The Portrayal of Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel is the newest film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the film was originally released on March 8th, 2019 as the MCU’s first female lead superhero movie. It is no coincidence that the film was released on international woman’s day to celebrate its release, and market the film towards a larger female audience.

Slight spoilers ahead, but for those who were aware of recent feminism controversies surrounding the film, you may be relieved that the push for feminism does not take center stage during the course of the film, which I am thankful for. Not that there is anything wrong with feminism, but the way feminism and “strong female archetypes” have been recently portrayed in most comics are rather toxic. A trend regarding fictional female characters of recent years is that they are “mary sue” archetypes, characters who can do no wrong. I do not believe such traits are what makes a great female character or any character at all unless they are characters audiences are meant to hate.

Controversies aside, the film had a decent plot. It was part alien infiltration, part buddy-cop road trip, and a journey of self discovery for the protagonist Carol Danvers.

Speaking of Carol, she might just be my least favourite character in the film. In my opinion, Carol is not a very relatable character. A golden rule of film making is show instead of tell. But Carol’s backstory in the film was told mainly through glimpses in flashbacks or through the voices of other characters.

Brie Larson, who played Carol Danvers, has won an award for best actress at the Oscars for her performance in Room directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Yet, in this movie, the majority of her emotions as Carol was one- dimensional and stern. Albeit she is able to convey emotion throughout other parts of the film, those instances are rare and don’t say much about her character, if anything they make her character inconsistent. What’s worse is that when compared to other characters in the film, many of them conveyed more emotion, and are carried by better acting than the film’s main lead.

While I do not know whose decision it was to make the film the way it is, I certainly hope the character of Captain Marvel can be improved in future instalments. I left the theatre rather emotionless, similar to how the Carol was in the film. That being said, I still think the film is an adequate piece of entertainment, though with barely any rewatch value, and one that is overshadowed by the better parts of the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.