Captain Marvel - Arrogant or Delightful

Watching Captain Marvel, the 2019 MCU flick starring the forever lovely Brie Larson, for the first time was honestly… surprising? During my binge-watch of the entire MCU after getting together with my current partner, I had low expectations for this quintessentially feminist hit. This was exaggerated after I had watched Black Panther for the first time, which was simply incredible; I wasn’t sure whether Captain Marvel could create protagonists that would inspire women.

Unfortunately, there are no right answers when it comes to interpreting feminist discourse within movies and its impact on the audience. I hear the boo’s now, I’m sorry okay! The purpose of writing this was purely to break down whether Captain Marvel was a good, feminist movie and how the male and female gaze could create different answers to that question.

I describe it as a “feminist movie” because it’s Marvel’s first female-led film. It has decades of promise to live up to in representing women as complex, yet inspiring, protagonists. Larson herself can also be a factor in this, She amassed controversy up to her role in the film by making comments about the white, male audience at her press junkets and by claiming that she doesn’t care what white, male critics have to say. These comments in my opinion are fair; white men shouldn’t take them personally because it isn’t a movie for them. They can watch it, but it isn’t supposed to be subtle for their comfort, it’s supposed to be socially abrasive and perhaps even a learning tool. The issue my partner (he wants anonymity, so for the purpose of this article he is now called Bilbo) and many more male Marvel fans had with her comments, is that they were divisive and left them feeling alienated.

This sense of alienation lingers throughout the film for Bilbo. The clear feminist undertones portrayed seem to be “forcing a political agenda” onto consumers, and I can see that. Through quotes like: “Go on, smile for me, sweetheart” and “You know it’s why they call it the ‘cockpit’ right?” the sexism seems very outdated and obtuse, almost patronizing the audience. However, couldn’t you argue that for the 1990s in America, it’s just… accurate? 

Ignoring that, Bilbo was frustrated with the idea that the marketing for the film went out of its way to emphasize how Captain Marvel was female. In the first Marvel trailer, the tagline “What makes HER a Hero?” with “her” being emphasized before being transmuted into “a hero.” He felt that this was an issue as the identity of a hero shouldn’t be forced down our throats, and the merit of the character should prevail. A similar pandering supposedly exists within other clearly feminist blockbusters, such as the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters. It’s a trait that apparently diminishes the critical quality of a movie, and it can lead to disappointment. I personally don't have an issue with any of that unless it’s too shallow, is not intersectional and is simply not realistic, which I often don’t find as the case. 

Bilbo finally argues that his main issue with Carol Danvers in particular, is her arrogance. Remarks like: “I’ve been fighting with one hand behind my back, but what happens when… I’m set free?” and “I have nothing to prove to you” are both cliché and unbearably arrogant. 

My question is: why is it acceptable for Iron Man, Thor or even Captain America to be arrogant at times and not Captain Marvel? Bilbo argues that this is because she shows no growth and therefore her arrogance isn’t endearing at all. I disagree. The deadpan performance by Brie, mixed with the clever quips and frequent displays of emotion makes the character almost more endearing. There’s also a fine line between how arrogance turns from quirky, smart, and empowered into distasteful, misplaced, and frustrating, I don’t think Carol ends up in that latter category because while she’s aware of her physical strength, at first she’s not necessarily confident in her ability to make sound decisions. This diminishes that arrogance into almost ignorance, which, in my opinion, shouldn’t be as abrasive to a viewer.

Her physical strength and its effect on her vulnerability is what concerns Bilbo the most. On re-watching for this article, we had two stark perceptions of her displays of power: where I saw a traditional fight scene between herself and her fellow Kree, with faltering and strides forward from Danvers, Bilbo saw that she was overpowered and faced no real struggle. I believe to an extent that we were both seeing what we wanted to see throughout the fight scenes; it isn’t certainly that objective. 

I believe the issue of her not feeling a sense of danger put him off. Yet, I saw in her face repeated emotional and physical setbacks. In combat there were times where I felt she was in danger, that she’d be killed by the Skrulls or captured by the Kree, and while these didn’t happen, I still felt on edge. Emotional vulnerability, turmoil and struggle was as clear as day to me.

In the opening scene, though she doesn’t know what happened to her, you see her deal with her power. Immediately afterwards she presses Yon-Rogg, her mentor within the Kree, for answers. He is reluctant to give those answers, at least the real ones, and Carol puts this to the side. You can see early on that this is an issue that creates emotional trouble for her. She learns to hide this however, as Yon-Rogg drills one thing into her head: “There’s nothing more dangerous to a warrior than emotion.” 

This is one issue that Bilbo seems to overlook. There are arguably few heroes, of any gender, within the MCU that are emotional outside the typical dimensions of expressing romantic love, anger and occasionally being upset at injustice or their pasts. Yet they’re not labeled at all as emotional, impulsive, or even “too strong” like Carol is.

She is emotional, impulsive, and cocky. Yet she’s been gaslighted and manipulated by the Kree for the length of her new existence and been diminished again and again for being a woman. Struggle, and even the lack of struggle, is going to cause characteristics that we dislike, dismissing where she got her faults from seems ignorant in my opinion.

Maybe she is arrogant, but it isn’t her defining quality- she’s also resilient, funny, and compassionate. Just like Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow, Gamora, Nebula and all the heroes in between.

Bilbo doesn’t believe in that. While drawing plenty of comparisons between Danvers and other protagonists, he brought up character development. He contends that she started and ended with powerful photon blasts, she was arrogant, and that she didn’t deserve her power. Unlike Thor in his first film, we don’t see that she earned it.

This again links to the idea that she hasn’t faced any physical or emotional strain, that she hasn’t any vulnerabilities. He puts it like this:

“It reminds the audience that these people aren’t perfect, which is okay. A perfect character is a boring character. It robs them of any sort of dramatic conflict with themselves or provided by some sort of antagonizing character necessary to make any story engaging. It gives them a springboard to show that they will try to overcome that vulnerability or flaw with their character. It may not completely disappear, but the audience should be able to see that they are better because they tried.”

But, by that definition, surely Carol learning to release and trust in emotion and in her arrogant and impulsive persona makes her an endearing character. She does learn to apologize for mistakes, practicing restraint when needed, trusting in others and in her own abilities. She isn’t perfect and she consistently shows resilience to try and dispel judgmental, internal characteristics. She does try.

And she does work for her superpower. The reason she received her power from the tesseract in the first place is that she had the guts to sacrifice herself for a “greater good.” She shows that time and time again, especially in her final mental game with the Supreme Intelligence to reclaim her emotion and belief in her ability, and her ability to show restraint with her power. She learns that as a woman and a “strong female hero” that emotions do not make one vulnerable, and that they are quintessential to being a resilient and compassionate person - like she is.

Ultimately, despite our differences in opinion, Bilbo and I agree on one thing: that with her coming sequels, we will inevitably get to explore her character more, creating a more loveable heroine with depth.