ANALYSIS: Could CAPTAIN MARVEL Be Doomed By Its Own Sense Of Social and Political Responsibility?

The headline for Peter Travers' review of the latest female-led superhero movie CAPTAIN MARVEL in Rolling Stone reads, "‘Captain Marvel’ Review: Brie Larson Takes on Cosmic Villains, Sexist Trolls — and Wins" Right away, the declaration of victory is ridiculously premature as the movie hasn't even completed its first weekend in theaters (I saw it last night and the theater wasn't even half-full). Travers follows up the headline with the review-opener, "As the first first woman-led superhero epic from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel touches down at the multiplex with a lot of sexist monkeys on its back," then pulls what he might refer to as a Trump-ism by reminding us that the review site Rotten Tomatoes had to, "...ban trolls... who were hellbent on review-bombing the movie before it even opened."

Besides the fact that they would be fraudulent, anyway, Rotten Tomatoes never allowed actual reviews from audiences before a movie opens and instead disabled the "Want To See" rating, a feature gauging viewer interest in seeing movies at all. While my opinion is that CAPTAIN MARVEL is neither great, nor as bad, boring, or sanctimoniously preachy as the hype has made many believe going in, Travers' review - like the fact that this movie exists at all in the form that it does - is entirely political and politically driven. He gives 4 out of 5 stars to the movie despite having a current average rating of 79% from critics and an abysmal 41% approval rating from audiences that have seen it last night and today - the source of this being none other than ROTTEN TOMATOES!(https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_marvel)

Here are some non-partisan facts from the most reliable sources I know of online illustrating just how shamelessly political and politically biased this entire situation really is: One of the least known of the publisher's superhero characters despite sharing the publisher's name, this Captain Marvel debuted in comics in 1967 as an alien male called Mar-Vell with the human alias Dr. Walter Lawson (changed to "Wendy Lawson" in the movie) and was frequently confused with Shazam, which went by the name Captain Marvel in DC Comics for 20+ years prior. Mar-Vell was more or less replaced in the title by the female African American character Monica Rambeau in 1982. Carol Danvers, the version played by Oscar Winner Brie Larson, has been around since 1968, but didn't inherit the title of Captain Marvel in comics until 2012, when the Marvel Cinematic Universe of which her movie is supposedly such an important part had already been around 4 years and was releasing the first AVENGERS film. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(Marvel_Comics)#Carol_Danvers)

Larson's casting was always met with skepticism for other reasons, but the most recent controversy stems from remarks she made alluding to her desire to have fewer white male journalists as part of the press junket for CAPTAIN MARVEL, which had already been declared by the studio and its two directors as being a partly "feminist" movie. Combined with her insistence that she didn't need 40 year-old white men telling her the problems with the movie A WRINKLE IN TIME because it wasn't "made for them," her wording was construed as representing a grudge against white males, in general, despite the fact that she had already denied it. 

The most current and otherwise laudable efforts to diversify movies goes back at least to 2015, particularly when it comes to action, science fiction, superhero, and other traditionally male-oriented genres. Since the 2016 election of President Trump, however, a sort of convenient amnesia has had celebrities and media pundits alike pretending or at least sounding as if they believe that women have been totally missing from such films despite decades of female-led movies and franchises such as SUPERGIRL, ALIEN(S), TOMB RAIDER, RESIDENT EVIL, and UNDERWORLD, and the most recent WONDER WOMAN - not to mention starring turns by actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis and Zoe Saldana in horror, action, and science ficton movies like HALLOWEEN, TRUE LIES, AVATAR, STAR TREK, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. I believe it's worth mentioning that if the making of CAPTAIN MARVEL and the choice to feature a female version of that character was politically and socially motivated, the version that would have best filled their bill in terms of all-around representation would have been the Monica Rambeau version of Captain Marvel. Instead, this supposedly feminist movie that embraces diversity and equality depicts Monica as a young teenager that idolizes a superhero who is so white, blonde, smart, and physically attractive that she could easily be featured prominently on a propaganda poster for the Third Reich's campaign for procreation and purity within the Aryan race.


