Review written by Christian Garcia
Today I am looking at Marvel’s first female-led film, Captain Marvel.
After being teased at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, there was massive hype behind the arrival of Captain Marvel in the MCU. Fans expected her to play a crucial role in the outcome of Endgame and were ready to see her solo film to get a chance to know the hero who may possibly save the day. After the success of DC’s Wonder Woman in 2017, Marvel fans were excited to see how Marvel’s take on the female superhero would go. Given the constant comparisons between Marvel and DC, most fans were confident that if DC could make a great female superhero film, Marvel could do it even better.
I fell into that hype as well but when I saw the film back in 2019, I walked away not as impressed and left a lot less excited than I expected. I thought the movie was good but nothing mind blowing. Something was missing but I couldn't figure out what. I walked away believing that Wonder Woman was the superior film and spoiler, I still believe it is.
3 years later, I am taking another look to see what was missing or if maybe what I thought was missing was there all along and I just missed it. Let’s take a closer look..
The Hero
Our titular hero is first referred to as Vers before uncovering her identity as Carol Danvers.
Danvers is a former United States Air Force pilot that obtains cosmic powers after destroying a Light-Speed Engine that is later revealed to have been powered by the Tesseract.
She starts the film as a member of the Kree as Vers and as the film progresses, she regains her memory and uncovers her true power from within.
The Hero's Journey
Carol Danvers’ journey in this film is one of rediscovering oneself and proving their worth from within.
The film starts out with her as a member of the Kree under the name, Vers. She has no memories of her past and keeps having dreams that give her a small glimpse of her past. Yon-Rogg kept trying to get her to suppress her emotions, a way to maintain his control over her.
After a mission goes array, she gets captured by the Skrulls. While in captivity, she sees her memories play out through their Memory Probing Machine. Talos tells her about Dr. Wendy Lawson who she is supposed to know. She starts to go through an identity crisis, and she starts to question what is real and what isn’t. She escapes their capture and winds up crash landing on Earth.
Her pursuit of the Skrulls as well as the truth causes her to encounter Nick Fury. Their time together starts to bring out Vers’ suppressed sense of humor. Their chemistry brings Vers back in touch with her human side. While uncovering Project Pegasus, Fury calls her out knowing that her stake in the mission was personal. After discovering a picture of Lawson, Maria Rambeau, and herself, she starts to remember more of her past and sees a vision of plane crash involving herself and Lawson.
After escaping S.H.I.E.L.D., Vers reunites with her best friend, Maria Rambeau as she tries to piece more of her memory together. Vers starts to remember her friendship with Maria and after looking at old pictures with Maria’s daughter, Monica, she starts reclaiming her memory as Carol Danvers. Talos arrives with an audio recording of Vers from the day of the crash. The audio jogs Vers’ memory and she reclaims her identity as Carol Danvers and learns the truth the Yon-Rogg killed Lawson and took her to Hala. Carol becomes overcome with emotion but is comforted by Maria who reminds her of who she was and that she is still that person. Danvers and Maria hug and reunite. Talos asks Carol to finish Mar-Vell’s mission and to help the Skrulls find a home.
When she finally comes face-to-face with Yon-Rogg, her emotions get the better of her and he subdues her and connects her to the Supreme Intelligence. Taking on the image of Mar-Vell, the Supreme Intelligence tries to convince Carol that without the Kree she is weak and only human. However, Carol’s memories of her past help her embrace her humanity as she recounts all the times that she got knocked down but got right back up. This gives her the strength to break free from the Supreme Intelligence’s grasp and knocks out Yon-Rogg and the rest of the Kree.
In the final showdown, she destroys Ronan’s army and sends them running. She comes face-to-face with her former mentor. He tries to manipulate her emotions and dares her to fight hand-to-hand, but she blasts him away, telling him she has nothing to prove to him. In the end, Danvers takes on the name of Captain Marvel to honor her real mentor, Mar-Vell and vows to finish her mission and help the Skrulls find a new home.
The Villain
Yon-Rogg is a Kree Empire commander who is first introduced as Ver’s mentor and superior officer.
Halfway through the film, his true intentions are revealed. It is later revealed that he killed Vers’ real mentor Mar-Vell who was under cover as Wendy Lawson, to attempt to get a Tesseract-powered energy core. He wishes to use the core to wipe out the Skrulls for good. After Carol Danvers shot the energy core and absorbed the energy from the Tesseract, Yon-Rogg kidnapped the unconscious Danvers and brought her to the Kree to turn her into a weapon.
