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It's good. It's really good and enjoyable.
It has a very different vibe to Wonder Woman, but that's necessary. Another Wonder Woman type movie (or even a Ghostbusters type movie) wouldn't make Carol stand out the way this one does. Diana's story is about her growing up, coming into her own; Carol's story is about finding her roots.
The core of Carol's story is her relationships and connections - with Nick, with Maria Rambeau and Maria's daughter Monica, with Lawson, with Jude Law's character, and with Ben Mendelson's character. (I simply didn't get their names.)
It's not a rousing Iron Man or Captain America or even Thor type film. They're very triumphal stories - and, also, we'll say, an earlier era of Marvel film. This is definitely a Phase Two/Phase 3 film - more Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy style humour than Avengers-movie quips. It kind of has a feel of Cap 2 about it, actually, but at a lower level of intensity - the elements of friendship, betrayal, and belonging are there but without the heightened tragedy of Steve's loss and his repeated confrontations of it. ("Always so dramatic," says Peggy, and I didn't quite understand until I'm watching Carol and Maria trying to reconnect in the understated way of professional women whose work relies on them being contained and controlled.)
I enjoyed it. However, I don't think other audiences will take Captain Marvel to heart - not the way they did Wonder Woman.
Diana's story was very much the Chosen One narrative. Which has cultural appeal and the weight of history behind it. It appeals to both men and women, because most male hero narratives are Special One stories, too.
Carol's story is almost The Accidental Hero; her powers are gained less out of heroism and more by accident (I haven't seen the MCU Spiderman movie, so I don't know how he gains his powers, but I understand Homecoming isn't exactly your typical origins movie) although the striving/hero aspect is certainly there.
And that's both its strength and its weakness. Well, that, and we know where this goes already because so much of the universe has already been mapped out. (There are no major surprises, just some filling in of the backstory.)
A friend of mine once mourned that there were so few story paths for mature women: women who already know who they are, consolidating their power. Not the story of how Persephone The Maiden Goes Down into the darkness and comes back out into day, but Persephone the Queen Returns to her kingdom and takes up her power.
Carol's story is more the Queen Returns - a mature woman who thinks she knows who and what she is, and then discovers that who and what she is goes deeper than what she thinks she's been all these years.
It's not a comfortable story for our culture: it challenges the limitations we put on women - once you're a wife and a mother, you're done, that's it for you! This is a woman who outgrows the 'man in her life' (Jude Law, playing Commander Yon-Rogg of the Kree - I had to go look that up) and his restrictions and restraints that are on her 'for the greater good' and becomes something more - in a way, a crusader, an Avenger (well, she was the original 'Avenger' as the movie shows).
In contrast to Yon-Rogg, Nick is pretty much enabling Carol, while still working towards his own ends.
Nick doesn't make moves on Carol (thank God, you have no idea how terrified they would take it down that path), she's someone to be respected, even if he wants answers, and he's willing to take her direction and her teasing in good humour. He has his own strengths and his own pride, but it's not reliant on dominating her and showing her who's boss.
Hell, his sequences with the cat are very much part of the 'this is a man you know as the coldest bastard of tough guys...with a soft side'.
I think there's an irony in that Yon-Rogg (visually represented as a white man) is trying to stuff Carol back into the box, while Nick Fury (a black man) is the guy standing back and letting her be who she needs to be. It could be seen as a contrast between toxic and non-toxic masculinity's response to women, even. I don't know if that was intentional, and if it is, I certainly don't expect the writers will admit to it anytime soon.
In short, no, Captain Marvel isn't going to be popular the way other superhero movies have been. It's not going to appeal to our power-centric, 'we were right and justified' stories in the way that Wonder Woman (or even the Ghostbusters) did.
But it's a new story - a different path for female characters - and a good one.
And the mid-credits scene will certainly be seen in Endgame, the way the Dr Strange mid-credits scene turned up in Ragnarok, and the Ant-Man mid-credits ended up in Civil War.
I actually want Carol and Maria friendship fics now - not romances. And maybe Maria Hill and Monica friendship fics, because Fury would have kept an eye on Monica after Carol went back out into the universe.
Short version: unconventional but good. Highly enjoyed but not emotionally shaken. And definitely worth seeing a second time.
