Written by Christian Garcia
Sadly, the titular hero of Captain Marvel is one of the least interesting heroes to come into the MCU so far. We do not get to see much of her personality, and we don’t know nor learn anything about her like her quirks, her likes, her hobbies, etc. Her journey is that of one who rediscovers her identity but, in the end, she’s just as bland of a character as she was when the film started.
The biggest flaw that bogs the film down is that it does too much telling and not enough showing. The film goes for the idea that the audience is supposed to figure out Carol’s identity along with her, but it fails here because rather than showing us glimpses of her true personality to help us piece it together, instead it is told to the audience through exposition. Because we are being told and not shown this information, it makes it harder for the audience to connect with her. Halfway through the film, Carol discovers that she had been lied to by the Kree and suffers an identity crisis. Her best friend, Maria gives her a pep talk saying that she was someone who risked her life to do the right thing, someone who supported her when no one else did, smart, funny, and a huge pain in the ass. Despite being told all that information, I still didn’t connect with Carol because none of her actions at that point indicated that was the type of person that she was. Also, that description is pretty cliché and could describe any strong character from any film. Telling the audience your character is strong and powerful means nothing if their actions don’t show it.
Another huge problem that hurts Danvers is that she feels like a character that is strictly designed to be an empowering female role model with no other personality to her besides just being a strong female role model. Creating an empowering female character is great and when done right has created great female characters like Mulan, Katniss Everdeen, Princess Leia, and others. However, those characters became empowering organically through their actions and personalities. This film dedicates more time to telling us that Captain Marvel is a strong female hero rather than using that time to show it.
Fans will be quick to draw comparisons to Wonder Woman and while that is a very easy comparison to make, I wanted to draw comparisons between Danvers and two of Marvel’s other female heroes, Black Widow and The Wasp.
While Captain Marvel is the first female-led Marvel film, she is not their first female hero. Black Widow debuted in the MCU in 2010’s Iron Man 2 and immediately made an impact. Her personality shined through whether she was by herself or working off one of her fellow Avengers. Even when she was emotionless and stiff, she still showed personality in her own way, and you could tell be her cold demeanor that she was a character who had seen and endured a lot. These qualities made Black Widow one of the MCU’s most popular characters (male and female) and organically created an empowering role model for girls and young women.
In my review of Ant-Man and the Wasp, I praised the film for organically creating an empowering female lead in the Wasp. Hope Van Dyme is an interesting character because her personality is not defined as just being a strong and independent woman. She is determined and focused but also can be snarky, quirky, and at times even cynical like her father. She is a no-nonsense kind of personality that can also be silly at times. She won’t take any crap from her foes nor her male counterparts and can also find times to be snarky like when she mocks Scott Lang for referring to Captain America as Cap or when she mocked Scott when his Ant-Man suit malfunctioned and gave him the appearance of a child. Hope’s personality was so undeniable that now the Ant-Man films are titled, Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Brie Larson’s performance does little to help this issue which is a shame because I have seen her do some great work in other films like Room and 21 Jump Street where she shows a lot more personality. Sadly, she did not get to shine as she did in those films and her performance makes her come across as lost as her character is. The only time we see a glimmer of her personality come out is when she is working off Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. Other than that, she comes across bland and uninterested in what she’s doing or saying. Again, I wouldn’t put the blame on Larson and more on the direction she was given.
While I do feel that Captain Marvel’s presence as a symbol of female empowerment is forced, she is still looked at as symbol of female empowerment so even though it’s forced it does still shine through. Hopefully, Marvel learns from their mistake with this film and lets Larson bring more of her personality to the role of Danvers in later films.
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