Captain Marvel's take on male privilege yields mixed results
OPINION: After countless attempts at saving the galaxy with diminishing creative success but eternal box office riches, the Marvel juggernaut has turned its reflections to male privilege in Captain Marvel.
And it's with varying degrees of success throughout.
In a cinematic universe where everything is a possibility, the fact that it's taken some two dozen films and a decade to get a solely female-led one is undeniably a travesty.
Yet, the fact that Brie Larson's amnesiac Carol Danvers spends a lot of her time being shaped by and mansplained to by Jude Law's male mentor does somewhat dull the feminist overtones clearly being shaped by the film's makers.
READ MORE:
* Captain Marvel: Why Brie Larson chose to fight villains on screen and off
* How Brie Larson got strong for Captain Marvel
* Captain Marvel star Brie Larson hits back at sexist trolls
* Six marvellous things we learned from Brie Larson's first Captain Marvel trailer
* Wonder Woman breaks 'superhero glass ceiling' with record $313 million opening
Its trope of having a woman not knowing exactly who she is, and catching glimpses of her power and potential isn't exactly a new one in the superhero genre, but what helps sell Captain Marvel from its overall underwhelming feeling is Brie Larson herself.
Rising above the script's duller edges, Larson gives the film an emotional core that's a hollow cypher at the start. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in scenes with her former fellow pilot, played by Lashana Lynch. Their interplay feels warm, human and rife with a history that's hinted at rather than explicitly explored.
What cripples portions of Captain Marvel is that the makers are so determined to proudly fly the banner for "the message" that they occasionally take a sledgehammer to crush open a nut, oddly negating the bonhomie and goodwill that would help it soar.
One such moment involves a fight scene that finally sees Danvers harnessing her true potential – it's soundtracked to No Doubt's 90s hit Just A Girl. It's a throwaway gag in some ways, but feels piecemeal and almost picking at the scab of how women are generally perceived in this genre, as objects to be saved, trophies to be coveted.
Yet, a scene which shows Danvers defeated through various points of her life and still getting up could easily also be dismissed as cynically manipulative and almost unnecessary.
But when this transpired on screen, I heard the gasp of a young girl ensconced in a row of young boys sat behind me.
It's at this point, coupled with how Danvers fits into this world and has shaped the MCU without realising, that the true meaning of what Captain Marvel could actually represent hits effectively home.
IF YOU GET A MOMENT THIS WEEKEND
It's been a dreadful week for the loss of 90s icons.
The unexpected death of Luke Perry from a stroke hit many but more devastating personally, was the death of The Prodigy's demon-haired lead Keith Flint at 49.
If the song Firestarter horrified a nation with its nightmarish vision of the guy-linered Flint wielding a chainsaw and sparking it against a rail-line, then the album Fat Of the Land was the follow up that continued to beat us into submission - but cemented the band as an essential force.
Despite that innocent cover of a crab with its claws raised aloft in a rave position, The Fat of the Land is anything but innocent, clothed as it is in dirty beats, and swathed in an undeniable ferocity. It's also the soundtrack to a generation that's well worth throwing in the CD player this weekend and playing it as loud as you possibly can - it's what Keith would have wanted.
Stuff