“Captain Marvel,” easily one of the most anticipated movies of the year, was finally released to theaters this past weekend. Before fans could reach the theater, however, they were shown scathing reviews about how disappointing it was. None of the reviews seemed aggressively negative, but none seemed overwhelmingly positive either.
The fact is that it was a really good superhero film. Brie Larson (“Kong: Skull Island”) plays the witty and passionate Carol Danvers, who cannot remember her past. Upon arriving to Earth, she runs into a young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, “Glass”). The pair team up and work to save Earth and recover her memories.
Some of the best parts of this film were the scenes where Fury and Danvers were together. Jackson and Larson have some serious comedic chemistry, and their banter never failed to cause a laugh. Fury’s overwhelming confusion and dependence on Danvers in the film was both hilarious and organic, as Danvers had knowledge of outer space and what sort of situation they were dealing with. One of the bigger griefs people had was that Danvers did not seem like a comedic sort of character. The fact of the matter is that humor sells. With the previous release, success and admiration of movies like “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Deadpool” and “Thor: Ragnarok,” it would only make sense that Marvel would follow that trend. While the trailers had no indication of whether this would have comedic elements, it is only following the current superhero movie formula.
The plot was unfortunately not that interesting. It was not like the film was so boring that people were falling asleep, but as superhero movies go, it was pretty standard. It had some interesting twists and turns the viewer might not have anticipated, but it was not a revolutionary plot by any means.
The real fault this movie had was queer-baiting, which is when a same-sex couple is hinted at, but then the medium fails to deliver. Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), easily the standout breakthrough performance of the film, was a single mother who, in each one of Danvers’ flashbacks, played a central role. Some may argue that it was simply a deep friendship, but Marvel intentionally had no mention of Rambeau’s husband or the father of her child. From a writing and acting standpoint alone, the two had such overwhelming chemistry. There was no outward exclamation as to whether they were ever dating, but at no point did they say they were not, either. For a film that was supposed to be revolutionary in its progressiveness, all it had was a female lead.
This is partially the fault of reviewers. Of course, the fact that Danvers is a woman does make a difference in the plot. She could have been a female character stuck into a role written for a man, but this film required a female lead. The reviewers, however, seem to be comparing this movie to “Wonder Woman.” The only parallel that has been drawn is that “Wonder Woman” is also a superhero film with a female lead. This is reducing two different flavors of superhero film to be somehow similar, besides the fact that they share a genre. This is a trend that has been happening frequently, where just because a superhero movie has a female lead, it immediately ignites trolls online to come out and derail the movie before it is even released to theaters, based on the sole fact that the lead character is a woman. Not only does this roll the movies into one genre, which is unfortunate because the two films are so unique in their own respective ways, but it also just makes it even funnier when the films are successful. Trolls can complain all they want, but at the end of the day, money talks, and nothing sends a stronger message than $153 million at the box office opening weekend.
Obviously, women have not starred in too many superhero movies without strong male counterparts, but the first step to normalizing this type of movie is to stop acting like they are all comparable just because of the gender of the lead or just have Rotten Tomatoes remove its audience score rating. Overall, “Captain Marvel,” despite what the trolls would have people believe, is a legitimately enjoyable time at the theater, despite the usual amount of flaws that have plagued superhero movies recently.
Image from Marvel Entertainment via YouTube
