What Makes the Captain Marvel Trailer So Powerful
The beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next phase is getting ready to launch
‘We have no idea what threats are out there. We can’t do this alone. We need you.’ Thus Spake Nick Fury in the trailer for Captain Marvel.
A statement that echoes beyond the marketing push (which I am a million percent certain won’t be in the final cut), beyond the film itself, to the hero at the center of it all. Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel. A hero, along with Black Panther — as well as the best cinematic Spider-Man of them all — that will act as the pillars of this new superhero universe. Times are divisive, crude, extreme, so much of it wallowing in a morass, shouting at the void. A world that feels like it’s impossibly going backwards in so many ways. Where common sense is hounded as a foreign concept and then thrown out to the gutter. There needs to be a figure that rises above the clouds. With such authority and drive. Certainty in their belief to do good, with a power that is unmatched (so Marvel head Kevin Feige says) that they obliterate the barriers we put around us, and transcend what some of the masses may perceive them to be.
As the post-credits sting for Avengers: Infinity War revealed, she is on her way. A savior. To help right the wrongs. A tease that instantly had me searching cryogenic chamber prices. There’s something awe-inspiring about witnessing a character on screen that is built up to be the hero that will be a beacon, a rallying point, for the next decade or so of Marvel films. A manifestation of the wider cultural shift. An expansion of the genre. Even though calls for a female-led superhero film from Marvel have been loud for years — and that somehow Warner Bros. beat them to the punch with exuberant and successful Wonder Woman — it somehow feels like that she is landing at the right time. The want, the waiting, the current state of affairs, the point at which the MCU is at the moment. A figure such as Captain Marvel doesn’t deserve to have had something thrown out into the world five or ten years ago. Nor as some hokey, poorly made schlock from the 80’s or early 90’s. Where the superhero genre is now, it calls for a hero such as her.
A quote that could be read as expressing that it’s not just men that can fix whatever problem this world is in, an understanding more like it, and that women — in fact, everyone else for that matter, regardless of who you are or what you identify as, in whatever capacity — have to be there, side by side, to face the future and to fight back. To stand together. You can see the power. In that final, earth shattering shot. In her fighter pilot swagger. In her absolutely lethal right hook that crushes an old lady (wait, what?). And in the most pulsating, thrilling way. The short montage of Carol getting back up at varying stages of her life. It hit me. In the heart. An emotional blast. Every. Damn. Time.
There’s something weighty about Captain Marvel. On the back of Wonder Woman and Black Panther, you would assume that the impact of her debut would be lessened. But it feels like it’s going in the opposite direction, amplified because of the preeminent status of the MCU, the world as it is, the power of the character, and the lead up to the next Avengers film. It’s a confluence of events and moods that are creating a perfect storm for it to land massively. Anticipation will be at threat level midnight. A herald for the closing chapter of this current iteration of the MCU. A significant cultural milestone by simply existing. An punching the daylights out of a grandma for good measure.
Maybe I’m getting the hyperbole out of the way, though I have reached a stage when it comes to the genre where I have become more discerning of what I see as genuine, resonating cinema — but I am but a man, and like all movies, it can connect strongly to others. What struck me though is that if I’m experiencing such a strong emotional pull from the trailer I can only imagine the level a young girl, or women of any age really, would be reacting at seeing this first glimpse of her. Like most of the Marvel films it’ll come wrapped in the house style, with openings for individual flourishes here and there. Maybe I am letting my imagination run away with me here. It’s only a teaser, and I’ve learnt to temper my expectations. In no way am thinking that this might be an almighty and colossal film that joins the ranks of The Dark Knight, Logan or Spider-Man 2 but it’ll do its job, and do its job with an air of effortless confidence that is the Marvel way now.
I guess I just reviewed the film in advance of it. Moreso the excitement and reaction that will surround it, attempting to get ahead of it as the flood comes down upon the pop culture world (man the comment sections are going to be a swamp, right?) What am I saying is that, even if the movie itself is but an exciting, entertaining dalliance (like the recent rollicking Thor: Ragnarok or Ant-Man and the Wasp), or a hefty landmark achievement (Ironman, Winter Soldier, Black Panther) there will be something inherently powerful about it. Not just another superhero movie. A next step. To go higher, faster, further.
