11 Mar NERDY FOR THIRTY #21: CAPTAIN MARVEL

CAPTAIN MARVEL

dir. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn

BLUF: Meh. Super, hardcore, extreme meh.

When the MCU was firing on all cylinders, every movie was an event leading up to something incredible. Infinity War was that something, and based on its ending, it left everyone in a cliffhanger frenzy, wanting to know what happened to half the universe. Two movies were released in between IW and Endgame: Ant-Man 2 and Captain Marvel. Ant-Man 2 was great—it happens concurrently to IW, is an avowed action-comedy, and was just…so fun. Captain Marvel was the answer to the IW post-credits scene, is an origin story, and takes place firmly in the 1990s. All these things were, in 2019, intriguing choices. In 2022, upon rewatching, they are all frustrating.

As an answer to the IW post-credits scene, only a fraction of a minute during Captain Marvel’s end-credits addresses the issue. You could argue that the whole movie sets up that scene, but…it was underwhelming, for reasons that will be touched on below. In retrospect, the level of secrecy surrounding Endgame should have logically implied that nothing notable would be given away. At the time, it was…an enticing tease for Endgame. Now, it’s meaningless, since Captain Marvel did not play a huge role in Endgame.

As far as origin stories go, Captain Marvel brings absolutely nothing interesting to the table aside from its inherently female-centric attitude towards the social norms of the 1990s. Marvel has done a magnificent job of elevating a ton of B- and C-tier heroes to the AAA-blockbuster arena, but the biggest challenge, by far, is that all of these relatively unknown heroes need some kind of explanation of where they come from, what their powers are, and what/how they are aligned, vis a vis good vs evil. Now that Phase 4 is over, and it was 50% origin stories for 10+ heroes (I don’t want to count how many Eternals introduced), going back and watching origin stories for Phase 3 is just brutal. My general rule, at the moment, is that unless you can tell the story in a unique way, or there is something truly interesting about the origin of their powers, I just don’t care very much anymore. And Captain Marvel breaks no new ground whatsoever. At least Doctor Strange had some truly epic visual effects and relied on the balance of science and mysticism to thematically explain his origins. But Captain Marvel is just…bland.

Lastly, the movie takes place in the 90s, which is not a bad thing, but post Infinity War, going back 30 years for an entire movie was a tease. Now that Phase 3 is long over, the 90s setting is less frustrating, except that the predominant feature of the 90s that the filmmakers chose to highlight was the anti-female sentiment that, I guess, every single person (but Nick Fury) was severely guilty of promulgating everywhere, all the time. Either taking it in, or dishing it out, Captain Marvel’s central focus was, by all accounts, to single-handedly bring a sense of justice to the stupid people of Earth. There was a lot more to the 90s that showing a Blockbuster and stealing motorcycles from misogynist men just doesn’t really capture. It reminded me of Wonder Woman 1984, which was objectively a much worst movie. WW84 was set in the 80s and couldn’t even conjure up an 80s soundtrack (pathetic). Again, Captain Marvel accomplished the minimum in that department, but I did not feel like I was in the 90s. At all. And those were my formative years, high school to college. The setting is largely squandered, with passing references assumed to be sufficient.

All in all, these were some of the milder offenses to this middling origin story. If you want to dig deeper, my biggest problem is with Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers as a character. It seems that the only weakness her character possessed was not realizing just how powerful she really was! This reminds me of job interviews and how dumb they are, like when I get asked “What would say is your biggest weakness?” and my answer is always some variation of “Well, my biggest weakness is I work TOO hard, and sometimes don’t know when to stop.” You see what I did there? You take your ‘weakness’ and frame it as a not-too-subtle strength that the business will benefit from. Same with Captain Marvel. Yes, she had mild amnesia (a tired trope, if ever there was one). And yes, lots of people said mean things to her. But the fact is that based on the power she acquired accidentally at the earliest chronological point in the movie, she was never in any danger whatsoever. And when she realizes how powerful she is, there is absolutely no curb placed on this power, making it near-omniscient and, hence, boring. I often hear similar complaints about Superman, especially as his powers have increased over the decades. But Superman is often challenged intellectually or by beings that actually have other advantages over him, such as magic or kryptonian technology.

Captain Marvel has no apparent weaknesses, so the only real triumph she finds in the movie is to put the mean people in their place at the end. And while satisfying, this proved so problematic that she was almost entirely sidelined in Endgame. When she does show up, she single-handedly destroys Thanos’ fleet, beats his ass a little, but gets thrown aside at just the right moment for Thanos to nearly win. It is painfully obvious that the Russo brothers had no idea what to do with an MCU character that was so overpowered that their storylines would be rendered moot in the face of Marvel’s powers. So, they just…quietly pushed her aside.

And this movie proves why they had to: there is nothing interesting, from a character or narrative standpoint, about someone that has all the powers and no apparent weakness, other than maybe the fact that she can only be in one place at a time, physically. I cannot imagine what they will do in the sequel next year, unless they are going to find a plot that revolves around her losing her powers, either partially or completely. And even then, we would be left with Bri Larson’s portrayal of Carol Danvers, which I did not find interesting or compelling. Danvers is not a person I would find interesting to talk to or hang around with, like Natasha Romanov, Bruce Banner, Shuri, Tony Stark, or any number of other better-developed characters with realistic strengths and faults, clearly defined wants and needs, and a more solid connection to whatever reality the MCU tries to be, relative to our own world. Danvers seems to have one mode: be super judge-y and make a sharp quip to put someone in their place, friend or foe.

As a movie, Captain Marvel is…fine. It’s not the worst in the MCU, but it certainly doesn’t bring anything particularly interesting to the table. At least, not yet. If the Skrulls and Kree are explored in future MCU movies/TV shows, maybe this movie will retroactively elevate as a foundation for something interesting later. But for now, it stands as a weaker MCU entry by virtue of its insistence on being an origin story for someone who is kinda annoying.

Pros:
The infiltration scene and many of the spy-centric interactions with Nick Fury are pretty entertaining
Goose, the Flerkin
Lead Skrull Talos was often funny, with actor Ben Mendelsohn seemingly having a better idea of what kind of movie he was in than anyone else.
Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, No Doubt—the soundtrack and references are great
Samuel L. Jackson’s de-aging is genuinely impressive

Cons:
Bland main character in a bland origin story
A one-dimensional portrayal of the 90s, leaning into social commentary that, while not necessarily wrong, comes across as douchey and pretentious
Nick Fury’s scar’s origin story makes a short-term joke at the expense of the character and his reputation

Rating: 2.5/5
I’m being a bit generous, only because the post-credits scene does get you a bit amped for Endgame…

Review by Jim Washburn