The Filmgoer's Diary 2018/19

CAPTAIN MARVEL I 2019 I Film Discussion

In a way, I never expected this movie to be my first review of 2019. And it almost wasn't. I was going to write a review for Kusama: Infinity, a documentary that I genuinely enjoy. If I have time or energy, I'll put something together around that. But for now, Marvel has once got me thinking. But this time, not quite in the direction they might be hoping for.

Here's the thing, Captain Marvel is the first lead female superhero (or heroine, whatever is the socially acceptable semantic) to appear in the MCU. Not the first strong female character, mind you (and we'll get back to that.) But this is the first female-centered superhero film of the MCU. And yes, they really made a big deal out of it. Aside from releasing it the same week as international women's day, the plot, the story, the characterization, the script-everything is all about feminism. And yes, I don't think it's the best card to play. I believe that a film is at its very best when it seeks to engage the audience before trying to espouse a message – at least the case is most often true about popular entertainment films.

Popular films have a clear purpose. And although the filmmakers directly involved with the projects will often attach them with a sense of artistic integrity, the fact is the film set out first and foremost to make money. This is not necessarily a criticism; it's a fact. And it's a fact that I believe most people have come to accept. I am a big fan of the MCU. I love what the franchise has done to the superhero genre. Every time an MCU film comes out, I find myself longing to see it months beforehand. Even though, they never reach the level of emotional impacts I get from superior films (excluding an exceptional few.) Through all this, I never lose sight of the fact that the MCU films are first and foremost, products. They are the epitome of popular films. And they have a clear purpose: to make profits.

This purpose meant that every element of the film, even the progressive message like anti-racist message of Black Panther or the feminist message of Captain Marvel, are meant to serve the purpose of the film's financial success. Progressiveness in these films are not meant to be rebellious or daring, but crowd-pleasing. Black Panther is a really good film. And one can't help but applaud its majority African-American cast. But it isn't brave. It's crowd-pleasing. The decision to make this film a poster-child of racial issue is probably heavily supported by the knowledge that doing so would also make it one of the highest grossing films of all time. I don't think Marvel or Disney would release a film like Black Panther in the 1980s or the 1990s, when progressiveness isn't yet fashionable.

This is why a film like Black Panther must try to give its story a unique sense of nuance. And that it genuinely did. The central question of Black Panther is not a simple issue of racism. It actually tackles the question of open borders, integration, emancipation and responsibilities to one's creed. As a matter of fact, one notices that there is hardly any real references to racism at all. There have been critics who dislike this, feeling that Black Panther has steered away from an issue that badly needs to be addressed. One can make that argument, but I feel that doing so would make it too heavy-handed. I think the filmmakers recognize that since this is first and foremost a crowd-pleasing film, it would seem odd to paint the film as a rebellious piece of counter-culture. Instead the film simply reflects how the times have changed. The fact that African-Americans have found enough of their own voice to populate 90% of a major Hollywood production is reflected in the film's portrayal of a successful African nation capable of leading the world. Once again, this is not to say that institutional racism no longer exists in the modern society. The film is not saying that progressivity is not needed. It only questions its own role: whether the purpose of its existence (seeking profits) complies with the message it is trying to submit (anti-racism.) Indeed, by being careful of these conflicting elements, the filmmakers are able to find a more nuanced way to tackle the issue.

This, Captain Marvel miserably failed at. On the surface, the film isn't trying too hard to push its progressive storyline. Carol Danvers isn't trying to fight the patriarchy. She isn't a suffragette. And even the scenes that involve the feminist motifs (mostly relegated to the flashback) isn't long and overt. So I can't say that Captain Marvel went for the feminism issue like a Neanderthal. I know that the filmmakers tried to make it subtle. They wanted the progressive stories to seep into the story. And yet I came out of this movie still feeling like I was preached at. It took quite a bit of thinking for me to discern why this is the case.

I came to realize – after long contemplation – that the failure of this film, on the agenda front and on the entertaining front are connected in a network of issues which are themselves emblematic of the problems with the MCU. And it all starts with the main character. Carol Danvers seems to have one characteristic: that of a snarky tough soldier. While would not necessarily be an issue, Brie Larson doesn't quite pull this off. Her performance is really flat for an Oscar winning actress. But I guess this makes sense. Brie Larson was an amazing actress when she starred in films like Room and Short Term 12. But in both films, she was playing a character that was deeply vulnerable. Each performance oozes with subtlety and pain. And in many ways, that's what I was hoping would come across in her portrayal of Captain Marvel. But the script only allows for one truly emotional scene (it was also done in a really cheesy way, which doesn't help Larson's performance.) Other than that, Captain Marvel is always on top of things. She loss a fight here and there sure, but those are physical vulnerabilities. What I was hoping for was a bit more of an emotional vulnerability.

The emotional vulnerability isn't completely void though. One can see how this story can lend itself to some truly emotional moments. Especially towards the final act. This is where the directing and the editing comes in. his movie cuts very efficiently. It is trying to ensure that the story progresses along quickly and without a lot of hindrances. However, this also means the emotional moments are rarely allowed to marinate. There is very little set up for the Carol Danver's emotional journey. We like her, but we never connect with her in ways that we need to for the later emotional pay-offs to work. Carol is dealing with a mysterious of where she came from, a sense of confusion of who she is. And amidst all this, she faces the moral dilemma that upends her entire worldview. This is a great concept on paper. It lends itself for the character to face the lowest moment: when her weak inner self and identity a question of ethics. And yet, the moment lasted very short in the film. The character quickly overcomes the internal weakness. This makes her already weakly established internal struggle seems pointless. And by the end of the film, we don't get any sense of depth from her character at all.

It's the directing and editing which allows very little time for characters to grow, for moments to take hold and for stories to unfold. This makes the film efficiently entertaining. But not emotionally engaging. And because of this reason, the imageries of feminism is the only thing the audience could grab hold to for any sense of meaning to the story. We don't see Carol Danver's journey to greatness – we see a female's journey to greatness. The feminism agenda cannot be subtle because it is better expressed than the main story itself. Marvel didn't fail to find the right way to talk about feminism; they fail to tell a good story and thus fail to talk about feminism properly.

Marvel has lost the essence of its existence completely in this film. Not only did it became a capitalist machine, producing nothing more than an efficient, consumable product. But in doing so they appropriated the idea of feminism to maximize its popularity. They can't deny that they exploited this – the film was released so close to International Women's Day. Corporations cannot push agendas because they are always seeking profits. But people working under corporations can. And it wasn't even that long ago that Marvel allowed artists to produce essential works with genuine souls.

I do recognize that this entire article is perhaps very haphazard and unclear in itself. I didn't want my first reviews of the year to feel this much like a thought experiment. After all, I didn't think I would have so much to say about this movie. But the raw sense of discontent I feel toward this movie is too real to be veiled by any structure. At one point, I will likely do a more in depth look at this film. I might even say, as an examination of the first sign of Marvel's downfall. Here's hoping I won't have to resort to that. I still look forward to Endgame whose title is starting to sound seriously prophetic.