I have a
confession to make. I was, still am, an avid fan of the HBO series Sex and the City.
Yes, I know, my male AND female friends may well be shocked by my coming out of
the fan closet and admitting that, yes, I love Sex and the City. Here’s the
basic idea: men and woman are different, they feel things, want things, desire
things that are specific to whichever gender they are birthed into. Girls like
girly things, and guys like . . . guyly things. AND you never change that, you
never start liking what the other gender likes because . . . well, because, as
I said, men and women are different. Or are they?
empathy noun:
em·pa·thy
ˈem-pə-thē
1.: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner also: the capacity for this. —Marriam-Webster
Screw that 19th century way of thinking, men and women can never understand each other. Bullshit. We can understand “other” people who are “not like us” because when you boil off all the surface bullshit they keep feeding us about men and women, we are pretty much the same about the important things in life. Going back again to Sex and the City. I don’t have to be a woman to understand the need for love, for that desperate search for the right person, or the desire to explore as many lovers as possible, or understand how lonely single life can be at times, or understand how wonderful single life can be at times . . . is my point being made? I can empathize with people, with their situation particularly when they are “created characters” in a movie, a novel (Jane Austen novels are a favorite), or even a play. So, I get really annoyed when I hear people dis a movie because the lead actor is NOT “the right gender.” Again, bullshit.
Now, that I’ve made it clear that I CAN like/love a movie even IF the main character is not of my birth gender, let me say that Captain Marvel is a splendid, and may well be, the best origin story Marvel has yet come up with. I know, them be fightin’ words, but I’m willing to throw out a few artistic punches as to why I think what I think about Captain Marvel.
1. Really a very tight script that gives just enough foreshadowing to keep the audience intrigued. At times we are ahead of the characters, and a lot of times the characters are way, way ahead of us. The flashback/memory (dreams Captain Marvel calls them, dreams that she can’t quite understand.) of Cap’s life before the Kree found her and trained her to be a part of the “defensive” group that protects the Kree from the “evil” Skrull tells us, the audience, a lot about Marvel’s life before she became a Noble Warrior Hero.
2. There’s also a lot of twists and turns in the script that keep you guessing as to who is who, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.
3. And the main reason I love this super hero movie is the Captain Marvel character played by Brie Larson has just enough test pilot arrogance to make her seem not only powerful but totally human. Some of my friends take exception with me using the term arrogance . . . but to me it’s a part of the character’s charm:
Nick Fury: Okay, your turn. Prove you’re not a Skrull. (Carol uses her power to blow up a jukebox.) And how is that suppose to prove to me you’re not a Skrull?
empathy noun:
em·pa·thy
ˈem-pə-thē
1.: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner also: the capacity for this. —Marriam-Webster
Screw that 19th century way of thinking, men and women can never understand each other. Bullshit. We can understand “other” people who are “not like us” because when you boil off all the surface bullshit they keep feeding us about men and women, we are pretty much the same about the important things in life. Going back again to Sex and the City. I don’t have to be a woman to understand the need for love, for that desperate search for the right person, or the desire to explore as many lovers as possible, or understand how lonely single life can be at times, or understand how wonderful single life can be at times . . . is my point being made? I can empathize with people, with their situation particularly when they are “created characters” in a movie, a novel (Jane Austen novels are a favorite), or even a play. So, I get really annoyed when I hear people dis a movie because the lead actor is NOT “the right gender.” Again, bullshit.
Now, that I’ve made it clear that I CAN like/love a movie even IF the main character is not of my birth gender, let me say that Captain Marvel is a splendid, and may well be, the best origin story Marvel has yet come up with. I know, them be fightin’ words, but I’m willing to throw out a few artistic punches as to why I think what I think about Captain Marvel.
1. Really a very tight script that gives just enough foreshadowing to keep the audience intrigued. At times we are ahead of the characters, and a lot of times the characters are way, way ahead of us. The flashback/memory (dreams Captain Marvel calls them, dreams that she can’t quite understand.) of Cap’s life before the Kree found her and trained her to be a part of the “defensive” group that protects the Kree from the “evil” Skrull tells us, the audience, a lot about Marvel’s life before she became a Noble Warrior Hero.
2. There’s also a lot of twists and turns in the script that keep you guessing as to who is who, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.
3. And the main reason I love this super hero movie is the Captain Marvel character played by Brie Larson has just enough test pilot arrogance to make her seem not only powerful but totally human. Some of my friends take exception with me using the term arrogance . . . but to me it’s a part of the character’s charm:
Nick Fury: Okay, your turn. Prove you’re not a Skrull. (Carol uses her power to blow up a jukebox.) And how is that suppose to prove to me you’re not a Skrull?
Carol Danvers: A Skrull can’t do
that.
Is this movie chucked full of political statements about women’s rights? Yep, but all of it makes sense within the context of the story. The memory dreams I talked about in point one, shows Carol as a kid, growing up in a world of “men” telling her she can’t do what she wants to do . . . take physical risks, do the things that “boys” are programed to do. There’s also the political/social issue about always following the “rule of law,” never questioning those who are in power—I was just thinking about Vietnam and how all the things people told me about war were . . . wrong. When I got to Nam, it was nothing like people told me it would be, nothing like what they told me. My basic rule since? Don’t believe anything someone tells you is the truth.
So, male chauvinist assholes. Get over yourselves. Captain Marvel is a glorious super hero movie that any “red-blooded, all American boy” can enjoy . . . it just has a female lead.
Grade 96% = A
Is this movie chucked full of political statements about women’s rights? Yep, but all of it makes sense within the context of the story. The memory dreams I talked about in point one, shows Carol as a kid, growing up in a world of “men” telling her she can’t do what she wants to do . . . take physical risks, do the things that “boys” are programed to do. There’s also the political/social issue about always following the “rule of law,” never questioning those who are in power—I was just thinking about Vietnam and how all the things people told me about war were . . . wrong. When I got to Nam, it was nothing like people told me it would be, nothing like what they told me. My basic rule since? Don’t believe anything someone tells you is the truth.
So, male chauvinist assholes. Get over yourselves. Captain Marvel is a glorious super hero movie that any “red-blooded, all American boy” can enjoy . . . it just has a female lead.
Grade 96% = A
