Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been one of the rare examples where Hollywood tries to change the paradigm of A‑production and take risks previously unimaginable, 2019 showed that Marvel Studios has no intention of reinventing the wheel. The strategy for preparing the grand finale of the series was taken from the previous year. Just as in 2018 the film Black Panther served as a kind of “artillery preparation” for the main summer blockbuster – Avengers: Infinity War – introducing a new member of the elite superhero team, so in 2019 the same kind of film served for Avengers: Endgame, introducing a new superhero named Captain Marvel. In both cases, the new superhero belonged to what Hollywood’s salon leftists like to call an “oppressed minority” – a black man and a woman respectively. And in both cases, the new film thereby acquired political connotations and extra publicity related to alleged controversies. In the latter case, however, this was raised to a higher level, thanks to the lead actress Brie Larson, an Oscar winner for Room, who, while promoting the film, stated that it was a film primarily dedicated to women, ethnic, racial and other minorities, which white heterosexual men should not watch, and if they do, they have no right to comment or criticise. This was followed by the predictable reaction of geeks who took it as a gauntlet thrown in their face, laeding toi massive trolling on social media and the appropriate outrage from “enlightened” and “woke” moral guardians who rushed to the aid of poor Brie Larson and the billion‑dollar franchise she represents. Such publicity was reflected in predictably successful box‑office returns and the expected “hype” for Marvel’s Endgame.
The title character, played by Larson, is Vers, a member of Starforce, the elite formation of the Kree Empire, who is plagued by nightmares about a mysterious woman. Her superior and mentor Yon‑Rogg (Jude Law) advises her to show as little emotion as possible. This is very important because the Kree are in a long war with the Skrulls, a race that can shapeshift, i.e. take on the appearance and short‑term memories of their enemies. In one such skirmish, Vers is captured and brought before Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), the Skrull leader, but she manages to escape and ends up in Los Angeles in 1995. Her attempts to contact her superiors attract the attention of the secret government organisation S.H.I.E.L.D., whose agent Nick Fury (Jackson) arrests her, but soon begins to cooperate with her to help her not only escape the Skrulls but also solve the mystery of her own origins. Her memories, it turns out, are connected to Earth, specifically a secret air‑force base where a certain Dr Wendy Lawson (Annette Benning) worked on Project Pegasus, an experimental engine that achieves light speed. Vers must discover how she is connected to that project, and she might be helped by Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), a black air‑force officer who ultimately turns out to have been her colleague and best friend.
The screenwriters of Captain Marvel faced a similar problem to the authors of other films in the series that introduce a new main hero, and in this case an even bigger one, given that Captain Marvel (who in the original comic‑book incarnations was male) is not in the top tier of Marvel heroes and that most of the general public is unfamiliar with him. This meant they had to deliver some kind of “origin story”, but not at the expense of the main action and plot. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck and Geneva Robertson‑Dworet found a very good solution for this – the action begins in medias res, but the main heroine is afflicted with amnesia, meaning she must discover who she is, what she is, what superpowers she has, how she acquired them and what she should actually use them for, based only on visions, clues and flashbacks. Thus, at least in the first half, a fast pace is maintained and those interested in action get to see several quite interesting scenes. The very beginning is also very good, above all the way the world of the Kree is depicted, in a manner similar to but significantly different from many other super‑technological alien utopias in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The decision to set the action in 1995 also proved good, as it created an opportunity to show another “origin story” – namely how the Avengers began. This was a good opportunity to showcase modern Hollywood’s digital de‑ageing technology, i.e. an opportunity for Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg to play young agents Fury and Coulson.
The setting of the action in the past was also seen as an opportunity to serve the audience a bit of nostalgia for the 1990s, but this was overdone, given that many pop songs from that era play at moments when their connection to the on‑screen events is rather questionable. Many will see this as an irritating “fan service” for a demographic group that is unlikely to have rushed to the cinemas, and it’s hard to imagine that nostalgia for the 1990s would be felt among inhabitants of latitudes and longitudes where there was far less prosperity and peace than in Clinton’s America. The biggest problem for the film, however, is the title heroine, who is rather poorly written and conceived. Although the flashbacks deliver the presumed ultra‑feminist content, i.e. suggest that from her earliest years she had to fight against sexist prejudices, all that struggle actually meant nothing, given the scene that clearly shows she acquired her superpowers primarily through an extraordinarily lucky and not very plausible set of circumstances, namely by being in the best/worst place at the moment of an explosion. And after that, Captain Marvel acquired not just superpowers but hyper‑powers that are superior to everything Thor, Iron Man and the rest of the gang have, and she masters them far more quickly and successfully. Because of this, the final battle in which she saves Earth from yet another potential apocalypse induces yawns, but also creates another problem for the screenwriters of Endgame. They must, namely, come up with some really good reason why she wasn’t with the rest of the Avengers team fighting Thanos, i.e. why Infinity War didn’t end differently and was significantly shorter. In the case of Captain Marvel, answers to that question are not provided, and the irritating “retroactive continuity” leaves a bad impression.
With such a poorly written and conceived character, even Oscar‑winner Larson cannot do much, and her performance is in the deep shadow of her perhaps less hyped but more effective colleagues. This applies above all to Jackson, who clearly enjoys the situation where Fury is finally one of the more important characters, but also to Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, who excels in the role of Talos even under tons of make‑up and CGI. The rest of the cast is nothing special, including Jude Law in yet another routine and forgettable performance. Captain Marvel achieved commercial success, but owes it primarily to being part of the larger Marvel universe. By itself, it represents a zany but uninspired space opera akin to Jupiter Ascending - a clear indicator that even a series like Marvel’s will sooner or later run out of creative resources.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)
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