Re-Visitng the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain Marvel

"Captain Marvel" (2019)

It only took a decade, but Marvel Studios finally gave Black Widow her own solo film. Wait. The first female-led MCU film isn't Black Widow? Hers is made but hasn't been released? She is the first female Avenger and they put some other character who no one had heard of before her? Oh. Oh. Sure, sure. That's cool. Makes sense. I mean, Carol Danvers rocks and Captain Marvel is a bad ass, but like, shafting Black Widow. Cool, cool, cool. Got it.

Principal photography on "Captain Marvel" began in January 2018 and wrapped in July 2018. The film stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Vers/Captain Marvel, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Djimon Honsou as Korath, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Annette Benning as the Supreme Intelligence and Mar-Vell, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson and Jude Law as Yon-Rogg. The film was written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. It was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. "Captain Marvel" was released on March 8, 2019. 

Wind blowing.

I gave Marvel a lot of grief in that intro, but it was mainly in good fun. Even though Black Widow definitely should have been the first solo led female hero that is no shade towards "Captain Marvel," the movie or the character. They are both pretty great.

"Captain Marvel" doesn't really re-invent the wheel. If you've watched an MCU origin film, then you have seen a film very similar to "Captain Marvel." They did make some tweaks like setting it in the '90's and partially in space to change things up, which is nice. You get a deeper look at what the MCU was like earlier in it. 

I feel like I need to acknowledge the "controversy" that surrounded the film when it first came out. Brie Larson is an outspoken woman and a proud feminist, which is a great thing, except if you're making a movie filled with a very vocal troll community who take innocuous things and make a really big deal out of them for no reason at all. I'm in a few MCU themed groups on Facebook and to this day, trolls get on them and shit talk Brie. Call her a man hater. If you're unfamiliar, Brie said that there should be more film critics who are female and non-white. Because not all movies are made specifically for white men, so a more diverse group of critics would help. Trolls translated this as "Brie Larsen doesn't want white men to see this movie." These people are clearly morons. So, they went on Rotten Tomatoes and down voted the movie, left shitty reviews before it even came out. So dumb. Anyhoo, if you are reading this and feel compelled to talk shit about Brie Larson. Don't. This isn't the place.

Let's talk about Brie Larson. She's a great actress, Oscar winning and she does a great job as Carol Danvers. People give her a lot of crap about the dumbest stuff. They complained about the faces she made when she was running and fighting. Like, no one doesn't make dumb faces when they do that stuff and no one really gives male action stars shit about it. Larson brings a quiet strength to Carol and she's quietly snarky. She has this knowing look in her eye and she plays off of Fury so well. I'm excited for her to grow even more in the role and see her portray a Carol Danvers who has her memory back and is confident in herself and her powers. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited for the "Captain Marvel" sequel.

It's not easy being green.

Speaking of Samuel L. Jackson, I really loved seeing a different side of Nick Fury. We really only see the all knowing, calculated badass. Fury is still a badass in this movie, but we get to see him cracking jokes, having fun, making mistakes, cooing over a stray cat. It's cool. I really have to commend again the de-aging that Marvel does. Seeing Jackson in this movie, I would have thought that he made it around the same time that he made "Pulp Fiction." Gregg Clark's Agent Coulson has a smaller part but it's great to see those two playing off each other again. I got mad warm "The Avengers" feeling. 

It was fun re-watching "Captain Marvel" while I'm watching "WandaVision" at the same time, especially when it comes to the Rambeau's. Lynch and Larson have an easy chemistry. You believe these women are chosen family, even when Danvers is still suffering from amnesia. I don't want to bring up the queer undertones in the relationship because like two men and two women can be friends without being gay, but I mean, it's there. The relationship with little Monica is so adorable and like what happened after this? Again, if your'e watching "WandaVision" you know what I'm talking about.

The movie tweaks a lot of long standing Marvel Comics history which ruffled a lot of feathers. I love it and think it makes a ton of sense. First off, there is the subversion of the Kree/Skrull dynamic. In the comics, the Kree and the Skrulls have been at war for eons, which is true in the movie. However, in the comics, the Kree are very much seen as the "good guys," or as good as guys can be who are locked in perpetual war. The MCU switches things around making the Skrulls the oppressed, which makes a lot of sense given how the Kree have been portrayed in the MCU so far. The other change is making Annette Benning's character Mar-Vell. In the comics, Mar-Vell was a man who Carol was in love with and she got her powers from him. Spinning it to make Mar-Vell a woman who mentored Carol and giving Carol her powers through the explosion of a light speed engine that Mar-Vell created is a great tweak to Carol's origin, updates it for the present time and gels with the movie's overall message of female empowerment.

Speaking of that message, people, again mostly men (sorry guys) seemed to have a problem with that or that it felt heavy handed. Specifically when Carol is being interrogated by the Supreme Intelligence and she has flashbacks to the many times in her life she was told to slow down or stand down by men in her life and a montage of her standing up. This may feel heavy handed if you are a cis white male who has never felt that adversity, but every woman I've spoken with who has seen "Captain Marvel" feels that moment in their very soul. This is what movies are supposed to do. Take you out of your experience and show you someone else's. And I know there isn't a woman out there who was given powers by the explosion of an alien engine, but there are plenty of women who have been discriminated against in male dominated professions and are still being told to know their place and stand down. 

I love the action in "Captain Marvel." It's a joy to see Carol finally really let loose with her powers and seeing her zipping around space, firing energy blasts and owning her power is a real treat. And like, that scene where she fights with the Skrull masquerading as an old lady. That is good shit right there. I don't care who you are.

If you've been reading these posts, I'm sure you know what I'm going to say here. That's right. It's time to complain about the villains in "Captain Marvel," which is basically Jude Law's Yon-Rogg. He's just so bland and like meh. The same goes for his squad. Why couldn't Ronan have been more prominent. I mean, they are so nondescript that Gemma Chan was cast for a major role in the upcoming "The Eternals." I'm hopeful they do better in the sequel. 

Another thing I didn't love was the revelation that Fury lost his eye due to a cat scratch. It was just so obvious. Don't get me wrong. I love Goose the Flerken. I love everything about him. I just didn't love this.

I loved the MCU continuity stuff. The Tesseract. The reveal that Carol's callsign was "Avenger" giving Fury the name for his initiative. It's stuff like that I need from a movie set in the past of the MCU.

The post credits are fun. We seen a scene from "Avengers: Endgame" with Carol finally answering her page and Goose barfing up the Tesseract.

Next up, it's all come down to this. The Infinity Saga ends with "Avengers: Endgame."

Let's hear from you? Do you love "Captain Marvel" or were you a hater? I'm kidding. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.