“Captain Marvel” is the first female-led addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and it only took a little over a decade. While this movie is an exciting, well-made step toward representation in the massive franchise, it is not without its faults.
“Captain Marvel” is lighter than some of the more recent MCU movies, which is a nice tonal shift after the world had its collective heart ripped out following “Avengers: Infinity War.” There are several laugh-out-loud moments in the movie, and constant witty banter keeps the audience engaged for the entire runtime.
The characterization of Carol Danvers is unique for the MCU. In other words, she is a female character who had had more personality than just being moody. In the past, women in the MCU have been rather two-dimensional, with most of their arcs revolving around men in some capacity. Danvers was a funny, smart, well-rounded character who grew emotionally throughout the course of the film.
Brie Larson’s portrayal of Danvers was superb, and she was supported by very strong performances from Lashana Lynch and Annette Bening. The costuming was also well done. It was nice to see functional female clothing in a superhero movie.
Though “Captain Marvel” was a very enjoyable movie, there were a few things that didn’t go quite as well as they could have.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
One component of this movie I just couldn’t get behind was the existence of that cat. The writers seemed to use the cat as a way to push through unfixable situations the characters found themselves in, and the whole movie relied on the cat for too many of its jokes.
Then the cat clawed out Fury’s eye, which was (excuse the pun) infuriating. By the time the cat clawed Fury, it had overstayed its welcome. Using the loss of Fury’s eye as a joke feels like a waste of a potential major plot hook for a future story that centers more around Fury’s personal history.
Another piece of “Captain Marvel” that didn’t quite work out was the way Fury was written. This iteration of Fury felt very different from any seen before in the MCU, though that may have been due to the fact that the movie is set long before any of the others in the franchise.
Some of Fury’s interactions with Danvers almost feel flirtatious, but not quite to the extent that it is uncomfortable. Perhaps in the future, there will be some explanation of what happens to change him from this fun 1990’s version to the more serious Fury seen in the modern movies.
Overall, this film hit most of the right buttons to be great. It provides the upcoming generation with a powerful female character to idolize, and sets a nice precedent for future female-led superhero movies. Hopefully Hollywood can keep the momentum going.
“Captain Marvel”: A nice change of pace for Marvel Studios
