Review: Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel (2019)

Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck

Starring Brie Larson & Samuel L. Jackson

Marvel Studios

To determine whether something has failed or succeeded, one must first know what it sets out to do. Right off the bat, Captain Marvel has a lot of burden on its shoulder. It has to set up Avengers: Endgame—coming this April—for being its predecessor; being the first Captain Marvel movie, it has to establish the title character’s origin story; and being the first female-led Marvel movie, it has to prove that Marvel can handle female-led movies that correspond to today’s climate. Furthermore, it also needs to be successful enough to be the foundation on why future female-led movies should be greenlit (even though this argument has become really stale as it has been proven time and time again that they do make money). With this many… “agendas”, as people are calling it, I guess, it would be impressive if the movie can even come out good and whole. I am not saying we should give a leeway to Captain Marvel, but we definitely should acknowledge what kind of shoes the people behind it are trying to fill and take it into account. So, how is Captain Marvel?

With many superhero movies coming out during the last decade, origin story has become somewhat of a what-else-is-new kind of deal, especially as the general audience become more affluent in their knowledge of comic books than they ever did before. Spiderman: Homecoming just right out ditch the origin story as that whole spiel with Uncle Ben had been embedded in the audience’s collective mind due to it having been presented in so many iterations (two different franchises in under 10 years!). Patty Jenkin’s Wonder Women spent maybe 15 minutes for its origin story and then immediately jump into the action. This did those movies some good as there is no more useless fat that the viewers have to chew on before they can enjoy the nutritious part of the meal. Captain Marvel, however, interestingly decides to be an anomaly and has its entire first two acts be a set up—yes, a set up—to an origin story. This choice is a good one, though, as it is a fitting tool to serve its other purpose.

Vers (Oscar winner Brie Larson) is a Kree soldier who is part of the elite Starforce Military led by Yon-Rogg (Jud Law), her Obi Wan Kenobi figure who also trains her in combat. Vers keeps having this dream from the life she believes she previously led. Yes, she has this some sort of amnesia and cannot remember anything before she arrived on Hala, the planet of the Krees. While fighting the Skrulls, an alien race capable of shape shifting, Vers gets sent to earth and is slowly able to piece who she was as her experience there triggers some old memories. Spoiler alert: in the end, we discover that she is Carol Denvers, an Air Force pilot who was involved in a crash with her mentor Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening) and got blasted with the energy-core of the light-speed engine Lawson and her was piloting on. This blast is what gave her amnesia, but it also gave her the Captain Marvel powers, so Yon-Rogg actually brought her to Hala to keep her in check.

Through its Jason Bourne plot and heavy use of flashbacks, Captain Marvel, above all else, is a story of someone searching and discovering their true self. It is a popular trope. It can be tired, but paired with what the movie is trying to accomplish, in this case, it is very effective. Many women have been defined by things outside of themselves: cultural stigma, mass media, men, and so on. So, to have a story of a woman breaking through that and taking back her own agency by defining her own self through self-searching is empowering and corresponds to today’s climate—which, as I have mentioned, is that other purpose the movie is trying to serve. Therefore, you can see how this movie should be an origin story because origin story is a story of self-discovery.

However, I could not help but feel iffy about its handling of female empowerment. I just feel that there is this underlying ingenuity to it. Amanda from this podcast I just recently listened on Spotify called The Big Picture explained it best: it feels like a response rather than something that stands on its own. Let me elaborate. The truth is that Marvel has been criticized heavily for not having a female-led superhero movie despite it not having a problem churning out male-led superhero movies every year since its first establishment with Iron Man back in 2008. Interaction is statement and response, and response is fulfilling what statement is asking, so instead of genuinely wanting to make a female-empowerment movie on its own, Marvel is doing it because it wanted to fulfill what those who criticize want. Furthermore, when you want to fulfill, you compensate, so you might do stuff for the sake of it, like say, in this case, making “the other” as a way to truly showcase which side you are on.

Carol’s empowerment does not feel very inclusive and therefore, also not that empowering. Her rising up is a response to the way the men in her life treated her, starting from her childhood bully, her father, and then, Yon-Rogg. Even though it might ring true to real life—like I have mentioned on the previous paragraph—because of the context of the production, it just ends up feeling like pandering. Compared to this movie, the female-empowerment aspect in Wonder Woman is more organic because it does not turn men into “the other”, and Diana Prince rises up because the situation calls her to. She is not who she is because she has something to prove to herself after she has been defined by men, she is who is because the Amazonian women taught her everything she knows. And that to me, just rubs better. I remember I cried, quite heavily, during the No Man’s Land sequence. To be fair, though, Wonder Woman does not have the burden that Captain Marvel has to carry.

Fortunately, for the ingenuity that I feel, Brie Larson rather saves it with her performance. There is just pure sincerity coming off her that pierces right through the screen. Carol Denvers always manage to have a strong core, and she is always true to herself, even when she does not know who that is. I previously and honestly was not that excited to watch Avengers: Endgame, but after seeing Captain Marvel and knowing that she is going to be there, I just want April to come faster.

In the end, despite my personal iffiness, Captain Marvel is, yes, a whole film. It might bite off more than it could chew, but it still swallowed. It came out very solid, and you would enjoy it. 7 stars from me.