Captain Marvel
Directors: Anna Boden,Ryan Fleck
Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn
Duration: 124 minutes
Class: 12A
KRS Releasing Ltd

Film not reviewed

While this week’s other release Boy Erased sadly highlights the medieval attitudes towards homosexuality that still abound, the release of Captain Marvel has brought with it a wave of misogynistic monsters that have been all out on the internet to pan the movie – without having seen it!

This for simply having the gall to have a female lead played by an actor (Brie Larson) who has had the temerity to express her views about diversity in the movies.

Various media have reported that on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, Captain Marvel had been receiving negative feedback from audiences (which seem to be mostly male) before the film had even been released (leading the site to review its audience ratings policy). This is a practice known as review bombing, meant to drive down a film’s audience approval score and create false negative word-of-mouth.

Apart from such practices underscoring the need of certain people to get a life, it also reinforces the need to discuss the issues often raised by Larson and her colleagues about the toxic misogyny that is sadly still rife, not only in Hollywood but everywhere. In many quarters, people have yet to join the 21st century in terms of gender and racial diversity.

In its 20 movies to date, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has scored fairly well with its cast of female and racially diverse characters. To name but a handful – Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson); Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen); Zoe Saldana’s Gamora; the wonderful woman warriors led by Danai Gurira’s Okoye in Black Panther… Not to mention the various women in the studio’s spin-off TV shows – Ming-Na Wen’s Agent Melinda May; Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones and the absolutely amazing Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in Agent Carter – I could go on and on. The point is that the MCU movie and TV ensemble is replete with myriad well-written three-dimensional female characters.

Yet Captain Marvel is a Big Deal because it is the first time an MCU film has a woman in the title role. For a long time, fans were teased with the prospect of a Black Widow movie (which may still be happening).

But it is this film that launches the MCU’s highly anticipated, female-led franchise – and it is an event that should be celebrated (trolling troglodytes notwithstanding).

[attach id=704071 size="large" align="right"]Florence Pugh in Fighting With My Family.[/attach]

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