Yon-Rogg is sadly another case of a bland and forgettable Marvel villain. His reveal as the true villain is both predictable and leaves no impact. His intentions are cliché for wanting to use Danvers’ powers for weaponization. His relationship with Danvers is not very interesting to watch which makes their rivalry just as uninteresting. Their final moment makes him come off as more of a joke when he calls on Vers to take him down and she does so with great ease. While this moment was to serve as Danvers proving her worth on her own without his approval, it falls flat. He joins the likes of Malekith and Laufey as one of the most generic and forgettable villains in the MCU
The Film's Pros
Captain Marvel and Nick Fury's Chemistry
Despite Brie Larson’s personality not being allowed to shine throughout the film, the screen time that she shares with Samuel L. Jackson is where her personality is allowed to come out, even if only for a little bit. Larson and Jackson work very well off each other as Nick Fury’s cynical personality works well off the no-nonsense (or personality) attitude of Danvers. The most emotion that they share together is when they escape S.H.I.E.L.D., and Fury makes a remark about going with your gut against orders and Larson mentions how she gets in trouble for that often and he agrees with her and makes her laugh. That laugh gave us a small piece of the puzzle that is Carol Danvers and shows that she can be sarcastic and quirky when she wants to be. You can also feel their sense of comradery and their friendship is what carries the film through. They work well as a team with Fury’s skills in espionage complimenting the punch-first-ask-questions-later style of Danvers.
The Skrulls
The Skrulls’ shapeshifting ability makes for one of most the creative elements of the film. Their presence was good for keeping audiences on their toes as to whom they could trust.
When Captain Marvel arrives on Earth and is in pursuit of a Skrull, there is a fun and funny sequence where the Skrull takes on the form of an elderly woman. Now I am not promoting violence against women or the elderly here, but I would be lying if didn’t admit that the scene of Captain Marvel smiling at and then punching an old lady got a big laugh out of me. I also enjoyed the scene where Vers blasts a jukebox to prove to Fury that she isn't a Skrull.
While their designs reminded me of Malekith the Dark Elf but just green, I did find Talos to be likable and the twist with them being good guys was a pleasant surprise and I welcome seeing them return in more films.
The Film's Cons
Bland Hero
Sadly, the titular hero of Captain Marvel may be 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. Maybe it was the direction she was given but 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.
Uninteresting Hero's Journey
People often make comparisons between Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman and most conclusions are that Wonder Woman is a more fleshed out and interesting character and they are right. A big reason for that is because Wonder Woman told the hero’s journey better and in a more interesting way. We see her train from a young girl into the fierce warrior that she becomes. We watch her learn her tricks and fighting techniques as well as what makes her tick, and we see her experiences and how they shape her into the iconic hero that she is.
In Captain Marvel, we see glimpses of Carol Danvers’ life experiences but only in scattered flashbacks or are told through exposition. To be completely honest, these glimpses into her past are much more interesting than the actual journey she goes on in the film. I would have rather seen Carol’s experience of her troubled childhood, her time as a woman in the Air Force, learning under Lawson and watch her shaped into the strong, funny, pain-in-the-ass her best friend described her as.
Final Thoughts
Captain Marvel is a film that packs the action and humor Marvel fans come to expect. It established the character of Carol Danvers as a figure in the MCU and served as the final stop before the climactic conclusion of Avengers: Endgame. While the film does its job of telling the audience who Captain Marvel is, it fails to deliver on its other job of making her feel important.
The film’s journey is that of Vers to Captain Marvel and rediscovering her identity along the way and while for the most part it is done well, it doesn't make for the most interesting of hero’s journeys. Through Vers’ dreams which are memories of her past we are shown glimpses of her troubled childhood and her time in the Air Force. Although they were brief, these flashbacks had elements of a much more interesting story wanting to get out. The film would have been a more empowering and interesting story if they instead focused on Carol Danvers’ backstory with her troubled childhood and her time as a woman in the Air Force. It had the elements of an all-female Top Gun film combined with superhero to make for a more interesting film.
As is, it is a standard superhero film. I would not go as far as to call it bad, but more of an uninspired and by-the-numbers Marvel film. For a film that could have been so much more, it does just enough to make fans aware of the character of Captain Marvel.
The film also suffers the same issues as Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World, as its place in the overarching story of the MCU is very inconsequential and as a result, this film ranks in my personal lower tier of Marvel films. Had the story been more interesting and had Brie Larson been allowed to show more of her personality, the film would have made a bigger impact on me.
Despite these serious flaws, I would be wrong to say that Captain Marvel left no impact as she is still seen as an empowering female hero in the eyes of many women and young girls. While I believe she could be so much more, but for what she is, it’s enough for other people and that is something to be admired. While I don’t find her to be as interesting as Tony Stark or Steve Rogers, Larson’s performance does still make Carol Danvers a likable hero that people can get behind. Hopefully with the sequel The Marvels, she can show more personality working off of the charismatic Kamala Khan.
Captain Marvel is a solid Marvel film that could have been much more. If you want to see the action and fun that you expect from the typical Marvel film, it is here, and worth checking out. If you want something with more flavor and personality to it, you won’t find it here.
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