A Terrific Plot Twist and a Strong Third Act Save 'Captain Marvel' from Total Mediocrity

Carol Danvers a.k.a. Captain Marvel – ever since the time she was still going by the name of Ms. Marvel – has always been one of my most favorite female fictional characters ever (I actually like her more than Wonder Woman).  Thus, Captain Marvel was a film I had looked forward to for a very long time.  And back when there wasn’t any official announcement for such a movie, I was among those who called for one to be made.

With that in mind, you can see that I had high hopes for Captain Marvel.  Unfortunately,  it disappointed me.  Not only because there are specific things that I wanted to see from it (e.g. Carol Danvers wearing the iconic Ms. Marvel costume at one point) but didn’t, but because it’s essentially underwhelming and lacks depth.  It’s not bad at all, but I don’t think it’s the best Captain Marvel film adaptation that could have been made.  I certainly extremely wish it has been much better.  At the very least, it should have measured up to Wonder Woman.

It just can’t be helped to have Wonder Woman as the benchmark for Captain Marvel’s quality.  Both are, after all, rival DC and Marvel’s respective attempts to give their premier superheroines their own solo blockbuster movies for the first time ever.  And in comparing them, Captain Marvel just pales in comparison.

First of all, and most importantly, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is simply more striking, commanding, relatable, and multi-layered.  Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is fine, but she’s arguably a Mary Sue, and her character arc is somewhat stagnant.  Gadot’s casting and characterization for Wonder Woman are also significantly more compelling than Larson’s casting and characterization for Captain Marvel.  On top of that, the “I am a strong woman” aspect of Larson’s Captain Marvel is overt and forced.  In contrast, this naturally and smoothly flows out of Gadot’s Wonder Woman.

Secondly, Captain Marvel’s action feels derivative.  It has none of the memorability factor that Wonder Woman’s action had.  All of Captain Marvel’s set pieces put together are inferior to that one breathtaking “No Man’s Land” sequence in Wonder Woman.

Lastly, let’s not forget about Wonder Woman’s killer soundtrack (to be fair, the soundtracks of non-Avengers MCU films are designed to be forgettable).

However, as far as telling a fitting, new origin story for the character in the context of the MCU, Captain Marvel is pretty satisfactory.  The film is set in 1995, and thus, precedes all MCU films not named Captain America: The First Avenger.  It follows Vers (Brie Larson), a member of the Kree Empire’s Starforce, as she fights alongside her comrades (Jude Law, Djimon Hounsou, Gemma Chan, Algenis Pérez Soto, and Rune Temte) against the Skrulls, a shape-shifting alien race menacing the Kree’s border planets.  In their latest mission, Vers is captured by the Skrulls, which eventually brings her to Earth.  With the rest of Starforce too far away to help immediately, she has to team up with a young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to stop the Skrulls from whatever they are planning on the planet – a planet that she slowly begins to realize she had a past life in.

The first two-thirds of the film feel a bit mediocre by MCU standards.  It entertains, but only in a basic sense – it felt by-the-numbers.  The “buddy cop” dynamic that developed between Vers and Fury was fun.  Goose the Cat was an endearing presence.  And the nostalgic 90’s references were amusing.  But nothing was making me legitimately go, “Wow!  That’s awesome!”  Okay, maybe the flawless, jaw-dropping de-aging CGI work on Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg.  But other than that, nada.  In addition, to my shock, the humor – an integral ingredient in the MCU’s successful formula – mostly fell flat.

Then, suddenly, a bombshell of a plot twist was dropped.  And it worked wonderfully because it played with audience expectations brilliantly (SPOILERS for the rest of this paragraph).  Jude Law was initially reported to be playing Mar-vell.  The Skrulls are prominent supervillains in the comics.  The lead Skrull is played by Ben Mendelsohn, an actor known for villainous roles (e.g. Rogue One and Ready Player One).  With all these details in place, revealing that the Kree are actually the evil oppressors, the Skrulls are persecuted refugees, and that the MCU’s Mar-Vell is actually female and played by Annette Bening is a terrific instance of subversive storytelling.  Actually, the reveal was a possibility I did consider.  But it proved impactful to me nonetheless because everything clicked beautifully into place.  The Kree being the true bad guys only makes sense.  After all, shouldn’t this be obvious with what had already been previously established in the MCU, particularly in Guardians of the Galaxy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?  With that, Captain Marvel pulls off a refreshing, MCU-original introduction of its titular character.  The only downside here is that, since the Skrulls aren’t evil in the MCU, a Secret Invasion movie is off the table.

Captain Marvel is a much stronger film after that plot twist.  The narrative becomes more emotionally engaging, jokes become funnier, character moments become more emphatic, and the action becomes more exhilarating.  In addition, (SPOILERS for the rest of the paragraph) there are delightful Easter eggs (e.g. The name of Carol’s goddaughter is Monica Rambeau.  In the comics, that’s the real name of Spectrum, who also carried the superhero name “Captain Marvel” at one point.  So, will MCU Monica grow up to become a superheroine, too?) and retcons (e.g. Fury’s “Avengers Initiative” is named after Carol Danvers.  Apparently, her codename as an Air Force pilot is “Avenger.”  It’s dumb, yes, but I kind of dig it) sprinkled here and there.  The third act is also stronger because it’s finally revealed to the audience that Goose the Cat is not only in the movie to be all cute and funny (now, I wonder: where has Goose been all this time in the MCU?  Will it ever be addressed in future movies?).

In the end, as far as solo superhero films go, Captain Marvel is not a game-changer.  And I don’t think it belongs to the MCU’s cream of the crop.  Nevertheless, it’s still mostly enjoyable, and a respectable addition to the ever flourishing franchise.

Next up is Avengers: Endgame!  Just one month to go!