Movie Review: Captain Marvel

2.5 of 5 Stars

Meh. Unfortunately, Captain Marvel is one of the weakest additions to the MCU.

A great amount of angst welled up from the fanboyz prior to the release of Captain Marvel. Aside from Brie Larson running her mouth about white men, there was great concern that Captain Marvel would be a Feminist soapbox and an SJW centerpiece that signaled the beginning of the inevitable decline of the MCU. While there are few overtly SJW or Feminist outbursts or preaching in the movie, the movie is built upon Feminist trappings and tropes that ultimately weaken Captain Marvel and turn her into a boring, un-compelling wooden mannequin

I find myself asking why I should care about Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel)?

Granted, Marvel movies are not grand explorations of human emotions that give us insight into the human condition. Nevertheless, relationships drive a good deal of the plot progression. There’s Thor’s family drama in Asgard – his relationship with Loki and Odin. There’s Iron Man’s daddy issues and his relationship with Pepper Potts, as well as a common theme about how his narcissism and self-centeredness impact and sabotage his relationships with his friends and fellow Avengers. There’s Captain America’s love of country, his contentious relationship with Tony Stark, and his willingness to sacrifice all to save his old friend, Bucky. Even in the Ant-Man movies, which are bottom tier for the MCU, you have interesting character dynamics and worthwhile relationships.

Brie has no friends to fight for. No relationships to die for. Nothing that would give me a compelling reason to care about her. This is “I don’t need nobody, and especially I don’t need no man” Feminism at it's heart. It’s a great object lesson in how Feminism isolates women by appealing to female self-interest and narcissism.

In this regard, it’s also a great Gen-X, 90s movie, conveying quite well the apathy and isolation of Generation X. (While I am Gen X myself, I have little fondness for the pop-culture of the 90s, having spent most of my formative teenage years cavorting in the fun, Grunge-less 80s. For me, the best nostalgic song in Captain Marvel was Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly,” an 80s hair metal song.)

So, Captain Marvel ends up being a character with little interpersonal drama, which makes her uninteresting. She's given so little to fight against and to fight for.

The takeaway here is that you can view Captain Marvel as a cautionary tale about Feminism, albeit I don’t think this was intentional message. The end result of “I don’t need nobody, and especially I don’t need no man” Feminism is isolation and lack of personal growth.

In Captain Marvel, this brand of Feminism hampers the character and turns her into a one-dimensional character with no hooks to really anchor the audience. It’s unfortunate, because I think Brie Larson probably did her best as an actress to work with what they gave her, but there is just nothing there.

Samuel Jackson turns in a decent performance. Our heartstrings are pulled at the personalized story of a group of Skrull refugees. But Brie is left to flounder alone in her heroism without any significant challenges to her ego (which is often time what character relationships are about) or to her latent superhero abilities.

I’m sorry, MCU fans, when you strip away the hype of this being the first female Marvel character to headline her own movie, this movie is just a bore.