Effectively Feminine: A Marvelous Benchmark
Listen, I've had my say. As a fanboy initially on board with all this comic book movie nonsense, I've spent more than the last decade overwhelmed, underwhelmed and just plain whelmed with these films' inability to expand as a franchise with no genuine consequence or lasting purpose. But I'll admit when I was wrong. Or that perhaps I just prefer when the more standalone movies feel like more than just a movie. At this point I'll take Black Panther over Avengers: Infinity War, despite my blind love for Guardians of the Galaxy over literally everything else.
With Captain Marvel being LITERALLY the 21st film in the canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or MCU for nerds, heheh), after eleven years it's easy to walk into the movie with watered down expectations, as there could seemingly be NO possible way at this point for this behemoth of an extended film franchise to deliver anything new, exciting, surprising or even close to par with the MCU's greatest hits. Besting the likes of Iron Man and Captain America parading Avengers movies as mega-hits both critically and financially (Hey, look at those Infinity War numbers!). 2018 proved the "nothing new to the table" theory just outright wrong with the culturally groundbreaking and Oscar-observed Black Panther, despite the outcry from ignorant
In this progressive age, obviously President of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige wanted to reveal a few tricks up his sleeve beyond these silly comic book vehicles being driven by more than just white males, and furthermore proving that his pony can do more than one trick, by shifting the spotlight from people of color to...
*BUM BUM BUMMMM*
WOMEN!!!
(EVEN BLACK WOMEN)
*Cue the screams of triggered right-wing white men, everywhere*
Which brings us to 2019's Captain Marvel, a film which, save for all the peer-pressure of being the big lead-up to the takedown of Thanos in next month's Avengers: Endgame (in which ALL the bad things will be inevitably reversed, so we already know how it ends), is a film that was decently marketed, yet never gave inkling that it was going to live up to a powerful-enough hero or story, to prove worthwhile in the grand scheme of the Marvel benchmarks...
Wrong, again.
As if box office numbers weren't happy enough to report (although Marvel movies making money is all but relevant in 2019), Captain Marvel is bar none one of the best things to come out of the MCU, and perhaps one of the better comic book movies ever made.
NO, YOU RETORT WITH?
FIRST OF ALL: Bodacious Brie Larson
Total babe
SECONDLY: The writing (okay, and the directing)
GIVE IT UP FOR THE LADIES
Writer-director Anna Boden is not getting enough love for this movie, straight up. With indie darlings like Half Nelson and It's Kind of a Funny Story under her belt, Boden has proved herself an extremely talented filmmaker, but putting her in the hot seat for a comic book movie (let alone an inevitable Blockbuster), was a HUGE gamble, as dudes like Colin Trevorrow and Josh Trank were removed from upcoming
Ron Howard: It wasn't.
Before anything else, Boden's script for Captain Marvel is one to behold. With a killer sci-fi first act (which bleeds into Guardians territory just enough to be Easter-egg worthy -- Hey look, it's Djimon Hounsou!), it's the 90s-driven middle act (and the pop-culture-ridden prequel to The Avengers) which allows the film to transform, like our hero, from sweet and simple to significant and downright superb. The film's writing is crucial as Boden essentially molds nearly every single cliche and expectation from the MCU workflow (the formula) and flips them upside-down.
*This is where things are gonna start getting spoilery... Just FYI.*
There's a sort of tiresome pride in script expectations, especially when it comes to comic book movies (even MORE SO when it comes to the MCU). After watching enough movies, one can't help but pick up on all the predictable tropes, even the ones that are designed to surprise audiences with character ulterior motive, or flip-flop in motivation. Comic book movies have evolved aggressively so, in even just the last five years, and therefore filmmakers must invigorate new ways to not just pull the rug from under the audience's feet, but to design fresh stories or reinvent old ones enough to allow moviegoers to be wowed all over again, because when you're a cinephile (doubly so if you're a nerd), you've seen nearly ALL of a film's inner-workings before. This is why folks get heat when they declare Wonder Woman as little more than a retread of Captain America: The First Avenger, down to the WWII-plotting, and villainous twists. Sure, the film is important in signifying girl power in such a progressive time, but the lazy writing mechanisms are still valid.
