Captain Marvel Is a Mixed Bag of Nostalgia, Empowerment and MCU Retconning

Captain Marvel arrives at an interesting point in the MCU. Coming after Avengers: Infinity War hinted at the character, it had the enormous responsibility of introducing one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes while also filling in gaps in Nick Fury’s backstory and establishing how a character who had never been mentioned before could suddenly become so important. The result is a movie with plenty of strengths, but one that often feels like it is doing several jobs at once.

At its core, Captain Marvel is about identity and self-discovery, particularly the importance of reclaiming your own story. Carol Danvers has spent her entire life being told who she is supposed to be. Her father and peers in the Air Force discourage her from doing things considered too masculine, while the Kree manipulate her into suppressing her powers and emotions. That becomes an effective allegory for the way women are often told to be less emotional, less aggressive and less ambitious, only to be criticized when they fail to conform to those expectations.

That makes gaslighting another important part of Carol’s journey. The Kree don’t simply defeat Carol physically. They convince her that her own memories and instincts cannot be trusted. Her entire identity has been constructed around someone else’s version of the truth. Her eventual realization that she doesn’t need permission to embrace who she is becomes the film’s most satisfying emotional payoff.

The direction from Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck works best when the film embraces its fractured structure. The nonlinear storytelling mirrors Carol’s fragmented memories, allowing the audience to experience her confusion alongside her. The pacing is also surprisingly efficient for a two-hour superhero origin story. There isn’t much dead weight, and the film moves quickly between its Earthbound mystery, cosmic mythology and character development.

The 1990s setting is another major strength. Captain Marvel is essentially a nostalgia machine, filled with references to AltaVista, Blockbuster, RadioShack and other remnants of the decade. The decision to let Carol interact with outdated technology instead of the sleek gadgets that dominate the modern MCU gives the film its own personality. The soundtrack is also one of the MCU’s best, with songs from the era becoming part of the film’s identity rather than simply background decoration.

The buddy-cop dynamic between Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson is particularly effective. Jackson’s younger Nick Fury is still figuring out what kind of operative he wants to become, and Larson’s more reserved Carol gives him someone completely different to play against. The two have an easy chemistry that carries some of the film’s lighter moments. Jackson’s de-aging effects were impressive when the movie premiered, although they have not aged quite as gracefully as the performances themselves.

The action is where Captain Marvel really flexes its muscles. The train sequence is entertaining, while her fight accompanied by No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” is exactly the kind of unapologetic superhero moment the character needed. More importantly, the movie doesn’t feel compelled to artificially weaken Carol just to create tension. She is supposed to be ridiculously powerful, and the film embraces that. Her enemies can still put up a fight without making her abilities feel meaningless.

Larson’s performance is more complicated. Carol’s emotional suppression is intentional, but the performance can sometimes feel stiff rather than restrained. Her quips don’t always land and her chemistry with some members of the ensemble isn’t as strong as it is with Jackson. There are moments when you can see the character Larson is trying to build, but the screenplay doesn’t always give her enough material to make Carol feel as layered as the concept suggests.

Jackson, meanwhile, clearly understands the assignment. This isn’t the hardened Nick Fury we know from the rest of the MCU. He’s younger, more curious and still developing the instincts that eventually turn him into the super-spy we recognize. Ben Mendelsohn is also a standout as Talos, bringing considerably more personality to the role than you might expect from what initially appears to be a conventional alien villain. Jude Law is serviceable as Yon-Rogg, but struggles with a paper-thin character, while Annette Bening brings her natural charisma to the Supreme Intelligence. Unfortunately, the character’s makeup and visual effects don’t always match her performance.

The biggest problem with the story is that the central mystery isn’t nearly as mysterious as the movie wants it to be. Guardians of the Galaxy had already established the Kree as antagonistic years earlier, so viewers familiar with the MCU are going to have a pretty good idea that Carol is working for the wrong side. That significantly undercuts the eventual revelation. Rather than discovering the truth alongside Carol, the audience spends much of the movie waiting for her to catch up.

The movie also sometimes feels too much like an MCU history lesson. The backstory for Fury is fun and the retconning occasionally works, but other moments feel like they exist primarily to explain things that didn’t previously need explaining. It can make Captain Marvel feel less like an independent story and more like a missing chapter that Marvel suddenly decided needed to be inserted into its larger mythology.

Ultimately, Captain Marvel is a mixed bag. Its themes of identity, sexism and reclaiming your own narrative are stronger than the screenplay sometimes allows them to be, while the 1990s setting, soundtrack and action give the film plenty of personality. Larson’s uneven performance and an overly convenient screenplay keep it from reaching the level of Marvel’s better origin stories, while the retconning makes the movie feel more consequential to the MCU than it is compelling on its own.

Captain Marvel succeeds most when it lets Carol Danvers become the hero she was always capable of being. Unfortunately, the film surrounding that journey isn’t quite as confident in knowing what kind of movie it wants to be.