**Spoilers ahead**
Originally I wanted to go see Captain Marvel with my sister and her husband, we always try to go together to see all the big movies we’re excited about, but we just couldn’t get our schedules together this time. I was already heading to the mall to pick out a few things for myself, so I figured what the heck, time to finally see this movie. I still had a free movie voucher to use up too, so, YAY!
First of all, I knew very VERY little about Captain Marvel going into this. I always leaned more DC when I was younger so these movies are really how I’m learning about Marvel characters and comics. And whenever there’s a movie out that I know I want to see, I avoid all trailers like the plague. Especially with a series like the MCU, I start reading into every little moment and start trying to figure out what’s going on. I feel like the trailers ruin things a bit more me when I would have rathered have learned some of those things in the movie, not three months beforehand.
Since the movie has been out for a little while now, there has been a lot of talk and references made to the series, so I had a few things bouncing in my head by the time I got to the movie. Turns out I had it all turned about though. I was expecting her to think she was human from the start and then realize she was an alien. Kind of like Superman, but I love LOVE that it was reversed and she discovered that she was human AND that being human and understanding that is what helped her fully tap into her powers.
With all the build-up to the movie, I kept seeing a lot of hype around the actress, Brie Larson. She is so many different types of badass and she brings all of it to Carol Danvers. From beating the crap about of the Skree while her hands are bound to fighting back against the Supreme Intelligence.
I started to suspect that the Supreme Intelligence was going to be the bad guy shortly after it started. There were a lot of “conform or be reprogramed” red flags and that’s never the good guy’s MO. I do love that Captain Marvel seems to subvert almost everything about Superman. I actually REALLY dislike Superman. With Captain Marvel, the advanced alien race isn’t peaceful and powerful, they’re corrupt. Carol isn’t strong because she’s from another world, she’s strong because she’s human.
There’s so much I love about Carol in this movie. The fun way she fights (she flat out bodyslammed a spacecraft because she was just having too much fun), the dry humor, and the confidence. She just marches forward and I love that there is a character like her. There is no hesitation in everything she does and her body language is always strong. Even the song choices in the movie were NEXT LEVEL! Although the best song choice was most definitely Just A Girl by No Doubt while Carol was completely kicking ass. It was perfect and I now have a whole new love for that song (yes, I will be listening to it forever. It’s my ringtone now).
My absolute favorite moment in the movie was after Carol chased off Ronan (which was FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC) and landed back on Earth to face Yon-Rogg. Rogg just abandoned his weapons and tried to goad Carol into a fist fight. And in ANY other movie, the hero would have agreed to the fight and it would have been all drama, but they would have done it to prove that they are strong and capable. Yet, Carol, oh Carol, just blasts him to the ground and very calmly tells him, “I have nothing to prove” before literally dragging him into a space pod so he can tell The Supreme Intelligence that she’s coming to kick their ass. It is pure beauty. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy during a movie. I always wanted to see a character that sure of themselves and what they are capable of that they don’t fall for that gimmick and to think it was such an amazingly powerful female hero just makes me SO happy.
There’s a lot of other really great things about this movie. Seeing Coulson trust Nick Fury right from the start, Finding out how Nick Fury lost the use of his eye, Goose. But I’m still just in pure awe over Carol and how happy I am to see a character like her on the big screen. I’m so tremendously happy that I saw this movie in theaters instead of waiting until it came out on Netflix or something.
Now excuse me, I need to go find an awesome poster of Carol all fired up with the mohawk that I can put on my wall forever.
Slán go fóill
Charlotte L Tracey 