Captain Marvel: More Than Human


As soon as I watched Captain Marvel, I was struck by its social commentary it wore on its sleeve. Issues of immigration, sexism, and individualism are all on the forefront of the film. While the film toys with interesting topics, it falls short of its themes and of its main character in its ability to use them to create a truly meaningful film. A female-led Marvel film should never have taken ten years to create, and its great that they have finally made one, but this film just seems like an excuse to flex Captain Marvel’s guns before she faces real threats with her role in Avengers: Endgame.

Carol Danvers, is cool, collected and morally straight. Lucky for us that we have a character with seemingly no flaws that also has seemingly unlimited power. Her only true personal battle is one of her lost memory. Once she regains her memory, Captain Marvel is complete. Without the amnesia that held her back from knowing who the true enemies were, she makes quick work of all the antagonists of the film, cutting through all of them with ease. The narrative loses steam quickly as any tension is dissolved by knowing no one will be able to come close to her power level. It is interesting to see Captain Marvel in this film in comparison to the overall history of superheroes.

When Super-Man first emerged in the comic scene, he was much like Captain Marvel. He had all the powers and none of the vices. Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two young Jewish boys, his connections to Jewish tradition, with comparisons made to the story of Moses, the overall messianic overtones of a practically perfect savior of humanity are clear. Since that first emergence of Super-Man, writers of all forms of super-heroes have added character flaws and personal dilemmas to their stories to ground the characters and relate them to regular people, and to make the stories more interesting, since no one wants to read a perfect person triumph versus pure evil over and over with no variation. Yet here we are with Captain Marvel and while a fun, entertaining trip, it lacks the grounding of Carol Danvers to make her a character we can relate to. This is not surprising, as its clear Carol is meant to be a symbol of empowerment for the young girls coming into the theater to see the first Marvel heroine to take the spotlight. With much less representation for them in the superhero genre, making her an inspirational figure is justifiable and commendable. Carol then, becomes a symbol for what we should strive to be, though the film never connects her to what we are.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Film Techniques

The short film Bunny used many high angle overhead shots to depict the point of view of the moth. This perspective puts the audience in the position of the moth so we feel more sympathy when the bunny starts trying to kill it. Dutch angles, or canted angles were used primarily during the oven sequence to promote confusion and uncertainty since this is uncharted territory for the bunny and the audience. I thought that maybe the moth was the spirit of the bunny's husband because of the close-up of the moth on their wedding photo and the fact that the moth is so persistent in trying to get the bunny's attention.  In Harold and Maude, the first scene we viewed starts off in deep focus since we can see both the mother and young women talking in the foreground as well as Harold's "suicide" in the outside garden. The camera interacts mainly with Harold during this scene especially when he breaks the fourth wall by looking at it directly. This act acknowledges the pr...
Read more

Exploring Film Techniques

“Bunny” is a short animation that depicts the transformation of the earthly body to the celestial form as the protagonist transitions into the afterlife. The moth symbolizes the guide, and we get this perception because of the different techniques used to portray the moth. The moth has a musical theme that has a driving and whimsical rhythm, giving the viewer an association of mischief with the insect. The shots portray the moth interfering with the bunny who is hard at work. The viewer resonates with the bunny’s reaction that the moth is an annoyance because the bunny is often in the side of the frame, with an open space for the moth to appear. The viewer expects that the moth will enter the frame to fill that space, yet when it does, the viewer still gets the sense that the moth is an unwelcome presence because of the bunny’s reaction as well as the presumed stupidity of the moth. The moment of truth happens when the bunny enters the oven and the moth’s spiritual significance is rev...
Read more

Dead Man

Cold Fever and Dead Man both heavily rely on funeral rituals. Both main characters are slowly headed towards performing one, whether they know it or not. What struck me about William's Blake character is that he never seems to be aware of his slow approach towards death. He does not seem to realize he is mortally wounded, and perhaps if he could get back to civilization, he could survive. At the end of the film, William is still alive during his own funeral, making him an active participate in the ritual similar to Hirata's participation in his parents' burial rites. Both protagonists are in denial about something. For William, he is denial about his mortality, whereas Hirata is in denial about the importance and sacredness of a funeral ritual. Their journeys parallel each other in that regard, as they come closer to realizing what is truly important in their respective lives. By having Johnny Depp's character named after a famous English poet, it lets the character b...
Read more