The big buzz these days is the theatrical release of Captain Marvel. I don't really want to talk about how the movie did (Saw it, liked it. Not great, but not bad either). I want to talk about how Captain Marvel represents a turning point in the comic book superhero movie genre. It's something that kinda got left behind in all the controversy.
Think back to all the comic book superhero movies you can think of (I know, there's been a lot). What was the first movie all about? This is a no brainer: It's the origin story. It's been done to death. Even the X-Men origin movies, where the characters got their powers by BEING BORN THAT WAY do an origin.
This is where Captain Marvel kinda breaks away from the pack. Y'see her origin story...is kinda blah. That's not her fault. Most origin stories are kinda blah. I mean you can only have so many radioactive spiders, gamma bomb explosions or super soldier serums. Her origin is so blah they even changed it for the movie. It's all about how this story is told. The big origin is mostly kept a secret until near the end of the movie because it's instrumental to the "twist". If you've seen it, you know it but I'm not going to spoil it here. I'll just say it's not very interesting and not fully explained (unless you were paying attention). So instead of building up that origin we get a functional character codenamed Vers fighting along side her fellow Kree until a mission gone wrong lands her back on Earth and chasing her own identity as a result.
Personally, I liked this direction. Let's face it, the slow build up to the introduction of powers was getting old. Then we get a whole second act of learning to use said powers and finally a third act where the powers get to shine. Captain Marvel pretty much changed up the first two acts. The character has power from the beginning and is actually more powerful that the other Kree, but we soon come to realize that her time with the Kree is really all she knows.
Will this method of storytelling make it into future movies? Probably not. Despite breaking a box office record the movie was still badly to moderately reviewed. A lot of hype was that this was a prelude to Avengers: Endgame, a movie every MCU fan is practically foaming at the mouth for. We all know Captain Marvel will play a huge role in it and we watched this movie to get filled in. I feel that alone cast a long shadow on this movie. Unlike Black Panther, this movie wasn't made to stand on its own. Even Spider-Man: Homecoming escaped this because even though it was tied to the MCU and even featured another Avenger the story didn't affect the overall Avengers plot line. Doing double duty as introducing this new character and providing the bridge to Endgame was too much. That doesn't mean a lot of MCU fans weren't hyped for this movie based on its own merits though. The film has some great and inspiring messages. It even has that one scene where the main character rises above all odds and gives us that tingly feeling. Overall, the movie is a C+. Not bad, but also not great.
Did you see Captain Marvel? What did you think?
