Why Captain Marvel Was Such a Bad Film

i think the beginning of the declining quality of the mcu started with the release of 2019's captain marvel i hadn't planned on going to see the film at the time when it came out because i didn't think it was made for someone like me kind of like how brie larson had said that a wrinkle in time wasn't made for a 40-year-old white dude it wasn't made for him but at the time i figured i'd go to see it so you guys didn't have to since this film was released the mcu has had a few mediocre outings like the tv series falcon and the winter soldier one division and the truly dull and boring cinematic release of black widow so let's take a look back now at where it all went wrong with captain marvel as you can probably imagine given my previous coverage of the film my expectations were in the toilet going to see this i expected it to be watchable but very meh and my expectations were met perfectly it's watchable but very meh and comfortably among the worst films in the mcu i'll give a brief rundown of the plot before diving into the themes of the film the often not so subtle subtext spoilers ahead brie larson plays a character called veers though later on earth she discovers she's actually carol danvers a human air force pilot anyway the film begins with veers in the impressive cgi city of hala on the cree homeworld as a cree warrior fighting an ongoing battle against the shape-shifting scrolls she has some extra special abilities which are kept in check by a device placed on the back of her neck she trains with jude law's character jan raog she's occasionally haunted by dreams of another life something has happened to her and she can't quite recall her past she visits some kind of sophisticated virtual reality system where she speaks to the supreme intelligence played by annette benning for whatever reason everyone who speaks to this intelligence sees a different physical representation a different person every time someone from their past the opening of the film actually held my interest believe it or not the battle with the scrolls on a nearby planet and the visual effects are very impressive unfortunately as soon as she arrives on earth after escaping from a scroll vessel the film falls pretty flat thereafter veers crashes into a blockbuster video encounters members of shield younger versions of nick fury and phil coulson made possible by seamless de-aging cgi that's now been impressively perfected after they have their initial introductions veers chases a scroll on board a train this whole sequence is pretty decent but the moment it ends the film becomes very pedestrian in terms of pacing and tone the only thing that stopped me from nodding off in this film is the fact that i went to see it in 4dx the occasional jolts in my chair a splash of water here some wind effects there it was enough to keep me awake because boy does this thing get boring veers finds a crystal containing her memories that the scroll leader had attempted to extract from her he infiltrates shield and tells fury to work with her in some continuity retconning shield is referred to by its abbreviation which as we know it wasn't in 2008 iron man when all of this began it was referred to by the full title strategic homeland intervention enforcement and logistics division this film takes place in 1995 so this would appear to be a continuity break anyway the investigation by veers and fury takes them to a military base project pegasus in the records room they find out that veers is actually carol danvers an air force pilot who tested a prototype aircraft for dr wendy lawson both of them apparently died in a crash the trail takes them to louisiana where they encounter a former friend of carroll's fellow air force pilot maria they attempt to reconnect while also piecing together the events that led up to the crash carol was a kind of surrogate aunt to maria's daughter anyway the big twist is that the scrolls led by talos are actually not the villains at all they've lost their homeworld because they refused cree rule this is all proven from a recording talos has from the black box of the aircraft carroll crashed all those years ago so carol has been on the wrong side this whole time carol's memories begin to return jude law's character is actually the true villain and he'd attempted to obtain the energy core of the aircraft's engine when he found it crashed on earth dr lawson real name marvel had died in the crash carol shot the engine core to try to stop it from falling into cree control but she absorbed the energy thus giving her the powers she has today long story short after finding marvel's ship in orbit a fight to protect the scrolls and obtain the energy core begins carol eventually defeats the supreme intelligence and the remaining cree she then flies around in space destroying torpedoes and ships with ease she sends janrog back to the cree homeworld and leaves fury with an intergalactic pager for emergencies i guess what happened in new york and avengers and the near destruction of planet earth in avengers age of ultron didn't quite count as emergencies carol agrees to help the cree find a new homeworld oh and the tesseract was rather gratuitously and unnecessarily thrown into this film for some reason and it's swallowed by a cat that really isn't a cat also that's how fury loses his eye the cat scratches it out which makes this scene from the winter soldier just look really really stupid last time i trusted someone i lost an eye so that's the film's basic plot carol danvers lacks anything resembling charisma and she spends most of the film either reacting to everything around her with one of three expressions on her face a blank emotionless one a confused one or a smug one she seems incredibly bored and jaded throughout the entire film in no way is she someone you could ever really care about or relate to she's not likable or funny despite the fact that her friend maria keeps telling her that she's really funny the character plays like some shallow vacuous reality tv star the entire performance just feels phoned in as i expected there is no heroic journey here she doesn't undergo any kind of personal transformation atonement redemption or moral or ethical self-discovery as i said in a previous video the origin stories of the likes of tony stark and thor are much more compelling because they follow the tried and tested superhero archetype and that's a good thing tony stark was an arrogant narcissist who had to learn some harsh lessons that the weapons he'd been building were causing immense suffering in the world and this realization hits him square in the chest one day when he's injured by one of those weapons he has to suffer a truly humbling experience and decides to change the direction of stark industries to become a force for peace and not for war like thor in the first thor film he begins to seek redemption for his past sins thor's arrogant belief that he was entitled to the throne nearly cost him everything and when he's banished by his father to earth he has to claw his way back up from the dirt he's not even worthy to lift his own hammer audiences respond to superhero stories where small self-centered characters become truly larger than life because they understand the value of selflessness they learn about self-sacrifice and true heroism they become better people