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 After
11 years and 18 entries in the Disney Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was
puzzling that there hadn’t been a single film dedicated to a female
hero. Sure, there’ve been mighty women on screen; THOR’s Sif and
Valkyrie, THE AVENGERS’ Scarlet Witch and Black Widow, GUARDIANS OF THE
GALAXY’S Gamora, Nebula, and Mantis, BLACK PANTHER’s Okoye and Shuri,
ANT-MAN’s Wasp, and, far-too briefly, one fabulous female villainess in
the form of THOR: RAGNAROK’s Hela. Really, considering the handful
listed here – most of whom are part of a larger group, or, perish the
thought -- sidekicks -- compared to the dozens of male supes, many with
multiple solo films, this is pretty lopsided.
Whether feeling the weight of this disparity before an increasingly
side-eying audience, or perhaps noting rival DC Entertainment’s massive
success with 2017’s WONDER WOMAN, the MCU has finally given a female
hero the spotlight. Carrying the very name of the entertainment empire
on her back, we meet CAPTAIN MARVEL.
It was
only a dream. Those images of a little girl falling, those moments of
pain and humiliation that seem to belong to someone else, wake Vers from
sleep. Working her issues out the best way she knows how, she is once
again chided by her mentor, Yon-Rogg, for being unable to control her
emotions, even during a sparring match.
Vers
must keep a cool head as a member of the Starforce; the elite military
corps of the Kree race. Their never-ending mission is to keep their
people and planet safe from their mortal enemy, the Skrulls. Vers
regains her focus as the team deploys on a mission to extract a
kidnapped Kree from Skrull clutches. The shape shifters pull a fast
one, ambushing the Starforce, and separating Vers from her troops. The
Skrull make good use of the soldier, extracting unusual memories that
seems to be leading to a coveted prize.
You
can’t keep a good woman (upside-)down, and so Vers powers out of
her bonds, and escapes, racing through the galaxy to be stopped only by
a fall that crash lands the warrior on the quaint, but insignificant
planet, C-53. Her earthbound splashdown through a Blockbuster video
store, doesn’t go unnoticed by the locals. It’s while Vers has
commandeered some primitive electronics from the local Radio Shack that
she meets a government agent who would like to know who she is, why –
and how -- she barrelled through the roof of the Blockbuster? Also,
what’s the green and black scuba suit about? S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Agent
Nick Fury is not ready for the answers to those questions.
Vers’
revelations about shape shifting aliens, and her own claim to the cosmos
are way too weird for the grounded Fury. Still, between witnessing Vers’
superhuman feats of strength and agility, and after a green-skinned
shape shifter expires in his own car, there’s not much room left for
doubt. Fury joins Vers in her evasion of the Skrulls, and her quest to
find her whatever secret it is her memories hold that is so precious to
the aliens.
CAPTAIN MARVEL might not be the worst chapter in MCU, but it’s far from
its best. What was so disappointing is how very “meh” the movie is.
There’s no high point, there’s no stand up and cheer moment that
doesn’t feel forced, hollow, or cliché. We have nothing new, and
everything tired, or substandard. The whole film feels rushed and
sloppy; the mere means to an end to bring in this character, who needs
to appear in AVENGERS: ENDGAME.
This
movie features some of the worst visual effects since AVENGERS: AGE OF
ULTRON, and perhaps lowers that bar. So much of what we’re looking at
is unconvincing: I still don’t exactly know what’s so great about
Captain Marvel’s powers. Energy blasts? That’s it? At various points
in the movie, they don’t seem all that powerful, as various targets are
quite able to get up and attack again after being blasted. Compared to
other heroes in the Marvel movie pantheon, I couldn’t see how -- as
implied by AVENGERS: INFINTY WAR -- this character could be humanity’s
last hope?
Worse
than that, much of the VFX actually look like animation. All of the
shots of Captain Marvel feeling her powers in space (and the famous
“Super Saiyan Goku” moment), could easily have been a cartoon.
During those moments, I couldn’t tell whether there was an actual person
performing motion capture, or a completely computer-born image. The
visual disconnect is strong here, and as those space sequences set up a
lot of the movie’s action, that detachment makes it very difficult to
immerse oneself in the world. Then again, perhaps they should have gone
with a fully-animated movie?
Then
we have our Captain. While I rooted for her to do well in the role,
Brie Larson never becomes anyone’s idea of mighty, super, or heroic.
Whether it’s the aggravatingly flat line delivery (in the tiny,
monotone
voice), the strange eyebrow quirks and smug lip twitches popping up
any time she thinks she’s done something clever, that seem to wink at
the audience, or her visible discomfort working against green screen;
this was not the Captain Marvel I’d hoped for. I did not leave the
theatre believing for one moment that this person, either by virtue of
invincible super powers, or sheer force of will, was going to be enough
to beat Thanos in the upcoming AVENGERS: ENDGAME.
This
feeling was not mollified at all by Captain Marvel’s hand-to-hand combat
scenes. Right from the opening spar with Yon-Rogg, Larson cannot be
clearly seen doing even the smallest of stunts. She may very well have
done every single move, but my disbelief was only enforced by the
aggressively terrible, choppy camerawork and blender-cut editing.
The
script doesn’t know what it wants to be. It’s got some of the duddiest
jokes I’ve heard in any film, with odd, stilted dialogue, which is
tragic as it’s clear the filmmakers were going for a humour and action
mix, along the lines of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, or THOR: RAGNAROK.
