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.
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