A solid film for the next generation

Rating: 7/10 (9 March 2019)

What a time to be a woman!
When I was growing up in the 90s, I didn't have a female superhero to look up to on the big screen. As a wildly individualistic child, I liked Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, and Stargate SG-1 and always immediately latched on to the women who supported the leading men. As a child, I didn't know what I was missing, because I never had it anyway.
Until now.
Captain Marvel becomes the first female-lead superhero film in the modern MCU, and it comes a stunning 20 films since Iron Man in 2008. Why did it take 11 years and 20 films for Carol Danvers to grace our screen? Well...I'm sure you know the answers that have been given before: women aren't strong enough to carry a film. They're too emotional to be realistic and relatable. No one wants to see a woman superhero. There isn't the market for it.
Captain Marvel takes all of those excuses and not only mentions them, but shatters them.
It has to overcome a fairly rocky start, as the story seems to not know where it wants to fly. We meet "Vers" (Brie Larson) as a Kree soldier, who is having flashbacks to a time in her past she can't remember. A sparring match with her commanding officer Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) shows early on the fitness and prowess of this well-trained warrior, who seems to have immense potential in her photon-powered fits. The time spent in Kree lore is messy and slightly confusing, while Law takes the spotlight as we struggle to put a finger on Vers' personality.
Thankfully, things pick up when Vers crash-lands on Planet C-53 (Earth...of course) and meets Nick Fury, (a digitally younger Samuel L. Jackson) during her quest to eliminate a Skrull threat to the planet. One car/train chase later and we're starting to see Vers discovering more about herself and Larson begins to have a little more to work with.
The ensuing plot finds Vers learning that she is actually Carol Danvers, an Air Force test pilot who was said to have died in an unauthorized test flight along with her mentor, Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening). In actuality, Danvers and Lawson had been shot down by an alien threat, and Danvers caught in an immense explosion of an alien powered blast that she absorbed, thus giving her superpowers. Taken from the crash site, by the Kree, her memories were wiped and she was conditioned to be a solider in a galactic war with the Skrulls, shapeshifters who are said to be terrorists.
With the induction of these retuning memories come two of the film's strongest performers, Ben Mendelsohn, playing the Skrull Talos and Lashana Lynch as Danvers' wingman and best friend Monica Rambeau. The emotional gravitas brought from Mendelsohn makes up for the lack of such meaty work for Oscar-winner Larson, who is at the short end of the stick as far as the script is concerned. Lynch, along with Akira Akbar's Monica Rambeau, is the heart of the film, and whose performance drives a desire that it had been the focus of the film rather than the half-hearted Kree storyline.
To say that "Captain Marvel" is a perfect film would be giving it a disservice. The punchlines are delivered fairly well, though humor surrounding the 90s nostalgia is sometimes groan-worthy and overdone. The plot is muddled and can't seem to decide whether the film should be a completely stand-alone origin story, or if it should lean into the Avengers: Endgame skid (stay in your seats for the crucial mid-credits scene). It lacks the heart of Black Panther and the charm of the first Avengers film, but it solidly earns its place up with the more successful Marvel films.
Perhaps the biggest shame is the missed potential to let Larson's talent and skill as an actor shine through the script. She does what she can, and does it very well. During moments when Carol Danvers begins to leak into her character and memories, Larson commands the screen with her expression and tone. When she's allowed to show emotion, be it anger, cockiness or confidence, she is most memorable. She has powerful chemistry with every actor in the film, and shines most when with the Rambeaus and Fury share her screen. The physical training Larson went through to prepare for the role is given a nice spotlight as well and it is clear she is embracing the role, and is a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What Captain Marvel does well is illustrate the ideal that a woman is more powerful when she embraces her emotions, embraces her confidence and embraces her knowledge of who she really is. When Carol Danvers gets knocked down, she stands up again, and again, and that is a message that is so exceedingly important to girls and children in this day and age that they almost go overboard with it. But one of the most powerful and chill-worthy moments in the film comes when Danvers breaks out of her mental and physical shackles of Kree influence and fully becomes who we know today to be Captain Marvel. It was this film's "No Man's Land" moment, an attempt to mirror a scene from 2017's "Wonder Woman", with Diana charging across a battlefield in full armor as men shout at her that it is impossible.
Perhaps "Captain Marvel" is the Buzz Aldrin to "Wonder Woman's" Neil Armstrong, following in the famous footsteps of her predecessor, but absolutely no less important to the goals of both films. The two should not be compared, and instead should be celebrated together as two of the first women to lead films in major franchises. Where "Wonder Woman" opened the doors, "Captain Marvel" begins to carve the path of impact that will undoubtedly resonate with the next generation of girls, women, filmmakers, airmen, and heroes.