It’s not clever or witty enough to play to comedy, and the action’s too
dull to play to bombast. (Though unintended laughs can be found in
the film’s emphatic reminders that This is the 90s, people! Between the
insistent, generic “Best of the 90s” soundtrack, Bush and Smashing
Pumpkins concert posters on any available surface, and Vers’/Carol’s
Nine Inch Nails logo t-shirt; the production resembled a 90s-themed
homecoming party.)
Our
hero’s main journey is, of course, to reclaim her memory and her
identity. Recalling all she’s been through to get from there to the
incredible here. However, even at the movie’s climax, there’s never any
emotional watershed moment of really becoming, which is so cathartic to
not just Carol’s character, but the audience. We can see the buildup
that’s been unsubtly hammered onscreen, of the girl growing into a woman,
recalling falling down and rising, over and over, but it’s so cliché,
that the big moment feels rote and predictable. It doesn’t help that
besides the lacking portrayal, the characterisation of who Carol Danvers
was on earth is so shallow -- it’s mentioned once how she didn’t get
along with her father, and that’s it for family background -- that it was
hard to care if she regained her memories, or not.
Samuel
L. Jackson does most of the heavy lifting in the charisma department (Until
a certain four-legged superstar strolls in.), and the kinder,
gentler, two-eyed Fury is a lot more fun than his older self. Such is
Jackson’s charm that he could make a block of wood seem fascinating, so
his presence is mandatory, here. As the youthful version of
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent Coulson, Clark Gregg merely stands around sporting
the creepiest CGI face since THE POLAR EXPRESS. It doesn’t look as if
his features can actually move. The main Skrull is played by Ben
Mendelsohn, who has racked up a lot of roles lately, which is
interesting because he always reminds me of other actors (His villain
in READY PLAYER ONE had to be an homage to THE BREAKFAST CLUB’s late,
great Paul Gleason). He stays true to form by doing what I assume
is his best Tom Hardy imitation, under heavy prosthetics with visible
glue lines as Talos. Who knew the Skrulls originated from south London?
A
breath of fresh air is Lashana Lynch’s portrayal of Carol Danvers’ old
pal, Maria Rambeau. Once the pair is reunited -- Carol without any
memories of her friend -- one truly senses the bond they had. In the
film’s only true emotional moments, we can feel how Maria mourned Carol,
and her rage at not being able to receive closure, or even discuss how
she died. Akira Akbar is adorable and perfect as Maria’s daughter,
Monica, who Marvel comics fans know will grow into her own story. These
small scenes of domestic bliss between Carol and the Rambeaus,
particularly her interactions with Monica, were the highlight of Brie
Larson’s performance. Maria Rambeau gets to be a hero on her own
in the film, and perhaps because she connects so well to the audience --
even in her short time on screen -- her scenes are so much more
thrilling than anything we see from Carol Danvers.
Best
use of (Non-CGI) hair goes to Annette Bening, as a mysterious
figure that appears to Vers’ subconscious. The short, layered ‘do,
sported by Bening since the 1980s, lends credence to one truly clever
twist in an otherwise unsurprising flatline.
However, the true star of the film is Goose; the renamed Chewie of the
Captain Marvel comic books (But doesn’t Disney own Star Wars?).
We first meet the feline (?!) in an unlikely place, and he
just keeps turning up in odd settings for the rest of the film. Goose
is a fluffy red tabby that instantly mesmerises Agent Nick Fury, and
strikes terror in the hearts of the Skrulls. Why, one asks? Ain’t
telling, but it’s pretty much what every cat owner has always suspected
about their own furry overlords. The scenes with Goose are some of the
only clever and inspired moments in the film, and allows us to see other
sides to those characters I mentioned. Showing more effortless charm
and charisma (and convincing powers) than many others in the
cast, I would have been (and still would be) perfectly happy with
a Goose spinoff. There is much I would give for Goose to have a crack
at Thanos.
I had
worried after seeing the trailers for CAPTAIN MARVEL: I had suspicions
about the reuse of the same sequences over and over in each clip -- scenes that didn’t exactly make me want to run to see this film in the
first place. My Spider-sense was sadly correct, and this is one
occasion where all of the best (Non-Goose) moments are in the
trailers. For all the CGI bombast shown in those clips, the piece as a
whole is flat and lifeless, and CAPTAIN MARVEL never really soars
While
it’s not the worst of the current MCU (That booby prize goes to
GUARDIANS 2, and both IRON MAN sequels), CAPTAIN MARVEL is so much less than I’d hoped for.
What’s on screen is tired, amateurish, and just plain dull. There is
nothing new here other than the main draw of ‘Ooh, look, a female
superhero.’ Great, but it’s not enough; WONDER WOMAN proved that to the
positive. There’s no reason we shouldn’t have had a perfectly cast,
strong lead performance, a tight script with mind-blowing action and
effects, and clever laughs. Marvel has done it plenty of times before;
but this film is an unfortunate exception.
Being
necessary to the storyline of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, CAPTAIN MARVEL’s going
to make a ton of money, no matter its flaws. However, perhaps in that
upcoming film -- in the experienced hands of the Russo brothers --
Captain Marvel will fare much better. Still, I cannot help wishing
there had simply been more care taken for this introduction to the hero
I’d waited for all this time.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
March
5th, 2019
A Hero will rise...
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