By JASON GUYER
iRATE
Higher. Further. Faster. Marvel’s “Captain Marvel” took the film’s motto to heart. “Captain Marvel” broke box office records on its way to 153 million opening weekend domestically. The one heading that charge to box office glory is Brie Larson who plays Captain Marvel.
Captain Marvel is a woman who believes she is a Kree warrior and finds herself caught in the middle of an intergalactic battle between the Kree people and the Skrulls. As she fights for the Kree people she keeps having recurring memories of another life as U.S. Air Force pilot Carol Danvers. After following the Kree/Skrull war to Earth circa 1995, Captain Marvel tries to uncover the secrets of her past and her origin. While uncovering those secrets on Earth, Captain Marvel gains the help of a shield agent Nick Fury and an ostensible cat named Goose.
“Captain Marvel” is as the above synopsis suggests, the film is an origin story. This is one facet of Captain Marvel’s story that we as the audience must remember. “Captain Marvel” is an origin story.
I have seen, heard, and read many people say the film was boring. “Captain Marvel” is not a boring film.
Marvel has spoiled us, especially with the Avengers films. All the Avengers films are action heavy and films that jump right into the story of the film. The Avengers films can do this precisely because of the preceding origin story style films.
“Iron Man,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” and “Thor” were all origin story films and if looked at through the same prism that “Captain Marvel” is being look at through, they all can be considered boring. Origin stories are made to lay the groundwork. They are made to get to introduce and get to know the character.
“Captain Marvel” is no exception to this, The film is the origin of Carol Danvers or Captain Marvel.
The films main goal is to set this character up for “Avengers: Endgame,” where in some form or fashion Captain Marvel is to come and save the day after the universal mass culling by Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Yes, “Captain Marvel” is a slower paced story in the beginning of the film but its is telling a story. It is telling Carol Danvers story. One that brings her to being one of, if not the, most powerful superhero in the Marvel universe.
Going beyond just the storyline aspect of the film, Brie Larson is wonderful as Captain Marvel. Larson’s brand of charming stoicism for the Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel character is fascinatingly authentic to me. Authentic enough to create another huge controversy about the film. Before the film even hit theaters and people even saw “Captain Marvel,” many fans new the film was a progressive film and that it was staunchly on the side of feminism and equality and a film unafraid to say so.
Some fans took to the likes of Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer to trash the film and negatively impact its tomatometer rating. For anyone unfamiliar with Tomatometer it is a place where every person can be a critic and is used to judge public perception of a film. In the last few years though many on the web have learned this and used or manipulated the meter with bots and fake reviews to try to sway public opinion of films so people no longer want to watch them. “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” had this same problem.
Larson, whose acting in “Captain Marvel” is borderline brilliant, has taken the full brunt of this, all in one form of criticism in particular and that is that her performance is wooden or emotionless.
I vehemently disagree with this sentiment. This is often a male-dominated and publicly-dominated sentiment that a woman must always be smiling. Brie Larson is playing a character and she chose a character type. Larson’s Carol Danvers is a very reserved stoic and controlled individual. Carol Danvers is a pilot, a test pilot. She had better be reserved and controlled.
In “Captain Marvel” Larson’s best scenes come alongside Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. Fury is a talkative character and one who jests with other characters often. One of my favorite scenes in “Captain Marvel,” is the one where Carol and Fury are doing the dishes. Fury sings in jokingly jovial way and Larson’s Danvers barely smirks as Fury is clearly being funny. Larson’s Danvers then cracks a joke at Fury’s expense. When she gets a reaction from Nick Fury, Larson’s Danvers cracks one of the biggest and few smiles in the film. Certainly the humanizing moment the complainers are looking for.
However, I feel nothing is more humanizing than a character who is human. Larson plays Captain Marvel as a person. One shaped by her experiences. I have known stoic people who don’t necessarily talk a lot, people who don’t even want to talk a lot, who control a room or let their presence be known in different ways. By being smarter, or faster, or in control or as the film’s slogan suggests, Higher, Further, Faster.
This is Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel. Someone always fighting to be better and doing it without being blatant about it to those around her. She is stoic. She is goal-oriented. She is in constant control. She wants to be the best. She fights to be the best. That humanizing factor is Brie Larson’s magic at work.
“Captain Marvel” set it’s mark of what it wanted the film to be, what it wanted the character of Captain Marvel to be. When Captain Marvel took out all them Kree ships and became what she was meant to be, the most powerful hero in the Marvel universe. Brie Larson and Captain Marvel accomplished what they set out to. They went higher, further, faster.
IRATE SCORE: 3.5/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected]
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