The Marvel Comic Universe's narrative architecture is truly a mar... er, wonder but there's just so many ways you can WOW audiences with photon blasts and hyperdrives. Three-D certaintly adds a thrilling, near tactile element but at some point "been there / seen that" creeps in and studios can't correct nagging sameness by adding length to the battles because then the picture becomes a numbing spectacle.
Such is the case with the latest entry in Marvel's massive movie franchise. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Captain Marvel offers some snap, lots of crackle, but, sadly, very little pop as it draws a bead on "throws like a girl' social / cinematic conventions with a hypercharged origins story about the title character and the interdimensional Avengers war coming in April.
Brie Larson is a likable Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), a crack jet pilot who by turns tries to remember who she really is and how she came to be an intergalatic cop with a short fuse in a universe where deception is key to survival. The story, set in the '90s with a matching toe-tapping soundtrack, features some cockeyed banter between Danvers and a then-two-eyed secret agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) after she falls to earth in L.A. during a battle with some shapeshifting aliens led by uber-baddy named Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). The movie's large cast performs yeomen's work with a decent script by Boden, Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet and the noble speechifying is pretty much reduced to a verbal chuck on the chin by Danvers bestie, fellow pilot Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), before sending her off to kick butt.
That's not to say that Captain Marvel isn't a stunning model of female empowerment but the film raises questions about a seemingly invincible woman who appears to be free of the entanglements and hubris that check her male counterparts. Where does she go when there are no limits and will we be willing to follow her?
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment