As the latest addition to the MCU, and the first to star a female lead (not that being the only girl in the room would be new for this hero), Captain Marvel fits into its movie universe while still maintaining its own brand of hero and humor. As it solves MCU questions big and small—from how the Tesseract got to Earth to the origins of Fury’s eye patch and the Avengers Initiative—Captain Marvel brings us yet another hero worth cheering for, even if it is all a big lead up to Avengers: Endgame.
Now, Captain Marvel will naturally draw comparisons to the other female-led superhero movie in recent years—DC’s Wonder Woman. Both women travel from peace-keeping sects of warriors to rejoin Earth society and stop a war, yet are told “no” time and time again when they want to help or fight, and are improperly cautioned to think with their heads instead of their hearts. Both women are also primarily fighting inner battles, whether with memory or morality. But while Wonder Woman featured the much-lauded “No Man’s Land” sequence as well as its much-criticized final fight scene, Captain Marvel contents itself with a more tonally consistent, slower-burning plot, wherein the emotional moments outshine the action sequences, yet still evoke the same rousing effect. By focusing on the lead’s identity quest, Captain Marvel doesn’t lose sight of the hero through her powers, as many a superhero flick’s third act is wont to do. (And more surprisingly, it doesn’t undercut the considerable emotional beats with jokes.)
In fact, the movie itself seems to take a page from lead Brie Larson’s signature playful yet sarcastic wit, hitting its stride when her character, Captain Marvel, crash-lands on Earth. Larson’s unique energy helps Captain Marvel to carve out its own space in the ever-growing MCU. Its characters are consistently funny, but not as goofy as Thor: Ragnarok or as fast-talking as Iron Man. It depicts a headstrong and stubborn hero rediscovering her roots, though not as seriously or staunchly as Marvel’s other famous Captain. From her bemused “hm!” after realizing that she can still fight with metal restraints on her hands to glaring too long from behind a door at a perceived enemy, Captain Marvel establishes herself as a woman of few words (but many facial expressions). She prefers action to speechifying, and—as the movie’s climactic montage asserts—is the type to always get up when she’s knocked down. As such, she can’t help but earn viewers’ respect and admiration.
Our protagonist is not alone in this inherent likability. Samuel L. Jackson’s young Nick Fury
also earns viewers’ esteem in his role as a cat-loving, banter-indulging buddy cop, as does Ben Mendelsohn as the deadpan Skrull Talos, tough yet devoted Maria and Monica Rambeau (Lashana Lynch and Akira Akbar), and of course, Goose. Each of these characters imbues the film with moments of light-hearted fun, even as the more somber truth behind Captain Marvel’s memory loss and the true villains’ intentions become clear. It’s the kind of movie that leaves one with a feeling of “I can’t point to any one thing, but I just liked it.” Yes, it follows the MCU formula of a powerful yet flawed hero ganging up with a bunch of sidekicks to ultimately save the day (even as it shakes up the origin story formula), but with its sort of subdued tone, it doesn’t overdo the effects of the main twist or the emotional climax as some other films do—in fact, the anticlimactic showdown with Captain Marvel’s betrayer ends up feeling quite satisfying.
Instead, the film embraces it feminist roots, replacing the love interest arc with a female friendship, and shows us a trailblazing hero even before she was graced with superpowers. No matter how many times she is knocked down, captured, or defeated (which happens a surprising number of times in the film’s 123-minute runtime), true to her trademark defiance and perseverance, Captain Marvel proves that she can’t be held down for long.