I really didn't want to talk about TLJ again, but I've observed something that has forced me to. It seems most of the people hating on Captain Marvel are also people who dislike TLJ and are defining both films as being the same problem.
What I hate about TLJ has nothing to do with anything it has in common with Captain Marvel. Quite the contrary Captain Marvel is in a way like Return of The Jedi, where the Hero of the Story becomes the true Hero they are meant to be when they go against what their traditional Mentor Figures wanted them to do. I realize that comparison is stretching it a bit, but the point is my rage at TLJ is strongly tied to how it did the opposite, how Rey is punished for trying the same thing Luke did in ROTJ, how the film is a fundamental rejection of what I believe the message of the Meta-Narrative of George Lucas's Six Episode Saga was.
I would also have found it interesting for a post ROTJ Star Wars film to have a twist like Captain Marvel's where who we thought was the Evil Empire turns out to have been the true Rebels all along. Captain Marvel is not the most nuanced version of something like that but by Hollywood standards I found it damn refreshing.
There are in fact four female lead Superhero movies of the last two years this post is about. Wonder Woman, The Last Jedi, Battle Angel Alita and Captain Marvel. They are in fact the only female lead Hollywood Blockbuster Genre films we've gotten in that time frame (and only one of those leads is even close to qualifying as non white). When you consider how we've had in that same time-frame as many male lead equivalents for each of those you'll perhaps understand why people who crave more Superheroine films will frequently take whatever they can get. I don't need to as much because I get quite a bit from Anime, but I'm not a Woman myself so my investment in the subject is not as directly personal.
Of those four movies, TLJ is the only one I don't like at all. But if I have to pick a least among the other three it would be Wonder Woman which I've liked less the more I think about it, like how all the Disney Star Wars films have gone for me actually. And if I had to pick one I definitely liked the most it would be Captain Marvel.
So one YouTube channel I was just looking at was saying how they think Wonder Woman and Battle Angel Alita are good so that proves they don't simply hate women, they just think those films are how a "Strong Female Character" should be written. They dislike Captain Marvel and TLJ because they're bad not because they're about women.
I'm not making this post to suggest they do hate women, I don't know what's in their minds. But Sexism is a tricky thing, very few misogynists literally do in fact hate every single woman. You see men dictating what women should and should not be like has always been a part of how Patriarchy works, though in different cultures and different eras what those standards are change. And even the most Patriarchal cultures that have ever existed have allowed "Strong Women" on special occasions. So a man dictating how a female Superheroine should be written sure can look like it's just the modern Nerd Culture version of that. That's why my goal in a post like this is never to say what I prefer is how they should always be, people liking the stuff I don't like doesn't bother me.
I'm not gonna say my dislike of TLJ has nothing to do with how Rey was handled, but I feel if anything the opposite. I don't see how you can call her an unstoppable Mary Sue when she failed to do the main thing she set out to do. But mostly Rey herself isn't my problem at all, I relatively liked The Force Awakens. Even Holdo as a character was fine it was only the resolution of that plot-line I didn't like, and I liked Rose.
The mentality these fans express is that there is nothing engaging about a story where the Hero starts out already strong and competent and powerful and only becomes even more so as the story progresses. Where nothing is ever truly a threat to that hero. They say this as if it would apply to a male hero equally and I believe them, because the pieces of popular culture I know of with a male hero like that do have varying degrees of critical push back even when they are in fact highly popular and successful.
But it's an attitude I fundamentally reject regardless of Gender as someone who made a post on this blog about how Wish Fulfillment Escapism is Art. I have issues with Sword Art Online but they aren't in anyway about how overpowered Kirito is, he's really no more overpowered then Lina Inverse was on Slayers.
The first season of A Certain Scientific Railgun is a lot like Captain Marvel. The story begins with Misaka already a Level 5, the challenges she faces are to her worldview not from anyone who can actually overpower her. And the moment she does something bigger then we'd seen before it's because she stopped holding herself back. That's a show that became more popular then the one it spun off from then got an even better second season and now a third is coming.
I like lots of different kinds of Superhero stories, for both men and women. I can and do also enjoy ones where they barely succeed, or don't entirely. But I see great value in just enjoying letting one wreak havoc on the bad guys unimpeded.
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