Captain Marvel doesn’t need your approval

You think our nation is divided politically? Spend some time in the fan community! The arguments (and firmly clenched opinions) that erupt can create fissures across fandom that boggle the mind, and often seem to fly in the face of reason or analysis - but they're not hurting for emotion or vitriol. Curiously, many of the superhero films that endure the most wrath and ire are the ones that position women or people of color in prominent roles. Take what happened with The Last Jedi. The mobilization of thin-skinned bot-wielding reviewers out to undermine pictures they feel threatened by has been sad and embarrassing to behold. It's the same tactic that used James Gunn's past against him, actually getting him fired from one of the most successful corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - a debacle that only this week saw the light of sanity, when Disney reversed course and reinstated Gunn (THANK YOU!), perhaps finally realizing they had been manipulated by arch-conservative and intolerant enemies that stand in direct opposition of the company's own values - but I digress. Suffice to say a small mountain of exponentially negative Captain Marvel user reviews began multiplying, to the degree that Rotten Tomatoes decided to suspend user reviews entirely. This is the world we live in - and Captain Marvel doesn't give a crap. If you try and get in her way, she's just going to shut you down.

Written and directed by the collaborative team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Sugar), Captain Marvel is an unusual and highly entertaining chapter of the Marvel Universe. The film's one of the more non-linear origin stories within the MCU, with things kicking off in the middle of the action, as a cadre of interstellar combatants are waging war against a deep space enemy known as The Skrull. Newcomers would do well to revisit Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy for a refresher, as these soldiers are the Kree, warrior-heroes who've gotten maybe a bit too used to war for their own good.

Captain Marvel is full of potential spoilers, all of which I'm going to try to avoid here. Elite Starforce warrior Vers (Brie Larson) is a fighter still under the wing of her Commander (Jude Law), who frequently mansplains that her emotions are holding her back, keeping her from achieving her potential. Vers has echoes of a forgotten backstory she's not entirely sure are real. Are they memories, or something else? Audiences may be a little confused at first, but Boden and Fleck don't linger, and Vers soon finds herself marooned on a far-flung planet called Earth, that feels like it might be somehow familiar.

It's 1995, and the filmmakers have a blast peppering the film with hilarious mid-nineties tech and pop culture references, none better than the one used for Stan Lee's always reliable cameo, in a shout-out to one of the more positive inhabitants of fandom - and of Hollywood.

Marvel Studios, you sure got me with your reimagined opening theme, where every hero we're used to seeing in those familiar graphics has been lovingly replaced with Stan the Man. Hat doffed and tears wiped.

Vers quickly meets a young SHIELD agent name Nick Fury (a phenomenally CG'd Samuel L. Jackson), and the film takes off like a rocket thanks to the phenomenal charisma these two share. Jackson is just amazing, absolutely convincing as a looser, less-hardened version of the Fury we know so well. Who knew Nick Fury was such a cat lover?

Plot-wise, I'll stop there, but Vers has both the shape-shifting Skrulls to contend with, as well as the proximity of her own past. Annette Bening and Ben Mendelsohn are both superb, cleverly cast in their respective roles. It's giving nothing away to note that just as Black Panther served as prelude to Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel opens the door to next month's Avengers: Endgame. Suffice to say if you don't see Captain Marvel first, you're likely to feel hopelessly lost when Endgame unfurls. It's also important to point out that like DC's Wonder Woman, Vers/Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is a force to be reckoned with - and tough as hell. If she's been fighting with one hand tied behind her back, she positively soars when she breaks free. She's not here to smile for you, or make you happy. She's not looking for your approval or permission. I guess that just threatens the hell out of some people. But she is here to do what she can to put a stop to war, and to set things right, and if you've got a problem with that, you'd best get out of her way.