Captain Marvel Is A Delightful Pop Culture Mash-Up
Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room first:
Yes, Captain Marvel is the MCU’s first female-led superhero film. That is a triumph, but also disappointing, considering this is their 21st movie.
As a woman, that is indeed a huge part of the reason I love this film; being able to see a woman who isn’t reduced to a stereotype or clad in unrealistic skin-baring outfits (that are bound to be give wedgies EVERYWHERE) is…so immensely gratifying.
But I’m not here to talk about that today.
I’m here to talk about something that I haven’t seen discussed online:
Captain Marvel is basically Star Wars mixed with Star Trek, with a dash of Marvel.
With that said, I can understand why many people didn’t like the film. Some of my friends said that it was boring, and others found it an adequate origin story, on par with Captain America: The First Avenger.
They assumed that it would be similar to the other Marvel stories so far: strapping men with crazy powers, handsome beyond belief, with a love story b-plot and a happy ending.
See: Wonder Woman.
(And no, I’m not saying that Wonder Woman is bad. Jeez. I’m just saying that this is a template. Swap out ‘men’ with ‘women’ for the other 300 superhero films with male leads.)
What they got, instead, was Star Trek-like alien characters with heart (facial features covered behind special effects makeup), Star Wars — level Pew Pew Pew scenes (LASERS AND PHOTONS AND FANTASY), and no heterosexuality love interest.
No wonder they were disappointed.
For me, though, the thing is: I LOVE Star Wars- and Star Trek and Superheroes.
And I’m gonna call it right now, since Marvel and Lucasfilm are both under Disney: they’re in the same universe.
The characters
Carol Danvers, i.e. Captain Marvel, is Han Solo: very rash but strong as hell.
Nick Fury (under some truly award-deserving CGI) is a combination of Luke and Leia: a little lost, but with good instincts, and great background to fight shit.
Talos, Korath, and the rest of the Kree and Skrulls…do I even need to do this:
How does this not look like a potential Star Trek episode?
If you put them into a Star Trek universe, the only thing you would be missing would be the languages.
And I haven’t even gotten to Goose.
The setting
The spaceships and pew pew pew are SO MUCH FUN. Wanna see a superhero beat a spaceship? You got it.
Wanna see cloaked spaceships crash into earth? You got it.
Wanna see photon beams? Here you go!
I was squealing with joy.
This film was a tribute to the joy of fangirling/fanboying. There were Easter eggs galore, there was character depth that you could spend hours figuring out, there was SO MUCH VISUAL SPECTACULARITY. (Is SPECTACULARITY a word? Whatever. I’m coining it.)
Go into it with an open mind, and you’ll realise that here’s another world fandoms can explore.
However, with all the trolling, I doubt that any of that will happen.
Originally published at onereelatatime.org on March 28, 2019.
