SHIELD clearance then, or not. But I do hope they do correctly acknowledge it at some point, because I think it would be a shame to throw that element of her history away.)
I cannot understand how some people are pissed because they gender-changed a certain character in the movie, because A) Marvel’s been race changing and age-changing their characters in other films right along, so to get mad about a gender change in this film is really just beating a dead horse – yeah we get it, you hate it whenever they make ANY change to the characters; and B) Unlike some of those other characters being changed, this change actually has a validity to it that serves the plot of the story as well as the thematic structure of the film. So if someone’s bitching about THAT specific character, I’d say they’re just being an ass on two fronts.
Overall, the movie was solid and much, MUCH better than I had anticipated. I wouldn’t say it’s the best Marvel movie, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I have the majority of “Phase III” Marvel films (still prefer Dr. Strange, but that’s just me).