I've been seeing a lot of conflicting responses to Captain Marvel's official MCU intro in the days since her movie came out. A lot of people saying that it was a beautiful movie to watch, but the writing wasn't so good, or that Brie Larson was miscast. At least I don't really follow any of the whole "manbabies crying foul because they hate even the slightest whiff of feminism" crowd, so nobody I knew was complaining about the movie that unjustifiably. But I was told to lower my expectations and everything would be more enjoyable that way. Maybe I did just a little. But I still found it, like Aquaman, a case of the trailers being deceptively not the best, and the movie itself actually being pretty damn good - bar a few flaws, of course.
 |
| Ready to fly, Captain? I know I sure am. |
This movie, I think, is perhaps the most high-profile media project yet to really tap into the recent wave of 90s nostalgia. It's funny, 80s nostalgia has been pretty big for the last few years or so - just look at the success of Stranger Things and Ready Player One and, currently on Syfy, Deadly Class. But now the 90s are getting their turn, and with the enormous success Captain Marvel has enjoyed, I now fully expect the next couple of years will be full of movies and TV scenes showcasing the 90s as much as possible. Blockbuster and Radio Shack stores. VHS tapes. Utterly dreadful download speeds from CDs alone. Dial-up internet, with all those screechy noises associated thereof - and internet cafés too, while we're at it. And of course pagers, because we all remember how Infinity War ended with Fury sending out the pager signal to Captain Marvel just as he got dusted from Thanos' Snap.
In this movie, though? We get to see Fury being pretty kickass, despite the fact that, even as a SHIELD agent, it's not a point in time where SHIELD or anyone on Earth is really aware of alien life. As far as anyone is concerned, SHIELD just deals in sci-fi tech and other assorted strange cases. But in this point in time when The X-Files was a cultural touchstone, it's pretty appropriate that this is when SHIELD makes first contact, and who better to (technically) make first contact with than a tough, heroic Kree Starforce soldier stranded on Planet C-53-
Wait a minute, wait a minute, waidaminnit. Weren't the Kree always the bad guys in Guardians of the Galaxy? And also in Agents of SHIELD, several times? So what are we doing rooting for them now? Are we about to see their good side, before Ronan the Accuser came along and poisoned our view of the Kree for pretty much forever? Yeah, Ronan shows up in this one too, a little younger, but still played by Lee Pace. Also showing up younger is Djimon Hounsou's Korath, when he was working with Starforce, before he was a hunter. But the Kree, we're supposed to be on their side, and the Skrulls, those creepy horrorshow shape-shifters, they're the big villains - because why else would they cast Ben Mendelsohn as their leader, right? Incidentally, Talos is perhaps Mendelsohn's best villain role yet - unlike the genteel professionalism giving way to occasional rage of Director Krennic in Rogue One, or the corporate smarm of Nolan Sorrento in Ready Player One, Talos has a lot of popping personality and enough snark to make me question whether or not he was written by Joss Whedon.
But this movie has a way of playing into expectations set forth by previous Marvel movies, and subverting the ones it sets up itself. Thematically, it covers a lot of similar ground to The Winter Soldier and Thor: Ragnarok, which is as much as I'll say without spoilers there. But it's also got a lot to say in feminist terms, both outright (Carol and her best friend Maria both deal with a shit-ton of sexism on the daily, and that's not just limited to human culture either - the Kree aren't much better, not with Jude Law's Yon-Rogg constantly trying to train "Vers" out of being instinctive and emotional) and subtle (again, Carol and Maria, who show such immensely powerful sisterhood, and with Carol officially an Auntie to Maria's daughter Monica, already helping raise part of the next generation of empowered women.)
The only real flaw I have to point out with this movie is that it starts off super slow, even with a metric ton of info-dumpage to educate the viewers on the Kree and Skrulls and their ongoing interstellar war. But then when Carol crash-lands on her old homeworld...hoo boy, does the action really take off. 90s LA and the Desert Southwest are the sites of some intense set pieces, namely a car and train chase, which Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have confirmed to be an homage to The French Connection, and an aerial chase through the Grand Canyon that puts the one in Independence Day to shame no matter how well that one's aged since 1996. And of course Carol and Fury making their way through a military records facility, where the motion-activated lights on every individual corridor add to an increasingly horrorshow atmosphere.
All I will say is this: I really, really hope Marvel gives us another Captain Marvel movie set between this one and Infinity War, the better to showcase what she gets up to in the meantime. And for this one, I'm giving it an A- and presuming that of the two superhero movies set in the 90s this year with women as the titular characters, this one's going to wipe the floor with Dark Phoenix in all the ways. Once Carol's done wiping the floor with Thanos, of course.
Till next time, Pinecones...
 |
| #FeedTheRightWolf |
 |
| Remember: Denis Leary is always watching. Always. |
No comments:
Post a Comment