I had a little bit of
trepidation about going to see Captain
Marvel, let alone reviewing it, not because of the movie itself but rather
the baggage it comes with. See, Captain Marvel
has become the latest battleground in the ongoing cyber war between Internet misogynists
who are salty that women are enjoying nerdy things too and feminists who are
overpraising something because they’ve been and still are so underrepresented
in that field. It happened to Ghostbusters,
it happened to Wonder
Woman, it happened to The
Last Jedi, and now the knives are finally out for Marvel, this time in
the form of Rotten Tomatoes’ audience score getting downvoted en masse and hit
pieces against Brie Larson for having the audacity to suggest that there should
be more diversity in film criticism. I always feel like I’m walking on
eggshells whenever this happens, especially after I got a rather disheartening
response to my Wonder Woman
review. But I’ve since accepted that I can’t call myself a critic if I’m
willing to compromise my integrity out of fear of offending someone, and that I
should be honest with myself first if I want to be honest with my readers.
Which is basically a
long-winded way of saying that I think Captain
Marvel is just an okay movie, but acknowledge that her presence means a lot
for women and girls everywhere and that my meaningless musings shouldn’t subtract
from that.
Our story follows Carol
Danvers (Brie Larson), a US Air Force pilot who fights for the Kree, a galactic
empire waging a war against a shapeshifting alien race called the Skrull. She
has no memory of anything beyond the last six years of her life and
inexplicably has the ability to fire energy blasts from her hands. After getting
captured by enemy forces and having her memories probed, she escapes and crash lands
on Earth circa 1995 and finds traces of her newly unearthed memories,
concluding that she must be from Earth. Teaming up with SHIELD agent Nick Fury
(Samuel L. Jackson), she must fight off the Skrull, wait for reinforcements and
discover the truth of who she really is.
Even if divorced from all the
baggage, Captain Marvel feels like a
movie that coasts on its laurels. It has all the trappings one would expect
from a Marvel movie at this point, both the good (stellar casting, funny
dialogue, great character interaction, inspired superhero takes on various film
genres) and the bad (monotonous, CG-heavy, overly coordinated fight scenes, a boring score, a
one-note villain). Although it’s been billing itself in the advertising as this
massive barn burning girl power anthem simply by virtue of being the first film
in the MCU with a female lead, the final product isn’t nearly as ambitious as
the likes of Guardians
of the Galaxy, Thor:
Ragnarok, or Black
Panther. In truth, it’s more in line with some of the stage 1 origin
films: a cozy, mid-tier action blockbuster that’s at it’s best during the
quieter, character-driven moments. In terms of MCU origin films, it’s about on
par with the first Iron Man, the
first Thor and Doctor Strange.
Brie Larson does fine as
Carol, delivering a breadth of snarky dialogue in between heat blasts, but the
script falters a bit during her more solitary moments, and the dream sequences
where she’s being interrogated by the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Benning) really
could’ve benefited from having a James Gunn or a Taika Waititi behind the
camera. (Or more appropriately, a female director with the same visual flair. A
Lynne Ramsay, perhaps?) When she and the rest of the cast shine is in the
chemistry between other characters, particularly during Nick Fury, her
commanding Kree officer Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), her Skrull adversary Talos (Ben
Mendolsohn) who steals the show every time he’s on camera, and especially her
old wingwoman Maria (Lashana Lynch), the latter of which deserved way more
screen time. It’s unsurprising that the film’s best moments play out more like
a downbeat Sundance indie darling considering that’s the field that writer/director
team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck came from.
Aside from being the first
female lead film in the MCU, it’s also the first prequel since the original Captain America, and a lot of its most
excruciating shortcomings come with the territory of simply being a prequel. There’s
a big twist in the second act that completely upends Carol’s whole journey and makes her and us question who we’ve been fighting for this whole time, but if
you’ve been paying close attention or recognize certain characters who showed
up in previous movies, then it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. The final
showdown also gets dull after Carol unlocks her full power set, becomes
ridiculously overpowered and started tearing through entire armies like tissue
paper. There’s also been some hullabaloo about this being a 90’s period piece, but
aside from a few notable examples (Carol crashing into a Blockbuster, an
alt-rock soundtrack, and a running gag about slow Internet connections), it doesn’t
distract from the main story. As far as throwbacks go, it’s more Stranger Things than Ready Player One.
But a funny thing happened as
I sat there watching. As expected, there were plenty of women and girls at the theater;
just in my periphery, there was a trio of girlfriends in front of me, a mother
and daughter behind me, and another group of girlfriends down the row. While I
was underwhelmed by the big fight scene, there were cheers all around. There
was a similar reaction to a supercut of Carol falling down and getting back up
at different stages in her life that I’m sure will become a symbol of empowerment
for some of those younger viewers. Captain
Marvel didn’t leave much of an impact on me, but the impact she left on those around
me was palpable. While this was just an appetizer for me, that shouldn’t deter
anyone who might get their fill from this.
7/10
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