While there have been some that have unfairly twisted Larson's words and milked this partly manufactured controversy for all it's worth, particularly online, the underlying frustration was not only real, but mostly justified and rooted in far more than just frustration with political agendas being more frequently and overtly inserted into escapist entertainment. Despite being hyped as a prequel about the "origins" of the last ten years of interconnected Marvel superhero movies, with what Producer Kevin Feige has described as the most powerful of their heroes yet, the trailers had never been met with much enthusiasm for this movie, which - again - is trying to capitalize heavily on a fairly new and/or obscure superhero character. This is culturally significant because a LOT of people have been heavily invested in what are called the first 3 phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which have unfurled over the last 11 years and is being brought to a rousing conclusion by last year's AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and this year's AVENGERS: ENDGAME, which will feature Captain Marvel, herself, with the other Avengers. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), itself, is significant as both an unprecedentedly successful gamble within the movie business as well as the sort of loosely, yet cleverly interwoven series of solo and ensemble superhero movies that had never been achieved before. Though the franchise can easily withstand the blow, the failure of CAPTAIN MARVEL to at least be profitable would come at a terrible time and be a blow compounded in its signficicance and severity by the fact that it would be undeniably rooted in what can only be described as the arrogance of Marvel Studios to suddenly start taking a side in any currently hot political debate, particularly one surrounding social issues.

Yesterday, I saw anchors and pundits on CNN describing Fox News as essentially doing the bidding of the state because of its inherently conservative, right-wing stance and frequent support of President Trump and rumors that it will not air Democrat primary debates in the 2020 election. No matter which side one is on or how obvious Fox News' right-wing bias is, it should be equally obvious how hypocritical such statements are coming from one in a sea of news outlets and TV networks that, for about as long as TV news has existed, either perpetuated some pretense of political neutrality or becomen increasingly favorable to Democrat and left-wing politicians. And yet, having tragically tainted the CAPTAIN MARVEL movie and arguably the MCU as a monumentally successful and beloved part of our entertainment history, this is just a small part of the unfortunate, fear and jealousy driven phenomenon in America rooted in people's hatred of President Trump, particularly in its mainstream media right. Regardless of whether or not any of the underlying hatred and distrust of Trump is valid or earned, it has embittered a lot of otherwise good people and twisted their long-standing quests for fairness and equality into angry and desperate attempts to supposedly fight hatred and exclusivity with entitlement. Worse, that entitlement has morphed into another form of hatred and exclusivity that is said to be justified by history and by Donald Trump's allegedly sexist and bigoted presidency. 

Though I did not vote for Trump, I don't hide the fact that I am decidedly right-leaning in my politics. While I am NOT immune to personal bias, though, I do at least try to acknowledge that fact and deal with it appropriately and with an honest attempt to at least see and represent both sides even if I'm unable to represent them both with equal vigor and accuracy. The bottom line, however, is that NONE of this should be tied to the CAPTAIN MARVEL movie at all! There's nothing particularly new about heroic female leads in movies just as there is nothing new about Captain Marvel him or herself. Regardless of the underlying cause or its validity, anger and hatred ultimately blinds everyone, and what the hatred of Trump and the modern Republican Party has done to people like Larson and others in the media is blind them to the fact that at this point, and at this level, it won't be Trump and the Republicans that suffer the most at the end of the day. Instead, it will be people like the audience for movies like CAPTAIN MARVEL, regardless of their political leanings, who are expressing genuine frustration in greater numbers over the fact that the entertainment they go to for escape is being infiltrated and infected by the same real world nonsense and hostility that they use it as an escape FROM! That is what was reflected in Rotten Tomatoes' "Want To See" rating and that's what is currently being reflected in the currently and almost abysmally low 41% audience approval rating for CAPTAIN MARVEL.

Unfortunately, members of the media's self-righteous Trump Resistance and alleged social justice warriors such as Rolling Stone's Peter Travers are too blind to see it. As a result, they are effectively guilty of doing precisely what they accuse President Trump of doing all the time in things like Travers' review: SPREADING LIES, HALF-TRUTHS, AND OVER SIMPLIFICATIONS.