Captain Marvel is essentially a “Phase One” MCU film. That’s not a bad thing! The original dose of pre-Avengers movies hit doubles more often than they hit home runs, but each was enjoyable on its own terms and managed to nicely establish its main character. The journeys in these introductory films are clearly meant to be personal ones, as much about a hero becoming who they’re meant to be as they are about defeating some forgettable bad guy. That’s certainly true for Captain Marvel, where the nominally cataclysmic stakes (already diminished by the period setting) take a backseat to the audience getting to know this new character and her path to self-actualization.
And yet, it’s hard not to be a little disappointed in how staid the formula feels here. Over the past few years, Marvel has given us character introductions in the way of Black Panther, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and even the fine-but-not-great Doctor Strange that offered something a little different, a little more striking than the old standard. Captain Marvel is a solid and entertaining rendition of the Phase One form, but it’s tough not to wish for something that broke the mold a little bit more.
Then again, maybe it’s enough that the MCU is breaking a different mold here, one that it took Marvel Studios twenty installments to crack. Captain Marvel is the MCU’s first female-led solo flick and self-conscious of that fact. The movie is unabashed about spotlighting the specific challenges faced by its title character because of her gender. And it carries a laudable message about embracing the emotion and inner strength that women are otherwise encouraged to quell because it’s not expected of or embraced in them. To their credit, directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck didn’t just make a superhero movie starring a woman; they made one about being a woman (who also happens to be a superhero).
The problem is that the film’s rendition of these ideas is often heavy-handed and cliché. I’m not averse to the notion that important lessons need to be shouted for the people in the back. But the bluntness of the “powers as emotions” metaphor, montages of stock sexism, and lines like “I have nothing to prove to you” lay it all on very thick. In an age where certain viewers walked away from Black Panther thinking it was somehow an endorsement of the current U.S. administration, perhaps films need to be this direct to make their points understood. But the foregrounding and trite delivery of that message lessened its impact.
***Caution: the remainder of this review contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Captain Marvel.***
"Anyone know where you can find a good moisturizer on this planet?"
But there’s plenty that the film does well. For one thing, it features an outstanding twist, where the squared-jawed, slick-looking heroes turn out to be the bad guys, and the orc-looking, shape-shifting scoundrels turn out to be sympathetic refugees. There’s a solid dose of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s influence on Captain Marvel, but no more so than when the chosen one and her pals have casual, even jokey conversations with prosthetics-covered monsters who have more depth and character than their first impressions might suggest. Ben Mendelsohn, who plays the main Skrull, emotes through his rubber appliances with endearing aplomb, and the reorienting of the game board that comes from his character’s reveals is one of the film’s strongest choices.
I just wish we saw more of an impact from that twist on Captain Marvel herself. Despite the fact this epiphany changes which side of the fight the title character is on, the movie doesn’t linger on that for very long, or give us much time to see our protagonist processing it. Instead, it’s just sort of a given that she feels swayed and betrayed and the movie jaunts off to Captain Marvel and her allies striking back. For such a devastating reveal, caked in lies that Carol Danvers had been catching onto already, I wished we’d had more time to see the protagonist dealing with it rather than the film just dashing off into the next set piece.
But, by and large, they’re good set pieces! The third act CGI-palooza becomes too much at times, with some odd Super Saiyan-y choices for Captain Marvel herself and the perfunctory, stakes-lowering presence of the villain from Guardians 1. But a series of cat and mouse chases through the stacks of a military facility, an inventive subway skirmish, and a handcuffed throwdown with the Skrulls all have some nice verve and character moments in them. Like all of the cosmic-set Marvel movies, you lose a little punch (figuratively, definitely not literally) when the setting makes things seem a bit too unreal, but there’s plenty of high points to enjoy.
It’s also easy to like to the dynamic between Captain Marvel and her unlikely allies. The aforementioned human/Skrull friendship is an unexpected source of warmth in the film. It’s Carol’s relationship with her forgotten friend Maria and her daughter Monica (a.k.a. Lieutenant Trouble, a downright adorable nickname), however, which gives the film its heart. The strength of that friendship (and Lashana Lynch’s performance) adds the emotional ballast that helps ground Captain Marvel’s wrong-side epiphany and bring her back to Earth. Even the furry presence of Goose the cat adds some levity and surprise to the movie.
"Can we go someplace else? I've had some bad luck in diners in the 90s."
But the gold standard for the film comes from the quick camaraderie between Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. A Captain Marvel movie should rightfully have snootfuls of cosmic chicanery. But as much as I enjoy some good intergalactic intrigue, this one left me wishing we had more of the outstanding buddy cop movie starring Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson that took up the middle portion of the film. Their dynamic is the best thing in Captain Marvel and manages to humanize both characters in the midst of these otherwise world-shaking, life-changing events.
Captain Marvel also does well with its 1990s period setting, and other bits of texture. Its contemporary top 40 song cues are all enjoyable and, while that approach has become more typical, there’s still some novelty to them as the soundtrack for a superhero film. There’s a few moments in the movie that come off a little cheesy — like the “here’s why my suit is this color” or “here’s how we named The Avengers” bits that seem awfully close to something out of Disney stablemate Solo: A Star Wars Story. But by and large, the movie is good at parceling out the inevitable superhero origin story details judiciously and mixing them with humor and more particular character beats.
The film just doesn’t do much to subvert or change up the Marvel intro movie formula that had seemed, given recent output, to be more a thing of 2009 than 2019 (or 1995 for that matter). Captain Marvel is thoroughly enjoyable, with a neat twist, a strong central pairing, and a commendable message. It just can’t quite transcend its “self-realization + punching” roots to become more than another link in the great MCU chain. But if this formula is still in play, if it remains Marvel’s preferred method of establishing a new pillar for its uber-franchise, then I’m still glad to finally see it used on a different sort of Captain.
