Happy Women’s History Month! Marvel’s first woman-led superhero movie along with its first female director Anna Boden, officially arrives in theaters tomorrow March 8th. I was invited to a pre-screening of Marvel’s latest superhero movie ‘Captain Marvel’ on Tuesday. I’ll start by saying that the theater wasn’t toying with the idea of spoilers or leaks of any kind, so they took our phones! They took our phones, bagged them and returned them when the movie was over. They asked us to share our experience on social media, but I don’t think they actually thought that request through.
Captain Marvel is a woman, and she bleeds blue…or does she? I love the MCU, and all their latest superhero releases, so of course I was looking forward to seeing Captain Marvel before its official release date. I won’t front, I did not grow up reading the comics, and I didn’t know much about Captain Marvel prior to the pager scene in Avengers: Infinity War. So, I did my Googles and familiarized myself with the character.
First; Captain Marvel was not always a woman! In fact, Carol Danvers is the 7th iteration of the character and the 3rd as a woman. In the movie, which ultimately serves as a prequel to all MCU movies released thus far; she is a retired Fighter Pilot looking for answers after finding herself on Earth. We are introduced to Captain Marvel under the name ‘Vers’; a member of the elite Starforce as she is known on the planet Kree. She crash lands on Earth somewhere in the 1990s (presumably 1995 indicated by the movie cut-outs in the Blockbuster store she falls into and the music chosen for the score). Blink and you will miss when the “Skrulls” follow her to Earth and the fighting begins. The “Skrulls” are shapeshifters who remind me a lot of the aliens in the late 80’s television series ‘Alien Nation’. With the help of Nick Fury, her best friend and fellow retired Fighter Pilot (Maria Rambeau), and Goose the cat, Danvers is on a mission to figure out her past and find out what happened to her mentor Lawson, and her life’s work.
It is continuously repeated that she (Danvers)needs to learn to control her emotions by Yon-Rogg (played by Jude Law); her mentor on the planet Kree. Another refrain is ‘What’s given can be taken away’ which I guess can be a bit of foreshadowing. What was missing from this movie was the level of humor present in other Marvel movies, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. The chemistry between Marvel and Fury is heavily carried and dependent upon Samuel Jackson. Also, Goose the Cat is undeniably the star of the movie, don’t debate me. Marvel Studios had a wonderful opportunity as they did with Black Panther when it was released during Black History Month, and they seemingly dropped the ball here. Captain Marvel is played by a woman, led by a woman, and co-directed by a woman. The overarching theme is buck the system, girls can do it better, and you’re not the boss of me; but another theme consistently presented was that women are overly emotional and have to be told/rescued by men in order to manage those emotions. The level of emotion that Vers/Danvers/Marvel depicts would never be attributed to any previous male-led Marvel offering. The potential of this movie was endless, and it fell flat. I hope this was just a precursor to the role that she will play in the upcoming Avengers movie; although, it would be an absolute waste of this effort not to develop her, only to build her up with an ensemble at a later time.
The movie was not completely unbearable, but this isn’t one that I’ll likely see more than once. We are women, hear us roar, or in the case of Captain Marvel, hear her ‘meow’. Lastly, there are 2 post-credit scenes., so make sure to sit through ALL the credits. You’re welcome.
T.Nicole