Captain Marvel Thoughts - Part 2

The previous post (http://nadejeblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/captain-marvel-thoughts-part-1.html) discussed how the opening two scenes of Captain Marvel very effectively establish plot, character, and theme for the movie going forward, getting everything off to a great start.  Unfortunately, the next two scenes fumble a bit. This post will cover some of the less effective moments of the early scenes, and what could have been done differently.

As always, SPOILERS BELOW!

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The scenes in question involve Yon Rogg and Vers taking a train to visit the Supreme Intelligence (who I shall refer to as 'SI'), and Vers’ meeting with SI.  In both scenes, significant plot details are conveyed through dialog.

Storytellers use the mantra ‘show, don’t tell’, meaning that good storytelling conveys information through dramatization, rather than instruction.  ‘Telling’, or exposition, is most recognizable when it takes the form of narration or dialog that is purely informational. Bad exposition is jarring, because it often involves characters saying things to other characters who would already have that information.

The opening scenes were effective at ‘showing’, even though a lot of information was conveyed to the audience.  Yon Rogg lecturing Vers on controlling her emotions makes sense in the context of the mentor relationship, even if it’s something he’s said to her many times.  It also helps that the characters are active during the scene, throwing punches (and each other).

In these scenes, by contrast, Yon and SI are explaining things to Vers that she would already know, making it purely for the audience’s sake.  Worse, everyone just stands there for the lecture.

1.

On the train ride, Yon Rogg explains to Vers that the Supreme Intelligence appears in different forms based on the individual consulting it.  This is important information and a cool concept. The fact that SI appears to Vers as the unnamed character from her dream deepens the mystery.  It signals to the audience that Vers’ dream at the beginning was important and will come up again. The question is, why is Yon explaining this to her now?  Is this not common knowledge about SI? Vers doesn't react to the information, so neither does the audience.

It might have been better if the film had picked up the cue from the previous scene.  When they’re sparring, Yon threatens Vers that if she can’t control herself (i.e., not blast him), she’ll have to go see SI.  Why is this a threat? Is SI scary to regular Kree? What is Vers expecting from this meeting? If Vers had never met SI, and reacted with fear or trepidation in the train scene, then it would make sense for Yon to be giving her a primer on what to expect, and it would give the audience a reason to care.

The implication from what’s on screen is that this is Vers first time in the presence of SI.  The audience needed some way to feel about that - excited, nervous, annoyed; anything would have worked.  Instead, it’s just an info dump with no dramatic intention.

2.

In the next scene, the meeting with SI, there isn’t even that ambiguity.  SI explains the Kree/Skrull war to Vers. But of course Vers, a six year veteran of the war at this point, knows all of this.  It’s exclusively for the audience. That’s why, even though it’s condensed to a few lines, it slows the film to a crawl.

The information is important.  The audience needs to understand the conflict (from the Kree perspective), and know who the “bad guys” are.  But the way the information is presented, it’s ineffective; it’s basically forgotten as soon as it’s stated. A better way convey this would be to insert a scene between these two - a Skrull terrorist attack.

The Skrulls are referred to as terrorists by the Kree several times, yet they are never shown engaging in terrorism.  Partly this is intentional - the Skrulls are later revealed to be deeply misunderstood. But in a later scene, when Carol is feeling the weight of all the killing she’s done in the name of the Kree, Talos, the Skrull leader, tells her “It’s war. My hands are filthy with it.”  That’s a moving line, and a great moment. How much more effective it would have been if we’d actually seen Talos (or other Skrulls) do something terrible.

Not only would that help the turning point of the film later on, but it would greatly benefit these opening scenes as well.  No need to explain the dynamics of the conflict to the audience; “Skrulls bad” would be the automatic takeaway. Show a Skrull shapeshifting during the attack and SI wouldn’t have to explain that ability of theirs either.  It would add urgency to the SI scene - maybe instead of punishing or lecturing Vers for using her power, the counter-attack mission becomes imperative. “We were going to ground you, but now we have to send you on this critical mission without having finished your training” - that makes a compelling motivation for Vers to prove herself.  It also would add motive and urgency to the rest of the strike team. The witty banter is all well and good, but “Vengence for Hala!” is better.

So why didn’t the filmmakers make this rather obvious choice?  I can think of two reasons:

1. Tone Clash

This film is largely a fun action comedy (‘you know, for kids!’).  Opening the film with a terrorist attack would be quite heavy and dark, and at odds with what comes after.  It wouldn’t do to have Vers clearly having fun smacking Skrulls around, like a cat playing with mice, in the next sequence after an opening like that.  That kind of tonal-whiplash would be hard to recover from.