having realized the darkness and failings within them taking responsibility for their past misdeeds or mistakes and striving to become a better version of themselves to become remorseful humbled and eventually role models these characters began as a lump of clay and became molded by circumstances trauma or past mistakes into something extraordinary ant-man isn't a great film i will admit that but unlike captain marvel its humor works much better and it's actually got some real heart and sentiment to it there's some great action set pieces and some truly fun moments and paul rudd is always hilarious similarly scott lang has to redeem himself starting out as a petty criminal and becoming a hero but ultimately at the back of it all his true personal quest was to be there for his daughter to become a better father like carol danvers spider-man didn't earn his powers he was just bitten by a radioactive spider and carol just accidentally absorbed some energy but peter parker quickly sobered up when he realized that there were serious consequences to his actions with great power comes great responsibility so he had to learn to not lose the run of himself or people around him could get hurt this is not the message in captain marvel carol danvers was basically always amazing her friend maria even tells her as much she tells her that she was always a great friend an amazing aunt to her child she was always funny and strong so in other words carol was perfect from the start she just lost some of her memories and all that happens is that she gets back what she already had she doesn't get anything new she doesn't overcome a past mistake or learn some harsh lessons or seek redemption or salvation of some kind she has all of this power now and there's no mention of the immense responsibility that comes with that power such massive power could corrupt some people but not carol because carol's amazing and always was she doesn't need to learn how to use it responsibly she already knows apparently once she stops letting the cree the supreme intelligence the device on her neck and yawn rog from holding her back then she can truly become the incredibly perfect and all-powerful superhero she was always meant to be the hero she already was the message of this film is a stock standard feminist empowerment message you're perfect the way you are sweetie as soon as the patriarchy gets out of the way you'll get everything you're owed at the end of the film she tells john rog that she doesn't have to prove anything to him the message really is i don't have to prove anything to anyone this isn't the thinking of a hero carol does not learn anything about the value of anything there's no personal challenge to overcome and when she finally becomes all powerful she's literally flying through space smashing into torpedoes like they weren't there and flying through a massive spaceship destroying it cutting straight through it like it was butter and the incredible cgi effects have no impact at that stage because it's all meaningless without character without story without conflict without any difficulty or adversity at a certain point there's no challenge in it the message is simply she's being held back and once she stops holding back and the oppressive forces keeping her down go away she will be absolutely perfect and unstoppable and can do no wrong ever and she'll know how to wield her powers every other hero has to learn through trial and error how to wield their powers but like rey using a lightsaber and the force for the first time carol just kinda knows intuitively now this could easily have been rectified they could have given carol a dark past some guilt and regrets to work through for example they could have said well carol fought on the wrong side of a war for years and killed many scrolls because she was radicalized by the cree which is true i suppose so why didn't the writers choose to go with the narrative that she has blood on her hands and must atone for her past even though she didn't realize she was fighting on the wrong side that doesn't change what she did now that's some level of self-awareness and character development that's potentially an heroic journey it gives the character an opportunity to re-evaluate her past actions now of course carol does eventually fight on the side of the scrolls but you never truly get a sense of regret or a feeling of guilt on her behalf she's not racked with a sense of inner turmoil she never says to herself oh my god what have i been doing all these years the reason for this is simple if they had ran with that kind of character arc it would have made carol seem like less of a victim feminists want women to always be seen as the victim so carol cannot be allowed to take full responsibility for her past actions she must always be painted as a victim of the cree the supreme intelligence her parents who didn't encourage her especially her father the mean guys in the military who laughed at her because she couldn't climb a rope the guy who told her that they'd never let her fly jude law's character who tells her she's not good enough in addition carol also encounters some casual sexism in her life some sleazy stereotypical dude bro in a bar says to her you know why they call it a cockpit right and another guy in the film tells her to smile you know toxic masculinity that feminists complain about really cringy stuff carol's friend maria is the real mary sue in this film these progressive politically correct hollywood films often take aim at the nuclear family carol has had past issues with her family so in these kinds of films water is considered thicker than blood unconventional families she becomes a kind of ant figure to maria's daughter and of course maria is a single mom probably the greatest single mom of all time she's super badass highly intelligent independent the actress even described the character as a person that you don't feel like you need to help the father is of course no longer in the picture we're never told what happened to him but the theme of deadbeat dads is common in hollywood films nowadays but of course if the female characters spend too much time talking about their ex-boyfriends and husbands the film might have a harder time passing that all-important bechdel test at one point talos calls her a young lady and she takes great offense at this young lady apparently is super triggering apparently being called a young lady is really bad she must be neither of those things i guess she's tough and completely unrelatable and is in no way feminine and despite being a bit out of practice she can fly basically anything well at least sam jackson and ben mendelsohn deliver solid performances the effects are good but there's no real originality in the film it's a very paint by number script the villains are cardboard cutout characters their motivations aren't fully defined and expanded upon the entire affair is just predictable and safe meh is an accurate description of this film but i'm feeling generous today so i'll give it five out of ten you're missing nothing by not seeing captain marvel it's a profoundly mediocre film [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Dave Cullen Show

Views: 113,505

Keywords: Dave Cullen, captain marvel, mcu

Id: jOy8Xf0FaZI

Length: 14min 20sec (860 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021