Largely SPOILER-FREE as I can.
#CaptainMarvel
Directed by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
The bottom line: Generic superhero origin, period-appropriate stuff.
By generic I mean that I was neither underwhelmed nor was I overwhelmed. Just whelmed, if you ask Dick Grayson.
Marvel Studios’ first female-led superhero is by all accounts entertaining enough and packed with action enough to let it stand safely among the other films of the MCU. It may not be Avengers-level in scale, but it’s also not Ant-Man and the Wasp level of foolishness.
By period-appropriate, it is set (almost entirely) in the grunge-era of the ’90s and carries with it dyadic interaction common in shows that time, apart from being peppered with female-vocaled pop/alternative songs of the time. There’s also a lot of ’90s referenced jokes that were quite honestly not superfly.
I say that, too, because this is not entirely a message movie. Sure it plays a certain amount of the Woman card – needless to say that the film’s release in on Women’s Month – but it plays the gender politics safely which should keep the angry anti-SJW mob at bay. More on this later.
It couldn’t get even more 90s with a car chase in the streets of Los Angeles early in the film as Kree-warrior Vers (Brie Larson) – freshly-landed on Earth – pursues shape-shifting enemy Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelson) leading up to that famous scene in the trailer where Vers dukes it out with an old woman inside a Metro car. Yes that action set piece was good – but each time a 90s soundtrack would kick in, I kept waiting for the Guardian Gamora to suddenly appear on screen and high-five with Vers. It really felt like the songs were done to mask the absence of a truly memorable thematic score for our protagonist.
Brie Larson is fantastic here, taking the emotional journey of a proud warrior-turned-inspiring superhero with care and a level of honesty. It’s a joy to see her one moment confidently striding – dare I say it, cocky-ly – inside that train car looking for Talos, and later on sharing quiet moments with Agent Fury (a de-aged Samuel L. Jackson) and her loved ones on Earth.
Which brings me to my final few points.
For a film that carries the woman card up its sleeves, the filmmakers (and the Studio) play it along in safe terms. Sure, it has the empowerment message within its DNA, but the message meant to inspire young women is just one of the many iterations of “finding the best version of yourself” in other female-led films of late as a consequence of #metoo. Yes it is appropriate given these times, but by staying safely on the ground in respect of (or fear of backlash from?) the MCU’s core fans, it feels like there has been missed opportunity here.
This is more pronounced in the film’s climax (which can be seen in the trailer) where Vers/Carol Danvers is shown in a montage of herself in various ages of her life literally “standing up” to the male naysayers that have kept her from achieving her truest potentials.
Sadly, at no point in the film is there an iconic image or a scene (the standing up is closest) to represent this key identity that sets Carol Danvers apart. Mine the trailers, the clips and the marketing images online and freeze any frame and tell me which one says that that is uniquely Carol Danvers/ Captain Marvel and no one else – no other superhero – has that representation.
Like it or not, Marvel’s first female superhero film will receive comparisons with its DC counterpart released two years ago. But my search for an iconic image in Captain Marvel is not merely a search for the Marvel version of No Man’s Land. The reason I am merely whelmed is because I find some lacking on the directing duo’s vision (visions?) We don’t have to go searching far from the MCU for moments like these. Captain America’s barefoot chase scene is very memorable. Each time Thor reaches out for Mjolnir is memorable. I was kind of searching for that here throughout the film because she deserves it.
I don’t know how this origin story stays close to the comic books. On paper, Danvers may be one of the most powerful beings in the universe. I didn’t see that, most especially with how or where she got her powers from.
Here we have a superhero that carries the name of the studio itself, and yet there is no moment apart from that accidental power that tells me unequivocally that Danvers is unique, that she is the only one who deserves to carry the name.
Pure luck, perhaps? Hopefully I’m wrong.
Images and trailer link courtesy of #Marvel Studios.
acid reflects 
Leave a comment