"Captain Marvel"—When the Marvel formula meets inexperience
The latest MCU blockbuster, Captain Marvel offers an interesting, albeit disappointing, entry to the superhero genre as an important introduction to a future leader.
Captain Marvel has admittedly been the center of unjust controversy from alt-right users after some poor comments by star Brie Larson, but the film itself is far from perfect. Marvel took the risk yet again with big-budget newcomers for direction, giving the reins to Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ("Half Nelson", "Mississippi Grind") who unfortunately weren't ultimately up for the task. The film tells the origin story of Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Larson) amidst the intergalactic Kree-Skrull war in the mid-1990's. Danvers begins as a confused warrior of the Kree Star Force led by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), who crash lands on Earth and begins to unravel her identity. A young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) soon teams up with Danvers to prevent the earth from alien invasion and danger posed by the Kree and leader of the Skrulls, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn).
There is a lot to like with Captain Marvel. In expected fashion, Marvel hands Danvers story in an interesting way, with interjections of the past and present throughout the film, a la Nolan's Memento or Snyder's Man of Steel. The script and narrative are ingenious in the way they connect all 20 previous MCU films seamlessly, while feeling authentic rather than contrived. The handling of aliens in the film is adept as well, as they take a bold choice to portray them as innocent nomads in a direct confrontation of modern American immigration politics. Some action scenes and visual sequences are quite stunning, and the de-aging work done on Jackson and Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson are impressive and wholly-immersive throughout (although neither actor has really aged visually, anyway). The 1990's sets and costume design are true-to-life and dedicated, enveloping the film in reality. Ben Mendelsohn appears to have a blast in the film, delivering a memorable Pulp Fiction-esque performance as a charismatic 'bad-guy.' The overall narrative and structure of the film buoy it above total mediocrity, but several issues glare nonetheless.
The character of Captain Marvel is sadly dull, which I blame on the inexperience of directors Boden and Fleck more-so than Larson. Larson's portrayal is wooden in the attempt to make her a stoic, independent woman, and her character is so powerful, the film loses all suspense in the story of an invulnerable hero (please fix this, Avengers: Endgame). When Marvel announced a high-caliber, Oscar-winner like Larson, I expected much more range and emotion to be exhibited, but frankly any established actress could have pulled off this dull iteration of Captain Marvel. The film lacks any pacing at all—scenes feel independent and action sequences are overdrawn and appear to be done by a different set director. Music in the film is used almost exclusively terribly, banging 90's references and feminist empowerment over the audiences head to oblivion. Whereas Guardians of the Galaxy used music as a narrative device in creative ways, Captain Marvel uses it solely for pop-cultural coolness and results in jarring sequences throughout. For a film which pays obvious homage to Star Wars, from the one-shots of characters piloting spaceships to the set design, it fails to portray it captivatingly on-screen, which leads to a terribly-lit climactic space fight scene. With Disney's ownership of Lucasfilm, you would expect them to send over some ILM visual effects artists to render sequences better in Captain Marvel, but that is not to be found here.
While the film is sadly a low point for the greatness seen in the MCU thus far—as messy as Thor: The Dark World—Captain Marvel is perfectly fine overall. Larson's portrayal was bland, but that can be fixed in future installments (ie. 'Endgame') and the unique narrative lifts the film up nonetheless. This is an important film historically and is worthy of your attention, but I cannot veil my disappointment in Boden and Fleck's amateur handling of such a rich story. There's always tomorrow, however, and Marvel will surely learn from this and keep delivering timeless tales of heroism for the enthusiastic masses.
Sean Kelso is the founder & editor-in-chief of Greyscale.
