“It’s about damn time.”
That’s a line from a post-credits scene in the first Ant-Man where Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne is offered the Wasp outfit, acting both as a moment of delight for the character, but also as an assurance to the audience that the time will come when the MCU will have a film centered on a female hero. Granted, we had to wait three years after that half-hearted gesture to see Hope in action as the wasp in Ant-Man And The Wasp, but – as you can tell by the title – she still has to share her space, and it also becomes more and more clear that Marvel Studios will surely give audiences opportunities for representation for many groups, but only if it works with their bottom line and whatever “master plan” Kevin Feige has in mind. It might sound cynical, but hey, that’s business for ya.
And that leads us to their latest film, Captain Marvel. Taking place in the mid-90s, the film follows Vers (Brie Larson), a Kree Starforce member with a special set of powers that her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), helps her keep controlled. After a mission goes wrong, Vers is captured and mentally probed by a group of Skrulls led by Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). She is able to escape capture, but ends up crashing into Earth where she teams up with S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), but as they try to stop Talos, Vers begins to realize there might be a deeper connection between Earth and these strange flashes of images she sees in her dreams.
I think the thing that Marvel Studios has done a good job with recently is having a good sense of knowing the kind of scope necessary for each movie. Not every film needs to be an epic adventure with the destruction of the world at stake, some can be smaller and more contained. I think that’s something the director duo, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck – who also co-wrote the film with Geneva Robertson-Dworet – understood as they were putting Captain Marvel together. Despite the story spanning across galaxies, most of the film is set in these claustrophobic spaces such as rooms, hallways, spaceships, etc. It brings an intimacy to the film that brings to mind the kind of character driven film that the directors have previously made like Half Nelson, Sugar, and Mississippi Grind (all of which you should check out, by the way).
However, it is still a Marvel movie, and yes, it does follow a familiar formula with plenty of story and character beats that you’ve seen before. Some of these beats are done more effectively than others. By the very nature of the story, it takes the risk of keeping the audience at an emotional distance due to Vers not knowing anything about her past, but I had no problem empathizing with the idea of someone having to basically rebuild themselves from the ground up. Although, given the roots of the filmmakers, the emotional aspects of the film are relatively understated, which does clash a bit with the usual Marvel bombast. And despite having done really solid work with Marvel before, Ben Davis’ cinematography is weirdly murky and dark at a number of points. I also went in fearing that the elements of 90s nostalgia would’ve been far more obnoxious than it ended up being. The references are fairly sparse, the costuming is tame, I don’t recall any 90s slang; the only thing that could be nitpicked is the use of needle drops. But again, not as bad as it could’ve been, and out of the handful of songs they chose to use, only a couple felt jarring.
Aside from those gripes, I honestly thought Captain Marvel kinda ruled. Though, it is worth keeping in mind that the film keeps its ambitions in check, it’s a modest origin story for a character that we need an introduction to before we see her again in Avengers: Endgame. On that level, it succeeds in spades. It’s a fun adventure, the characters are likable, the action is mostly solid. It has a great grasp of who Captain Marvel is, or rather, who she ends up becoming once she finds out the truth about the situation she’s in. The film continues some thematic threads that have been explored in Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther. Certain reveals made in the latter half of the film that touches on ideas of colonialism, revisionist history, and the ways the powerful try to oppress and intimidate people who only seek a place to call home. You could call it superficial, but I like that the film addresses those themes in a relevant way.
Brie Larson is aces in the film. Not only can she shoot those Marvel one-liners like nobody’s business, she is able to bring a sense of vulnerability to a character that is very much intended to be, for a period of time, fairly cold and not really herself. You can practically see her unravelling as you get more information along with her, and that journey is what makes it so compelling. Samuel L. Jackson is having the most fun he’s ever had in one of these, and the de-aging effect is very well done, even if there are a couple shots that you can look at and think to yourself, “that is the run of a 70 year old man.” Ben Mendelsohn is wonderful as always, taking on a much more nuanced character than one would initially expect. Lashana Lynch plays a small, but crucial role as a person who has a connection to Vers, and she’s excellent, delivering what is easily the most poignant moment in the entire film. Plus, with other folks like Jude Law, Gemma Chan, Clark Gregg, and Annette Bening rounding up the cast, there’s hardly a weak link in the whole thing.
As someone who isn’t totally familiar with the comics, I found myself very entertained and engrossed by Captain Marvel. I could’ve done without some of the setup moments for things in other Marvel movies, and while the storytelling is perfectly functional, it could’ve been tighter. It’s flawed, no on will argue otherwise, but I’m impressed that after 20 movies in this universe, I’m still overjoyed by the snappy character interactions, the physical comedy, and cosmic melodrama. Even the score by Pinar Toprak is surprisingly interesting and engaging, which is pretty rare for these movies. It may not necessarily be top-tier MCU, but I had a pretty great time with it. Plus, this has something the other ones don’t, a really cute kitty. I don’t know if it meets the expectations of being a “big feminist moment” which has been put upon it by a lot of people, but what I will say that the MCU finally has a cool and compelling female hero taking center stage that I’m excited to see in future movies, and you know what? It’s about damn time.