2. Moral Complexity

Like most superhero stories, this one deals with a black-and-white morality.  It has a twist where the apparent bad guys turn out to be good, and vice-versa, which is cool - not everything is as it seems, and that works with the imagery of the Skrull being shapeshifters, etc.  But showing the Skrulls to actually be terrorists would force the audience to recon with a more real-world complexity that the good guys are never all good (and vice-versa). Understanding that people can be driven to do terrible things and working out how to feel about that may be a lot to ask of a superhero audience.

These particular suggestions may have worked to avoid the ‘telling’ exposition, but they may not have worked with the film overall.  Maybe we could come up with other options, but these are the difficulties storytellers face. Fortunately the film recovers its momentum in the next sequence, the mission on Torfa.

Captain Marvel Thoughts - Part 1

Warning: these thoughts contain SPOILERS.  This post discusses the opening scenes of Captain Marvel, but they are discussed in the context of the movie as a whole.

SPOILERS BELOW!

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The opening scenes of the film are doing a lot of work, and very effectively, I think.  To summarize: “Vers”, aka Carol Danvers, (Brie Larson) wakes from a disturbing dream and goes to knock on the door of Yon Rogg (Jude Law).  He is familiar with her sleep dysfunction, and they go off to spar as a distraction for her. He warns her to control her unusual power by keeping her emotions in check, and she fails to do so, blasting him across the room.

There are a lot of layers here.

1.

The way they talk to each other when she knocks on his door is familiar, friendly, even flirty.  They’re in his bedroom, in their sleep clothes. She’s woken him in the middle of the night because she can’t sleep and is looking for a distraction.  In another movie, or with another character, this would be a booty call. I almost laughed when she said “You wanna fight?” as ‘fight’ seemed to be standing in for another f-word.

But the movie subverts this hetero-normative expectation.  There is never any romantic interest between these two characters.  Carol wants to train because she’s always pushing herself, and Yon Rogg cultivates his mentor role to take advantage of her power for his own ends.

This scene is recalled again later, when Maria is recounting how Carol waking HER up in the middle of the night was a common occurrence as well.  And if there’s an implication of romance in the first scene, why not also in the latter?

2.

Carol’s memory loss is established here, and amnesia is a tricky narrative device.  We know at some point she will recover her memories. There are two ways this could go badly: she might find that she’s a completely different person, in which case any character work done up to that point is essentially wasted, or she might act as a cipher, devoid of personality, up until that point, in which case all that time is still wasted - spent with a nonentity.

The movie thankfully side steps these problems by having Carol just be Carol the whole time. Her character comes across strongly in this opening sequence, and it is consistent with who she ends up having been in the first place: she’s assertive, confident, flippant, competitive, and very powerful.  Despite all that, she doesn’t put herself above others. She wants to learn and excel. She wants to serve.

Even without her memories, and with six years of brainwashing (or at least heavy gaslighting), her personality is intact.  This complements the idea presented later in the film that even without her magical powers, she has plenty of power on her own.

3.

The struggle against the Patriarchy is here in full force, and Yon Rogg throws every trick in the book at her.  He pretends to build her up by knocking her down: he says he wants to help her, that she can be the best, but his suggestions - suppress her emotions and follow his rules - are the very things that are hindering her.  He gaslights her, telling her she’s not strong enough to defeat him, when in fact she could blow him out of the water. He tells her she’s too emotional, a common tactic of men who tend to blow up if they are ever challenged.  And he engages in the language of abusers: ‘I’ve been good to you; I could make things bad for you.’ He takes credit for saving her, for giving her these powers and this purpose (her powers are later revealed to have been innate). “What was given can be taken away,” he threatens.  This is typical of men who, when women’s oppression is highlighted, point to instances of worse oppression, saying ‘don’t complain; look how much worse you could have it; you should thank me.’

4.

Finally, this sequences establishes the film’s most revolutionary statement.  Yon Rogg tells Carol that she has to defeat him on his terms. She can’t use her special power; she’ll only know she’s beaten him if she plays by his rules.  And on the surface, this seems correct. She has a power that he doesn’t have. It’s not ‘fair’ for her to use it, that would be ‘cheating’. But the truth is that he has defined the terms so that he will always win.  He happens to be better at the fighting style he’s requiring. The film forces us to ask: how can a system ever be ‘fair’ if half of the participants had no input in it’s creation? Everything we think about ‘fairness’, ‘justice’, ‘equality’, has been defined for us by men, and so we must reject the idea that they are objective truths.  There’s no reason why Carol shouldn’t fight with all of her natural ability. Yon Rogg is just not at her level.

All of this is present in the opening sequence of the film.  I highlight this because the most common criticism I’ve seen is that the early part of the film is slow or awkward.  I assume most of that is in reference to the following sequence, the visit with the Supreme Intelligence, which to be fair does have some clumsy exposition (come back next week for more on that!).  But there’s a lot going on in the opening: plot, character, and theme are all established there, and are carried consistently throughout the movie.