Movie Review: Captain Marvel

I don’t think I’ve done a movie review on the blog, and I don’t intend to make a habit of it so don’t get used to it. It’s been a LONG time since we went as a family to see a movie, but now that most of the kids are working, we felt we could afford it. And since I’ve recently immersed myself in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, for the uninitiated), this seemed like the ideal movie for us to go see.

Premise

The basic premise of the movie, giving away as few spoilers as I can, centers around a Starforce soldier named Vers. When the movie begins it’s 1995, and Vers is fighting along with the Kree against the Skrulls who the Kree believe are invading their planet. Vers is captured by the Skrull commander, and a rather intrusive course of memory probing brings to light memories of a past that previously she had seen only in brief, dream-like flashbacks. Memories of a time on another planet, with people whose names mean nothing to her now. Of course, all is not as it seems. There’s more to Vers than even she’s aware. She has powers she’s only so far experienced in part. Vers manages to escape and ends up on Earth where she meets up with Nick Fury–a meeting that will change their lives forever.

Analysis

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS!

This is an “origins” movie, which means there’s a lot of build-up and backstory to get straight, especially with a relatively unknown character like Captain Marvel. Sure, Marvel aficionados know who Captain Marvel is. I wouldn’t call myself a comic book fan, but I’d read enough in my youth to have heard of Captain Marvel. Back then he was a dude, but I’m okay with the gender change. It’s just a title, anyway. Although I knew of the character, I didn’t know much about him/her, so the backstory in the movie was useful for me. (I will note that, by contrast, “Spiderman; Homecoming,” the MCU Spiderman reboot movie, didn’t do the whole “origins” thing. I guess they figured most people know Spiderman’s story, and “bitten by a radioactive spider” about says it all anyway.)

The problem with building up the character like this is it tends to slow the first part of the movie down. Because many of the characters are unfamiliar, you have to pay closer attention to keep up with the story. To add to the confusion, if you’ve watched the series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” you’ll know the Kree are a very hostile alien race. Why would our hero be fighting on their side?

But all is eventually made clear as the pieces of Vers’s past life fall into place. Once she accepts the person she was, she can embrace the person she is and the mission she has to accomplish.

So the story takes a little while to get off the ground, and requires a bit of engagement to stay with it. That’s fine with me. In fact, I’m not sure they could have done it better. You may disagree, but that’s what the comments are for. 🙂 I thought the middle part of the movie was the best, where Vers reconnects with her past and becomes Captain Marvel, even if she hasn’t yet adopted the name, nor realized her full power.

The last part of the movie, when she comes into her full strength, was to me where the movie nose-dived. Basically, Captain Marvel on all cylinders is Superman. She’s unbeatable. I’m not sure exactly how she would fit in the Avengers because she’s the only hero they would need. Unlike Superman, she doesn’t appear to have Kryptonite–i.e., a weakness. Usually at the end of a super-hero movie there’s a pitched battle between good and evil that is fairly evenly matched. Not here. A fleet of spacecraft can’t stop her.

Why do this? Why have this ultra-super hero that demolishes the enemy without breaking a sweat? By my count, among the bad guys there was only one female fighter; the rest were all male. I really don’t want to believe they made Captain Marvel this mighty, invincible female warrior to play into some feminist agenda. And I really don’t want to believe that her domination of the guys, raining down fiery justice on them all was a symbolic #metoo moment for Marvel. But given the way the movie played out, it’s hard to shake that feeling.

It’s one thing for a movie to have subtle social messaging, but if I’m right this was way too in-your-face. And when social messaging takes over a movie, the story suffers. As I said, I don’t want to believe they sacrificed story to preach a social agenda, but that would explain the disappointing ending.

It does make sense in a culture whose moral compass is clearly broken, which is crying out for justice to be done, that Captain Marvel would swoop in and vanquish her enemies like this. Our secular society has no concept of a judgment to come, so judgment must fall now or never. And when it seems so often that the bad guys get away with their crimes, especially crimes against women, I suppose this kind of ending to the movie is only to be expected.

To sum up, overall Captain Marvel is a good movie. No complaints from me about the acting, the effects, or the general plot. There are some nice moments of humor, and a lovely tribute to Stan Lee. But the ending was disappointing, and unless they introduce some kind of Achilles’ heel to Captain Marvel’s character, I can’t see where they could take her for a second movie.

If you saw Captain Marvel, what did you think?