This is why Anna Boden's writing in Captain Marvel is essential to building a well structured story that transforms Carol's character. In the beginning of the film our hero wakes up as a soldier named VERS of the intergalactic Kree military, taking orders from a chiseled, demanding Jude Law (Commander Yon-Rogg for those keeping score) who brainwashes her that her dreams of a past life are a lie, and that the extraterrestrial warriors they oppose, the Skrulls (LITERAL green men) are a threat to their race. By the end of the film, she realizes she's just a simple Earth pilot named Carol, who literally had greatness thrust upon her, in realizing that the Skrulls are actually a peaceful race and her once-trusted Kree soldiers are the enemy. Sure the good-guy bad-guy flip-flop isn't by any means a new trope in cinema (let alone comic book movies), but the upside-down expectations throw Carol/VERS through a ringer, because by the third act she STILL doesn't know her own identity, let alone her own goddamned name!
Though to be fair, it'd be kinda hard to NOT trust Jude Law.
To undercut Anna Boden's writing would be savagery, because she goes against the grain with nearly ALL audience expectation. Boden essentially boils a half-baked comic book plot into a standard (but exciting) sci-fi first act a la Guardians of the Galaxy, develops one of the most delightful second acts of nearly any MCU entry (yeah, the spy-movie/buddy-cop-comedy between Larson and a frighteningly realistic young Sam Jackson), and unlike many Marvel movies past she delivers one of the most character-driven, genuinely kick-ass finales of any film of the MCU thus far.
Not unlike The Last Jedi, Captain Marvel, as a screenplay before anything else, flip-flops tropes and cliches, but more importantly, uses them as a means to drive Carol into not just a well carved out character, but as an independent and powerful woman, BECAUSE:
THIRDLY: Girl Power (and 90s references!)
Once Carol and Fury make their way to Louisiana to hide out at the home of Carol's old partner/BFF Maria (underrated tough lady Lashana Lynch), the film comes to a screeching halt. Not in a bad way, but in an exposition "this is where the truth comes out" kinda way, where we see Skrull scientist Ben Mendelsohn sitting at the kitchen table explaining he's a real family man, while in a rubber green suit. Ignorant fans may declare this as "the boring part" but it's also the most essential section of the film. Aside from the motivation flip-flop, from this moment on (not coincidentally once Carol remembers her past), Danvers embraces the identity of her once-fallen Air Force mentor, the human Dr. Wendy Lawson (an impossibly charming Annette Bening), who's ACTUALLY revealed to be the intergalactic Kree alien, dubbed MAR-VELL (*GASP*), and dons the traditional Kree uniform into a transformed red-white-and-blue uniform, via an overly precious moment between Aunt Carol and her 11-year-old "niece." But it's once Carol becomes "Captain Marvel" that she (and the film) make due with the much-needed ass-kicking.
Carol fights her way through her once trusted Kree army, because they oppose a threat to the Skrull species in finding a peaceful home. On paper, that sounds hella boring, but by the time we reach Act 3, and Brie Larson starts flying (and she's on fire), none of the absurdity matters because by this point (nearly 90 minutes in) Boden has already conditioned us to think we were watching a more traditional (and more predictable) Marvel movie [SEE: "SECONDLY"]. But it's that third act which boosts Carol from the girl who can simply make fire with her fists, to an unstoppable bad bitch, or as the kids would say a strong independent woman who don't need no man.
I mean. Yeah, she seems to be doing just fine all by herself by this point.
Danvers is already introduced to the film as a strong character, but her motivation is skewed; her identity clouded. Once the third act rolls around and she embodies her powers, she embraces her sense of who she is, but more importantly who she wants to be, and she WANTS to be the fighter that never quits. This is entirely capsulated by the montage of Carol's flashbacks, where she's constantly disappointing the men in her life, be it her father or her Air Force sergeants, but Boden shows the character literally standing back up no matter how rough the going gets. Sure, it's a been-there-dun-that trope, but it's effective AF in Carol's journey of morphing into a powerful individual on her own two feet, even before she starts flying around with flame-fists.
