Captain Marvel

I watched Captain Marvel last Sunday and I liked it quite a lot. It’s not the best movie ever, not the best Marvel movie, but I thought it was a good fun movie, and that’s perfectly normal. It shouldn’t be under a pressure to be perfect. As its heroine, Carol, realizes – with regards to herself. She is definitely not a perfect being, but I felt that one of her main traits - having one passion and following it – contributes to her positives and negatives both. She is often called boring, as if it’s bad thing. Doctor Strange and Bruce Banner are even more boring, really. Carol just wants to fly. I get it, and I kind of envy her in that.

I also felt that it’s a very Buffy movie – from the relationship between Carol and her powers that she had all along, to the control over the emotions narrative, and even the softball girl and that No Doubt song felt like callbacks to Buffy.

I have a new OTP: Caro/flying.

I felt that the movie was expected to be everything for everyone: be super feminist and progressive without offending anyone, to be a cinematic masterpiece and earn a shitload of money, introduce a unknown character and be an integral part of MCU at a very charged moment, be funny, emotional, smart, have exciting fight scenes, but all in moderation, in other words, to be a perfect woman. And I love that the move – just as Carol – says “I don’t have to prove you anything, I am off to have adventures.”

We can actually exchange Carol for male character and have the similar adventures, but with Carol it adds several layers of meaning as something most of us experienced “while female”.

I am also surprised to learn that one of the major criticism is that Carol is unemotional and wooden. I didn’t notice that at all. Her joy at having her powers is so palpable and infectious.