Assignment Graded: Captain Marvel

(Editor’s Note: AP Marvel is trying a different review format! Enjoy the following from our co-editors Izzy Sio and Sabrina Clarke!)

Character Development

Izzy Sio: Make no mistake: Brie Larson absolutely carries this movie. Her performance is stellar and she strongly portrays Carol’s drive, passion, and take-charge attitude with a complex emotional arc where she analyzes her own identity between Carol and Vers. Looking back, on the surface this conflict can seem a bit overused in movies but Brie Larson gives it emotional weight that makes it feel like it stands out. All the other supporting characters are still compelling and interesting, thanks to [directors] Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck bringing out the incredible performances of their actors like Ben Mendelsohn and Jude Law. However, these characters don’t go through the same level of change or growth that she does. Even Nick Fury faces this — he goes from a predictable point A to B.

Sabrina Clarke: As you’ll read later, I wasn’t too keen on the first act. As a result, I found that Carol lost as a protagonist by being drowned out in Jude Law’s monologue about how she should be behaving with this newfound power. It wasn’t until we hit the second act, when Vers reaches Earth and starts piecing things together, that more development comes out. It’s unfortunate that it took her interacting with subplot characters in order to be moved forward, but useful nonetheless because they were compelling enough to add to her without being distracting from the overall story.

Visuals

IS: I had a big problem with Boden and Fleck in this movie. There are some aspects where they absolutely delivered, but there were aspects where they fell pretty short. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck delivered incredible character moments, but they didn’t play with the other elements of the film as much as they could. There was nothing that really blew me away visually in this movie, there were just certain moments and parts of the movie where I just thought “My aesthetic is calling.” (My style is very 90’s grunge. Also, I own a lipstick the same color as Vers’ Kree uniform) Where the movie needed to be flashy and spectacular (Carol’s big space fight scenes), the movie delivered as much as it could, but all their big action scenes fell flat. It made it feel like the third act just…happened.

SC: Generally, the visual effects were stimulating. Captain Marvel’s power as an external aura is a cool visual and all of the extra effects that went along with certain blasts looked appealing. That final scene where Carol takes on the Supreme Intelligence felt a little Divergent-esque and not in a good way. I will say that there were more times than one that gave that same feeling which did seem a little off. Where this movie really lost out for me, however, was in the cinematography. Maybe veteran cinematographer Ben Davis intended for certain shots with Carol as the focus to be unsteady and shaky, but they were completely distracting to me.

Specifically in the scene where Maria and Talos are telling Carol to get back at the task force, the camera looks to be handheld, giving the unsteady/shaky look that should be more subtle when trying to communicate Carol’s uneasiness towards that task. Beyond this however, some of the editing choices to cut into a medium-close shot during fight scenes made little sense when the audience needs to be convinced that Carol, and Brie Larson at that, is an exceptional fighter/martial artist that deserves some kind of credit which comes from longer wide shots.

Social Issues/Commentary

IS: In my article I wrote two weeks ago, I mentioned from the trailers that this movie might not even delve into what it means to be a woman. Thankfully, it did — albeit on a very surface level notion. It’s still incredibly empowering to see Carol fire back at catcallers, show that she doesn’t need to prove herself to anyone, get back up over and over again, and show that her emotions make her the strongest Avenger instead of limiting her potential. I think that, if this movie gets a sequel, it will hopefully touch upon more intersectional aspects of feminism (Kamala Khan? Kamala Khan) but there is only an introductory level of discussion in this movie — and that’s honestly fine, and it’s what this movie needed. If there was this basic level of discussion in a sequel, I would be incredibly disappointed.

SC: #WOMXN!!! This was really nicely done because the feminist rhetoric wasn’t necessarily beaten over our heads. I don’t recall any “we have to be twice as good” dialogue or scenario because we were shown the ways that Carol was mistreated when she went through her old memories. It’s this distinction that makes the difference in this case because we knew we were dealing with a female superhero but didn’t get any of that rhetoric to boot. This category loses points for me solely because of the refugee rhetoric which was beaten over our heads.

The parallels between what is currently happening around the world to refugees everywhere who are treated as the problem are surely there, but mentioning it once is enough. We saw the conditions the Skrulls were living in when they were hiding out; we felt the emotional pain when they couldn’t be with their family members, but going back in after that to add more to the dialogue about the kinds of misfortune they endured seemed repetitive. I very much valued having this point because of how timely and important it is for so many cultures going through similar things, but after a couple of times of mentioning it, it’s best to let it rest. As we learn in screenwriting: show, don’t tell.

Plot

IS: While Boden and Fleck were able to generate great performances out of their actors their writing was average. Granted, there were a lot of hands that wrote this movie; five writers are given story credit (four if you count Boden and Fleck as a duo). I attribute that aforementioned lack of growth amongst the supporting characters to that writing and the pace of the plot, which made the movie simultaneously feel like the perfect length and too long at the same time? It was bizarre. Despite that, I liked the slight subversion they employed in the seemingly typical storyline of an amnesiac hero rediscovering their memories, and the writers convincingly made me feel like this plotline was fresh and unique.

SC: OMG what was that first act????? If I didn’t love Brie Larson, I might’ve walked out of the theater, no lie. To explain further, I would’ve been more receptive to this film opening with the first mission that gets ambushed because we would’ve been able to see how Carol is impulsive rather than having Jude Law tell us this in a weirdly pseudo-romantic train ride to the Supreme Intelligence. I think the first act suffered because of how much there was left to the dialogue rather than allowing us to truly see Carol maneuvering in the world. Captain Marvel redeems itself, however, when we hit Earth because those things get put to use. We can see Vers trying to accomplish something but meeting resistance because of her stubbornness while also advancing because of her incredible wits. After this point, the remainder of the film progresses quite intuitively.

Tone

IS: This actually felt very consistent, in terms of a balance between humor and drama. Despite the fact that there is That Character in the movie (something funny that unnecessarily is an audience hit, Goose the Cat and Doctor Strange’s cape are examples of these), and some plot elements within dramatic scenes don’t make sense, nothing was too overdone. You feel the weight of the drama when it’s expected and you laugh at appropriate times, and there isn’t a lot that can take you out of it.

SC: Inconsistent but to a point. Most of those inconsistencies come from the first act and then get cleared up as we meet other subplot characters. Most jokes made sense and seemed pretty well-timed in the larger scheme of the film.

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