Why 'Captain Marvel' Is So Important

Ever since a Captain Marvel movie was announced, a lot of people had opinions about the character. Most of them were positive, but some were a bit negative. Fast foward to a few weeks ago when the movie reviews started pouring in.

Before I go see a movie I like to read spoil free reviews about said movie, usually just to get an idea and to compare their opinions to mine. These past few Marvel movies have been quite positive, even if the plot is kind of patchy (looking at you, Civil War). All the movies are very well received amongst the audience and reviewers. Let's be real, these movies are action based and most action movies don't have the plot of an Oscar-winning movie (except for the amazing Black Panther). People didn't have much of problem grasping that when all the other Marvel movies were released.

However, for this movie, I saw a lot more negative reviews compared to previous Marvel adaptations. Sadly, most of these negative reviews were political and anti-feminists based. A lot of the anti-feminists reviews came from men. These people were sad and angry that Captain Marvel had a "feminist agenda" and that Brie Larson, the star of the movie, didn't want men to go see the movie. Before anything else, I cannot express enough how wrong her words were twisted. The comments she made were about her press tours and interviews being populated by mostly white men and she wanted to make sure there was more inclusivity in the press. It had nothing to do with her not wanting men to see her movie!

So let's get back to that "feminist agenda." I saw the movie and I can guarantee that the movie is not overly feminist. What I mean in "overly feminist" is that they're not trying to push feminism in your face. It's literally about a badass superhero who kills bad guys and defends Earth. There were no political feminist opinions in the movie, it was just a woman being powerful. But a lot of people saw that as being overly feminist, which is truly sad. Women superheroes doing the same thing as male superheroes are being negatively branded as feminist. This negative side of the word feminist has been used so many times by people who don't know the real definition of the word.

This exact thing happened with Wonder Woman and it turned out to be one of the best and most beloved movies of the DCEU. I'm going to acknowledge that some reviews were also plot based and said that the plot was weak but the acting was good. It's Captain Marvel's origin story, these movies are never perfect. Let's not forget Captain America and Thor's origin movies, not the best, but they got the people craving for more. What really disappointed me was the fact that a lot of people were saying they didn't want to see the movie because they thought it was too political (which it isn't ). If you really don't want to see a political superhero movie, then you shouldn't watch any of the Captain America movies, probably skip Iron Man and Infinity War (just to name a few).

What really bothers me in all of this is, every time Marvel tries to make a more inclusive movie, with someone that isn't a white male as a lead, people want to boycott the movie. When Black Panther came out, I remember seeing on a Twitter post about white people getting "beat up" by black people at a screening of the movie. All of those claims were absolutely fake. It baffles me that some people would lie about a serious offence just because they can't deal with inclusivity. This shows how fragile some people's ego is. They would literally lie about getting assaulted just because of a movie.

Now that my rant is over, let's get to the part of why it's important. First of all, I think this movie is so important for the future of Marvel. After Endgame comes out, we're going to lose a lot of big players in the MCU. We won't get any new Captain America, Iron Man or Thor movies, so they need to introduce new characters to keep the MCU alive (which I'm very excited for because I want to continue watching these movies until I'm 90 years old).

Second of all, this movie and character are very crucial in the eventual defeat of Thanos. I won't spoil much for you, because I really hope you guys have seen Infinity War at this point in time. We all know the Avengers tried their very best to defeat Thanos, but he still snapped (hehe, see what I did there) and killed half of the universe. They couldn't defeat him at full Avenger capacity and with most of them gone, they're going to need a lot of help and that's where she comes in.

Finally, I think this movie is important because we do need more inclusivity. Girls are often ostracized from being able to be a comic book fan or know anything about "nerdy" stuff. I have been a huge fan of Marvel ever since I was a little girl, but it's not until the MCU was created that I really got into comic books and knowing as much as possible about all the characters. I remember last year when Black Panther came out, I was in school and some of my male classmates were discussing the movie and how it impacted the MCU. I heard them talking and since we were a class of nine, I decided to approach them and try to discuss the movie with them.

The only thing I had managed to say was, "Oh, you guys saw Black Panther? What did you think of it?"

They all looked at me, looked back at each other, answered "yes" then just stopped talking.

I left because there was a very awkward silence, soon afterward, they resumed their discussion about the movie. This has happened to me on so many occasions and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There's a stigma around girls who like "nerdy" things because it's usually depicted as something boys should like. Which I guess is normalized by the fact that most of the "nerdy" movies, comics, TV shows, etc. are male leads, therefore, boys look up to them because they can see themselves in the characters. Us, comic book loving females just want to feel the same way. We want to feel empowered after seeing a superhero movie, we want to believe we can be as strong and powerful as them. It's sometimes hard to feel that way if you don't look anything like the character.

These movies are not about being political or having a strong feminist message. We just want to enjoy the same things as you do without all the boycotting and negativity surrounding it.