And THIS is why her stand-off with Yon-Rogg (Law) is such a worthwhile payoff, because as her former commander ("the tough guy"), he's testing her abilities as a warrior and she LITERALLY says "I have nothing to prove to you." As if that's not enough of an F-U to the dominant male character, it's even MORE so Boden's middle finger to audience expectation in this macho age of buff white dudes saving the world in every goddamned comic book movie. Perhaps that's a bit too "progressive" to assume of Boden, but it's impossible to ignore that Danvers' entirely independent motivation of the third act is more powerful than nearly ANY character transformation in a comic book movie, in recent memory.
Second most powerful transformation**
To boot, the 90s references deliver on so much more than pop-culture winks for us flannel-wearing, ripped-jean nostalgia junkies. Just look at the damn soundtrack. Save for an excellently staged "Come As You Are" moment in Danvers embracing her independence in what appears to be a literal Nirvana), nearly every 90s alternative track in the film is led by a female singer. Sure that may not add to the story, but hearing the music of Garbage, Heart and TLC only boosts the strong and effectively feminine persona of what feels like what could have been a macho Marvel movie. One may not realize they needed a scene where Brie Larson is hurling a Space Invaders pinball machine at a group of aliens, staged to No Doubt's "Just A Girl" in their life, but it's promised to be one of the most genuinely uplifting moments ever in a comic book movie, fitting snug right into the lifestyle of Peter Quill doing disco moves to Redbone's "Come And Get Your Love."
FINALLY: The little things
(Or big depending on how you view it)
In a post Infinity War world, with all the dramatics of Thanos, 60+ characters from nearly 20 movies, and so much plot-heavy action that can't be appreciated unless one has watched those nearly 20 movies, it's nice to see a picture slow things down and take the time to develop the seemingly insignificant pieces which make up a standalone and much more significant picture. Much like Black Panther, Captain Marvel stands very much so on its own two feet without the tie-ins to any of the Infinity-nonsense, and YET it acts very much so as a prequel to The Avengers, if not a basis for SHIELD (Hello again, Clark Gregg!), while serving enough Tesseract-Easter-Eggs to keep fans giddy.
Save for the astronomical chemistry between Larson and Jackson, the film focuses so much on its characters that it can be appreciated as its own thing (though personally, I wouldn't mind an entire buddy-cop movie featuring just Carol and Fury). The film is a welcoming reminder that Sam Jackson is such a charming actor as this is easily the most fleshed out, and best version of Nick Fury to date. Jackson genuinely sells the man before the battles, getting down to the nitty-gritty, even down to the way Fury loses an eye which, in the grand scheme of things, is MUCH more comical that it involves the scratching of a cuddly, orange cat than the likes of the dramatic war being fought.
SPEAKING of a one cuddly orange cat, the fact that Goose was secretly the piranha-plant from Jumanji was SUCH a genuinely comical payoff to all the aliens being afraid of him as a deadly Flurkin. Props to Boden taking a running joke and actually delivering on the punch line.
There's not much else to say, folks. Fans are already getting their panties in a bunch in response to the film's critical praise (or God forbid feminine nature), but this is a worthwhile occasion for cinema. If Wonder Woman opened the door for dominant women in comic book movies, Captain Marvel is kicking the doors down. This is more than just an important film for women (though it is exactly that). It's driving home the proper messages in a way that's not corny, cheap or beating the audience over the head with tropes. It's also a welcoming spotlight for Brie Larson, another reason to give Anna Boden work, and just a damn-fine film. Is Captain Marvel a worthy enough character to go toe-to-toe with Thanos? It doesn't matter, Marvel stepped up their game and made a dope-ass independent picture for women, comic book fans and moviegoers everywhere.
NOW GIVE US A DAMN LETHAL WEAPON SPINOFF, ALREADY
