Okay, so if you like superhero movies and haven’t seen Captain Marvel yet, then what are you doing? I saw the film a few weeks ago and it immediately became my new favorite movie. If you like superhero movies and empowering women, then trust me when I say this movie does both of those things so well.
I had never heard of Brie Larson before Captain Marvel and when I first saw a picture of her, I was honestly a little disappointed. Previous to Captain Marvel, Larson appeared in Room (2015), Short Term Twelve (2013), and Kong: Skull Island (2017). At first, Larson seemed like the typical Hollywood actress that we’ve already seen everywhere. Now that I’ve actually seen the movie and learned more about her, Brie Larson is a total fav.
Larson is known for fighting for gender equality both in representation and the workplace. She was named on the Time’s 100 Influential People of 2019 and her article in the Time was written by her co-star Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thompson says about Larson, “She sits at a table and wants to make sure everyone has access to it. She is constantly investigating how to be a better ally.”
Larson has also made a point that she wants movie reviewers to be more diverse and inclusive, which popular culture has taken to mean that she hates white men and thinks they shouldn’t do movie reviews. Because God forbid anyone might want someone other than a white man to do something! “If you make a movie that is a love letter to women of color, there is a chance that a woman of color does not have access to review and critique your film,” Larson said, about A Wrinkle in Time. “Do not say the talent is not there, because it is.”
Captain Marvel, the first female-led Marvel film, is driven by a strong female crew. The writers of Captain Marvel are mostly women; Nicole Perlman, Meg LeFauve, Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet are the writing team that wrote the screenplay for Captain Marvel. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are actually married and co-directed the film as well.
Pinar Toprak, who’s originally from Istanbul and graduated in Berkeley College of Music in two years, scored the music for Captain Marvel. Debbie Berman is an editor who fought for her spot to work on Spider-Man: Homecoming. There’s been much talk about the designing of female superhero costumes in movies that are designed to draw the male gaze, not necessarily fight in. Sanja Milkovic Hays, the woman responsible for costume design in Captain Marvel, did an amazing job on making the suit functional and badass. Hays also designed Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel’s civilian name and the ‘90s looks throughout the movie.
In the film, we also get to see young Nick Fury, young Agent Coulson, and Goose who’s a badass alien disguised as a cat. Fury and Coulson were both digitally de-aged in post-production because this film takes place earlier in the Marvel timeline and it looks super realistic, I couldn’t even tell! Also, if you’re interested in finding out how Fury lost his eye, they explain it all in Captain Marvel.
I’ll try not to spoil the end for you, but at the climax of the movie, Carol is tired of being told over and over to just give up and draws on experiences throughout her life to fuel her determination and make her even stronger. I related with this scene so much because it was focused around people telling Carol she’s not good enough because she’s a woman and (spoiler alert) she is good enough. In fact, Captain Marvel is canonically the strongest fucking person in the Marvel universe.
So if you wanna see a total badass superhero movie and an empowering feminist movie, then I highly recommend Captain Marvel.