National Post (National Edition)
LET’S MARVEL AT THIS LATEST FURY
Does it really matter that Nick Fury is given more lines than Captain Marvel?
The first trailer for Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson in the titular role (a.k.a. Carol Danvers), dropped on Tuesday, and is still sitting comfortably at No. 1 on YouTube with over 21 million views.
It’s monumental for one very big reason: this is Marvel’s first female-led superhero film. Yes, in a rare move, rival studio DC actually beat Marvel to the punch with last year’s critically-acclaimed Wonder Woman.
Still, to see Captain Marvel reign strong and already amass so much hype bodes well for Marvel and what this could mean for future standalone female superhero movies. (Especially if you’re still waiting on those decadelong Black Widow rumours.)
The trailer itself isn’t all that different from any other Marvel trailer, with lens flare aplenty, fight sequences, explosions, quick glances at new and old characters, and, of course, plenty of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.
In fact, according to Twitter user Melissa McEwan (@shakestweetz), too much Samuel L. Jackson.
McEwan had this to tweet after the trailer’s release: “In the first Captain Marvel trailer, Samuel L. Jackson’s character has 67 words. Brie Larson’s character, i.e. Captain Marvel, has 33. Come on, Marvel.”
Indeed, Fury’s monologue echoes through much of the trailer, essentially introducing Carol as a heaven-sent hero, asking her just who she is, but also professing, “Truth be told, I was ready to hang it up until I met you today.”
The majority of the replies to McEwan’s tweet asked, “We’re really down to counting words in a trailer?” and “This takes the gold medal in the ‘Desperately Searching for Something to Be Offended By’ Olympics.”
Again, after a long 10 years, this is Marvel’s first female-led superhero film. From the moment they began searching for the right team of filmmakers, the studio has made great efforts to get this vehicle exactly right — not only hiring Oscar-winning Larson after a long casting process, but Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck as director, with a five-woman writing team.
Therefore, one might assume, the process has been a careful one, with women significantly involved from production to marketing. So why the imbalance in voiceover? As McEwan herself pointed out in a later tweet, “the presence or absence of a woman’s voice matters in a trailer about a woman superhero.” Indeed it does, especially as groundbreaking a one as Captain Marvel.
But, if we take a look at the visuals, it’s very Danvers-heavy, from her opening crash land into a Blockbuster, to her conspicuously punching an elderly woman on a public bus.
Shots of her iconic suit are endless – and powerful, lit bright in gold. We see her jumping onto the back of a train, using her powers and doing what appears to be some legit superhero-ing.
Fury’s voiceover ends with these words, in reference to the intergalactic war Danvers finds herself in upon returning to Earth: “We can’t do this alone. We need you.” Cut to a thrilling supercut of Danvers as a child to a teenager to a warrior, her fists clenched, ready to fight. The trailer concludes with her in all her uniformed glory, sparks circulating her body, as the title “Captain Marvel” splashes across the screen with a rising tempo the way we’ve seen in Iron Man and Captain America’s so many times before.
So, no, she doesn’t get in nearly as many words as Nick Fury, the franchise guardian. But she certainly makes an impact. In fact, we really only catch two glimpses of Fury, but it’s Danvers’ face and facial expressions that comprise much of the trailer.
Let’s put it this way: it’s a start, and its not a badone.