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Mar. 9th, 2019 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pearwaldorfIt's not that I don't like Captain Marvel, but I think I wanted to like her much more than I actually do, and my time with Marvel comics and the MCU has been sort of a slow coming to terms with that. I don't have the same sort of visceral emotional connection with Carol the same way I do with Kamala Khan or Natasha. Which is not to say it's anybody's fault, but I was much less hype about the movie than many of my friends. I wasn't actually going to see it opening weekend but it was at a theater near a place I needed to run an errand, so why not.
It was much more emotionally affecting than I expected. People are going to say things like "Oh this should have been released ten years ago, now it's just the market catching up." I don't disagree that we should have had this way sooner than we got it (especially considering both Black Panther and Captain Marvel got pushed back to make room for Spider-Man: Homecoming), but it doesn't mean we still don't need it now.
One of the things I have been thinking about since I heard it is something somebody said about Mad Max: Fury Road. The absence of misogyny is not the same as feminism, but society is so steeped in misogyny we treat it as such. And that legit shook me and helped me reframe the lens in which I interrogate media. Obviously the fields won't be equal for a long time, but there are works that treat women the same as men (Atomic Blonde is the example that comes to mind, the way Charlize Theron's nudity is matter-of-fact and how she gets as fucked up in the last fight as a man would).
I'm real mad the first real emotional "Fuck yeah ladies are awesome!" moment occurs in the Air Force. (The USAF was extensively involved in the filming and marketing of Captain Marvel, to the point of doing a flyover for the premiere. I regret the whiny manbabies have muddied the discourse to the point where we can't have a conversation about female "empowerment" in service to empire.) Vers/Carol doesn't feel like a real person (as opposed to somebody being pushed around by the plot) to me until she reconnects with her past, which Maria and Monica are a huge part of.
The whole hero's journey/the power was in you all along stuff is pretty run of the mill stuff, and that's fine. The thing that I loved is the way Carol doesn't just accept her (new, completely fucking badass) powers, but revels in them. Her whoop of joy in discovering some of the cool things she can do was delightful. And then she THROWS A GODDAMN MISSILE INTO A BUNCH OF OTHER MISSILES AND THAT'S REALLY COOL. AND THEN SHE RIPS A BUNCH OF KREE CRUISERS APART AND THAT'S COOL TOO.
I also really liked the bit where she just completely disregards Jude Law's character because she realizes she's so far beyond him there's no fucking point in seeing him as more than a nuisance. That was so good for me and deeply emotionally satisfying.
At the movie theater, there was a young boy (10-ish) who was so hype to see the movie. On the way out, we saw another little boy in a Captain Marvel outfit. It was good for the spirit.
It was much more emotionally affecting than I expected. People are going to say things like "Oh this should have been released ten years ago, now it's just the market catching up." I don't disagree that we should have had this way sooner than we got it (especially considering both Black Panther and Captain Marvel got pushed back to make room for Spider-Man: Homecoming), but it doesn't mean we still don't need it now.
One of the things I have been thinking about since I heard it is something somebody said about Mad Max: Fury Road. The absence of misogyny is not the same as feminism, but society is so steeped in misogyny we treat it as such. And that legit shook me and helped me reframe the lens in which I interrogate media. Obviously the fields won't be equal for a long time, but there are works that treat women the same as men (Atomic Blonde is the example that comes to mind, the way Charlize Theron's nudity is matter-of-fact and how she gets as fucked up in the last fight as a man would).
I'm real mad the first real emotional "Fuck yeah ladies are awesome!" moment occurs in the Air Force. (The USAF was extensively involved in the filming and marketing of Captain Marvel, to the point of doing a flyover for the premiere. I regret the whiny manbabies have muddied the discourse to the point where we can't have a conversation about female "empowerment" in service to empire.) Vers/Carol doesn't feel like a real person (as opposed to somebody being pushed around by the plot) to me until she reconnects with her past, which Maria and Monica are a huge part of.
The whole hero's journey/the power was in you all along stuff is pretty run of the mill stuff, and that's fine. The thing that I loved is the way Carol doesn't just accept her (new, completely fucking badass) powers, but revels in them. Her whoop of joy in discovering some of the cool things she can do was delightful. And then she THROWS A GODDAMN MISSILE INTO A BUNCH OF OTHER MISSILES AND THAT'S REALLY COOL. AND THEN SHE RIPS A BUNCH OF KREE CRUISERS APART AND THAT'S COOL TOO.
I also really liked the bit where she just completely disregards Jude Law's character because she realizes she's so far beyond him there's no fucking point in seeing him as more than a nuisance. That was so good for me and deeply emotionally satisfying.
At the movie theater, there was a young boy (10-ish) who was so hype to see the movie. On the way out, we saw another little boy in a Captain Marvel outfit. It was good for the spirit.