It has a very different vibe to Wonder Woman, but that's necessary. Another Wonder Woman type movie (or even a Ghostbusters type movie) wouldn't make Carol stand out the way this one does. Diana's story is about her growing up, coming into her own; Carol's story is about finding her roots.
The core of Carol's story is her relationships and connections - with Nick, with Maria Rambeau and Maria's daughter Monica, with Lawson, with Jude Law's character, and with Ben Mendelson's character. (I simply didn't get their names.)
It's not a rousing Iron Man or Captain America or even Thor type film. They're very triumphal stories - and, also, we'll say, an earlier era of Marvel film. This is definitely a Phase Two/Phase 3 film - more Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy style humour than Avengers-movie quips. It kind of has a feel of Cap 2 about it, actually, but at a lower level of intensity - the elements of friendship, betrayal, and belonging are there but without the heightened tragedy of Steve's loss and his repeated confrontations of it. ("Always so dramatic," says Peggy, and I didn't quite understand until I'm watching Carol and Maria trying to reconnect in the understated way of professional women whose work relies on them being contained and controlled.)
I enjoyed it. However, I don't think other audiences will take Captain Marvel to heart - not the way they did Wonder Woman.
Diana's story was very much the Chosen One narrative. Which has cultural appeal and the weight of history behind it. It appeals to both men and women, because most male hero narratives are Special One stories, too.
Carol's story is almost The Accidental Hero; her powers are gained less out of heroism and more by accident (I haven't seen the MCU Spiderman movie, so I don't know how he gains his powers, but I understand Homecoming isn't exactly your typical origins movie) although the striving/hero aspect is certainly there.
And that's both its strength and its weakness. Well, that, and we know where this goes already because so much of the universe has already been mapped out. (There are no major surprises, just some filling in of the backstory.)
A friend of mine once mourned that there were so few story paths for mature women: women who already know who they are, consolidating their power. Not the story of how Persephone The Maiden Goes Down into the darkness and comes back out into day, but Persephone the Queen Returns to her kingdom and takes up her power.
Carol's story is more the Queen Returns - a mature woman who thinks she knows who and what she is, and then discovers that who and what she is goes deeper than what she thinks she's been all these years.
It's not a comfortable story for our culture: it challenges the limitations we put on women - once you're a wife and a mother, you're done, that's it for you! This is a woman who outgrows the 'man in her life' (Jude Law, playing Commander Yon-Rogg of the Kree - I had to go look that up) and his restrictions and restraints that are on her 'for the greater good' and becomes something more - in a way, a crusader, an Avenger (well, she was the original 'Avenger' as the movie shows).
In contrast to Yon-Rogg, Nick is pretty much enabling Carol, while still working towards his own ends.
Nick doesn't make moves on Carol (thank God, you have no idea how terrified they would take it down that path), she's someone to be respected, even if he wants answers, and he's willing to take her direction and her teasing in good humour. He has his own strengths and his own pride, but it's not reliant on dominating her and showing her who's boss.
Hell, his sequences with the cat are very much part of the 'this is a man you know as the coldest bastard of tough guys...with a soft side'.
I think there's an irony in that Yon-Rogg (visually represented as a white man) is trying to stuff Carol back into the box, while Nick Fury (a black man) is the guy standing back and letting her be who she needs to be. It could be seen as a contrast between toxic and non-toxic masculinity's response to women, even. I don't know if that was intentional, and if it is, I certainly don't expect the writers will admit to it anytime soon.
In short, no, Captain Marvel isn't going to be popular the way other superhero movies have been. It's not going to appeal to our power-centric, 'we were right and justified' stories in the way that Wonder Woman (or even the Ghostbusters) did.
But it's a new story - a different path for female characters - and a good one.
And the mid-credits scene will certainly be seen in Endgame, the way the Dr Strange mid-credits scene turned up in Ragnarok, and the Ant-Man mid-credits ended up in Civil War.
I actually want Carol and Maria friendship fics now - not romances. And maybe Maria Hill and Monica friendship fics, because Fury would have kept an eye on Monica after Carol went back out into the universe.
Short version: unconventional but good. Highly enjoyed but not emotionally shaken. And definitely worth seeing a second time.
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