The MCU's Concerning Future feat. Captain Marvel

What is a Super-hero movie? It's a business, a lucrative one at that. All a studio has to do is stick to a formula, a few distinct check-points; once adhered to, these checkpoints earn you billions. Comic book movies have consistently been box office successes throughout the last decade. However, very few have acquired critical acclaim. And trust me when I tell you this, these formulae and check-points can only get you so far. Because when an audience has seen the same plot over and over again, enough times, they seem to lose interest. Marvel faces the same threat.

The Avengers (2012) : Powerful individuals come together but don't seem to hit it off instantly. They eventually learn to work together and defeat their common foe.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) : Partially capable individuals are forced into a situation where they have to work together despite not being compatible at first, to prevent the doom of the Galaxy.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2017) : Loosely knit group of individuals face turbulence in their relations and spark into disagreement and conflict. They are later forced to work together to disable an evil entity from engulfing the universe.

Avengers : Infinity War (2018) : A group of individuals who split up after events of previous movie are called back into action to defeat the biggest threat they've ever faced. They also meet new people who share the same goal but have varying means. This sparks more conflict. All heroes never quite unite and hence, lose.

The pattern persists. They have the same bone structure. However, Marvel successfully created compelling variations. But I don't believe any more variations can be created in the future without seeming repetitive. The wheel has been spun enough. Hence, Marvel has been trying to tweak it lately. They tried it with Captain Marvel and I commend them for it. They hired inexperienced directors and wrote a never seen before screenplay. But here's the catch, it wasn't good. They didn't know what they wanted the movie to be. It was a disproportionate mix of varying tastes.

Marvel has been rather good at Origin stories. From a man learning the importance of using his capabilities to earn redemption for his past deeds (Iron Man), a weak man gaining the means to carry out his vision of doing what's right while showing great traits of a true hero (Captain America), a man born with tremendous power and arrogance for the same understanding the importance of control and responsibility to become the savior his subjects require (Thor), a kid who's hit in the face with super human abilities and then decides to use them for good (Spider-man), all the way to a ruler who must fill in his father's shoes and decide what's best for his people and the world by extension (Black Panther). 

The origin story game is pretty strong at Marvel. I'm afraid the same can't be said about Captain Marvel. For one, its not an origin story which I would have been totally fine with if it was a good story at all, but it wasn't. The entire movie was an excuse to put a new character into Avengers : Endgame. They might as well have pulled the 'Birth of Vision' story arc out of Age of Ultron and stuffed it with unnecessary material to make a separate movie out of it. 

But why do I call it a threat to the MCU's future? Why is it not just a single bad movie? Here's why.

Marvel crossed a line with Captain Marvel. Their characters work because they seem real. Their powers have limits, which is what makes them compelling. Tony is just a man without his suit, an intelligent one, but still just a man. Steve Rogers is just a man with super strength, that's it. Vision was an Android who could do most of the awesome stuff he did only because he possessed an Infinity Stone. T'challa is the king of a country with a cool suit but the suit doesn't make him special; his knack for decision making and his sense of responsibility for the world does. Peter is just a kid who happens to have many interesting tricks up his sleeve but his merit lies in his choice to fight evil and use his powers for nothing else. Thor is a God and has wild abilities but they aren't given much importance. His primary arc always revolves around him growing as a character. Doctor Strange is a sorcerer but other than the tricks he can perform to make us laugh, his primary powers involving Time Travel are in complete obedience with the laws of physics. Natasha is just a spy looking for ways to help. Wanda owes her powers to an Infinity Stone and I'm willing to let unrealistic powers pass if they are related to an Infinity Stone, as long as their acquirement is believable. Moreover, Wanda is interesting. She's painted as a weapon of Mass destruction by the world and yet she continues serving the good cause despite having enough reasons to hate the Avengers. 

Marvel makes characters with flaws and limitations. They also give them interesting personal traits other than their primary powers. Here's what they did with Carol Danvers.

Constructed a character with unexplained and unrealistic powers. After all, how did the energy explosion give her powers instead of just killing her and how did she instantly become biologically capable of shooting energy out of her hands? What sorta anatomy is this? This is an extension of the flaws in Ant-man and The Wasp where Janet comes out of the Quantum realm, unscathed and can somehow flow quantum energy out of her hands. It doesn't make sense. Wanda got her powers after sophisticated experiments and loads of practice.  Her powers have an explanation. 

Marvel also gave Carol the not so interesting trait of having a sense of humor, which we have an over-abundance of in the MCU right now, so it was unnecessary. She's like a sarcastic Captain America. And she has no emotional arc. In fact the movie has no emotions. This is an extension of the flaws in Ant-man and The Wasp where Janet comes out of the Quantum realm, unscathed and can somehow flow quantum energy out of her hands. It doesn't make sense. 

Also, Brie Larson is bland and uninteresting. So, she's not even an interesting character if you take away her powers; something which isn't true for our other heroes. The most displeasing feature of Captain Marvel is Carol Danver's persona.

Moreover, several newer Marvel characters like Adam Warlock are scheduled to enter the Marvel Universe in Phase-4. Their powers are unrealistic too. In fact, Marvel has almost wrapped up it's share of partially realistic characters. All those left are over-powered. I'm not willing to accept that.