Marvel just couldn’t help itself. It wasn’t enough for the studio to release its first-ever film with a woman at the center, Captain Marvel: the studio also had to go ahead and give its whole Avengers franchise a loving origin story, a fan-servicey, and it must be said, winningly indulgent exercise in self-mythologizing. Sure, the film—set in the 1990s—doesn’t go as far back as Captain America: The First Avenger did, but there’s a lot of formative stuff here, particularly pertaining to the best casting director in the superhero realm, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).
Which makes sense, given that the upcoming Avengers: Endgame is going to close one long chapter of this whole cinematic-universe saga. Captain Marvel is a look back before charging ahead, introducing perhaps the most omnipotent of all the good guys we’ve met so far. Good gals, too. There have been a few of those, though we’re still waiting on a star vehicle for Scarlett Johansson’s dependable Black Widow. Captain Marvel beat her to the punch (and punch and punch).
Her film, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, does a perfectly workable job of making this one small step. Still, I wish the studio had felt confident enough in her story to let it stand alone, rather than yoking it to the birth of something larger. Captain Marvel—née Carol Danvers—could have handled things on her own.
She’s played by Brie Larson, the Oscar-winning actress who largely appeared in indie films and studio comedies before putting on this rubber suit. In Fleck and Boden’s interesting proportions—they themselves are largely independent filmmakers—Larson does a surprisingly muted riff on superhero dynamism. She’s arch and clever and very strong, but she’s also quiet, a mellow presence that sometimes gets drowned out by all the clamor surrounding her. It’s not an unsuccessful performance, exactly, but it is a weird one, a downbeat choice that gives the movie an intimate, sometimes too laid-back timbre.
Captain Marvel is a chatty film, as beings from different worlds learn the terms of each other’s lives and form wary partnerships. Boden and Fleck often shoot Captain Marvel like it’s one of their smaller projects (Half Nelson, Sugar)—nicely composed but lo-fi, a character piece instead of a blare of whiz-bang action. That approach leads to curious scenes of Larson and Ben Mendelsohn, in green alien makeup just standing around and having a conversation, with the light bleary and diffuse around them, the camera still and observant. We’re so well versed in the superhero genre by now that it’s kinda fun to see the same rules and stakes poured through a different filter, though I’m not sure that everyone will take to it.
Of course, some dummies are already mad at the film because it’s about a woman at all, and Larson has, on her press tour, talked about that fact. Those trolls do not deserve any more of our attention—but it is a pleasure to watch the movie itself clobber its way through all that noise. Captain Marvel feels as substantial as any of the other stand-alone Marvel Cinematic Universe films, even if it does things at a more relaxed pitch. The movie’s pioneer status is gestured toward some in the film, but mostly Boden and Fleck are focused on competently telling a tale that fits into the larger machine. It does, just fine.
Do you want plot? Well, I won’t get into all the particulars—but know that it would be a big help to re-watch the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, as some cosmo-political stuff laid out in the movie comes to bear here. Basically, there’s a whole alien war happening that Earth finds itself in the middle of, while Carol Danvers—called Vers on what we assume is her home planet (leave simple Bottom to fusty old Shakespeare)—goes on a personal journey to regain her memory. Fury gets involved, as do Jude Law’s space policeman and Annette Bening, for good measure. It’s a complicated ball of yarn, perhaps more than some of the other origin movies, but Boden and Fleck cut through it diligently. Their action scenes are a bit of a muddle, but those don’t always need to be crisp for a Marvel movie to work.
The 90s aesthetic is used to charming effect, particularly in the music choices. We hear Garbage and Hole, two riot grrrl groups whose propulsive, gnarly charge gives the movie some pleasant bite. (The on-the-noseness of No Doubt’s “I’m Just a Girl” during a clunky fight scene doesn’t play quite as well.) The movie has a good time with itself, but is not a relentless gag factory like Guardians or Thor: Ragnarok—though quite like those movies, Captain Marvel is pretty spacey. If your tolerance for kooky galactic names and actors in latex masks is low, Captain Marvel may prove trying.
Still, I suspect there will be plenty of people who put those allergies aside to go see this first woman-led Marvel film. (Boden is also the first female director the franchise has had.) There is some righteousness to be found in the film in that regard, most acutely in a scene toward the end when Carol/Captain/Vers has a moment of self-actualization that comes in the form of shutting down a whiny man demanding they fight on his terms. That may be reason enough to seek out the film, whose low-key, oddball energy casts a different kind of superhero spell. I’m eager for the Captain to show her stuff to the rest of the team. I think they’ll be plenty impressed.
