Kevin Feige, Disney, and Marvel Studios debut their big Captain Marvel movie this weekend starring Carol Danvers that catapults the character to not only the forefront of the MCU but the background as well. The flick propels the character into the past, present, and future where Brie Larson will be the new face of the Marvel movies going forward. And that is not a good thing.
Overall, Captain Marvel comes off as a rather dull and lackluster movie, and joining Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, it is another spit in the face of Marvel Cosmic fans. The film is loaded with anti-male imagery, footage and dialogue, which is simply insulting as well as alienating (similar to Disney Star Wars). It felt as if there were two different drafts of the movie, an initial draft with the storyline, but a second draft was commissioned which saw the directors, Feige and the producers go over it with a fine tooth comb to add the feminist male-bashing elements, of which there were many that came off forced and completely out of place, like much of the movie. The film also gender-swaps fan-favorite characters and completely retcons the MCU as we know it. Not good.
Let’s take a look. Spoilers follow.
The overall story I felt was pretty decent though the again the first act started off pretty dull. The middle act was probably the best in the movie, but the third act was simply atrocious. I did enjoy the surprise regarding the Skrulls, which was a nice twist. Onto my thoughts…
Male-bashing elements in Captain Marvel
Again the movie goes out of its way to highlight and include male hate which comes off as completely unnecessary and forced. I get it, the film is meant to showcase the female side of things, but the overall message is just too obvious, that males are bad and worthless. What kind of message does Disney continue to send to young girls?
Carol’s dad is mean to her.
Carol’s baseball teammates are mean to her (tried to beam her).
When Carol crashed into the Blockbuster, she blew the head off Arnold Schwarzenegger (a male) of the True Lies standee, not Jamie Lee Curtis (a female).
Carol is hit on and insulted by the motorcycle guy.
What is wrong with calling a girl a young lady? Talos calls Maria a young lady a couple of times, which she gets mad about. Huh?
Also what about Maria, a single parent, leaving her young daughter to go and fight in space? She actually listens when her 11-year-old daughter tells her to go do it? Seriously?
Nick Fury is scanned by the Kree and told he is not a threat and is basically worthless. The Kree actually says “human male.” Note: The Kree didn’t scan Maria Rambeau, a female, who was right next to him.
Update: Fury is shown washing dishes.
The end sees Ronan (a male) state they are going to come back for that weapon. Emphasis on, “The Woman.”
Did I miss anything?
The bad of Captain Marvel
Brie Larson has no charisma. What makes me want to see her in another Marvel movie? Why would I want her appearing in The Avengers: Endgame? The end of the movie even has Carol barely cracking a smile as she looks simply miserable. Guess that is the future we have to look forward to in the MCU.
My biggest complaint about the movie is the replacement of Mar-vell as a female character played by Annette Bening. What a complete joke. Now, why was Mar-vell replaced? I’ll tell you why: It’s because Carol Danvers could in no way derive her powers from a man. Sickening. Annette Bening also played the Kree Supreme Intelligence, which was another joke compared to the version in the comics. I’ve said it before, these movies are not aimed at comic fans, but Disney and Feige banking on their mindless zombie audience.
The third act was awful and the character comes off as way too OP. Aside from the male bashing and gender swapping of characters, the movie was going in a decent direction; however, once she went Super Saiyan, it was all downhill from there. No Doubt’s “Just A Girl” was awful and didn’t fit with the scene or footage. Certainly, if we are trying to push the “girl power” aspect of the movie even further, a better song could have been picked. It was so out of place and killed all the build up. A majority of the songs also felt out of place, as they too, were pushing an obvious agenda. They really blew it and missed what should have been an epic scene.
Speaking of build up, Carol’s first flight was so disappointing and a huge letdown. Carol also blasting through all those ships was too OP, as well. It looked goofy and was cringe-inducing.
With Carol being so OP, why should I bother watching Avengers: Endgame or any other movie she is in? There is nothing relatable about her, she’s not flawed at all; she’s an ultra-Mary Sue boring, dull and lackluster character.
The movie retcons Fury forming the Avengers because of Captain Marvel, and it even retcons naming the Avengers after Carol Danvers. I almost puked. Goodbye Captain America, it was nice knowing you.
Update: I didn’t also like how Nick Fury lost his eye as a result of Goose the cat, and also that his scars were caused by a cat scratch. Really lame.
The post-credit scenes were also pretty bad. Can Captain Marvel teleport? She just shows up out of the blue next to Cap and Widow (lol). It’s probably the worse post-credit scene ever and comes before the most anticipated movie ever. Explains a lot. The second post-credit scene was also cringe-inducing as the cat throws up the Tesseract Infinity Stone like it’s a hairball. No one laughed in the theater.
The Good Of Captain Marvel
The story I actually liked, and I would love to see a different cut of the movie with a different ending and minus the male insults. Again, if the movie would have tried to prop up the female characters without having to sh-t on males, it would have been a lot better. Marvel succeeded with Black Panther because it showcased its African and African-American side without alienating the audience. Wonder Woman did something similar with its titular character. Not Captain Marvel.
Samuel L. Jackson was great in the flick. He is a good actor so there is no surprise. At times he and Larson also did have some decent chemistry, it’s just too bad the movie went out of its way with the male hate.
Seeing Clark Gregg back as Phil Coulson (or his first appearance, technically) was cool. I would have liked some more screen time, though I suppose it wasn’t needed.
Jude Law as Yon-Rogg played a terrific villain. Great character.
Goose the cat was really cool and fun. I found it funny that it wasn’t the pet of Carol’s and that Larson didn’t have a lot of scenes with it (Larson is actually allergic to cats in real life). The audience loved the cat and loved when it revealed its Flarken self.
As noted, the Skrulls twist was a nice surprise and had quality family moments. I look forward to seeing more Skrulls out in the MCU cosmos in additional cosmic flicks.
The special effects were top notch, even the end with everything being so OP. I liked the cosmic aspects of Carol’s powers and how they looked. The suits looked good, too, and the green one was fine.
Update: The Stan Lee tribute at the start was super cool, as was his cameo in the movie with a nice smile from Larson, which actually looked genuine.
Final Thoughts
Captain Marvel is a huge let down for a character and movie that is supposed to set up five more films following The Avengers: Endgame. Disney, Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige go out of their way to further an agenda and shoehorn in a character, which hurts the story and characters in the film. Remove the political feminist agenda, stick to the comics, organically introduce elements, and nix the retcons, and the MCU would be looking good. Instead, the MCU has one foot in the grave. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.
