By: Daimhlinn Darling
Captain Marvel truly is a testament to female empowerment.
Premiering on International Women’s Day, the first Marvel movie of it’s kind showcased a strong message for women of all ages; you have nothing to prove.
What started as a very confusing montage of memories that the main character, Carol Danvers, was struggling to make sense of, blossomed a magnificent ‘Aha! Moment’ of self-worth.
Danvers begins her story on the futuristic planet of Hala, home of the Kree, an extraterrestrial race of ‘warrior-heroes’ as she so describes.
She is then catapulted into the retro life of 1990s Earth; Blockbusters Video stores, Nine Inch Nails t-shirts, pinball machines, and crazy hairstyles aplenty.
This is where we are greeted with a very young looking Nick Fury who eventually helps our feminist hero in a battle between the Kree and the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifting aliens.
Although the CGI used to make the actors appear younger is impressive, the real spark is how true taps into the contemporary feminist zeitgeist.
There are women supporting women in all shapes and forms; best friends supporting best friends, daughters supporting mothers, colleagues supporting colleagues, you name it.
One scene in particular, when Captain Marvel is reunited with her long-time best friend, emphasises just how important it is to have a robust female powerhouse to give you a source of strength in times of need.
This is further stressed through the strong mother-daughter relationship between Maria and Monica Rambeau as the young girl encourages her mother to push her boundaries and reach her full potential.
More than this though, it is a nod to, not only female empowerment, but self-empowerment and feeling like you don’t need anything or anyone else to complete you.
This becomes blindingly apparent as Captain Marvel learns that in order to unlock her true power, she must break out of the emotional prison that she put herself in.
This happens in a scene when Danver is forced to relive all of the failures in her life and the times when she’s been told she cannot do something.
However, instead of letting this consume her, as she has in the past, she turns it into strength, and we see how she continuously gets back up after she’s fallen.
After harnessing her power, No Doubt’s ‘Just A Girl’ begins to play, further solidifying that Marvel’s first female superhero is here to do some damage.
Initially, even the enemy sent to chase them is a female, and we see an epic battle between two badass lady pilots.
But, to finish it all off, Captain Marvel is face to face with the man who made her question who she is and what she could do. “I have nothing to prove to you,” she says to him, before sending him off back to his home planet like a small, bold child.
In the end, we see that all we need to do to overcome what we think is the biggest, most unstoppable obstacle out there, is believe in ourselves and support one another to do the right thing.
We even come to find that it is these strong women who started this whole series in the first place and they could be the ones to help finish everything come the next Avengers movie in the Marvel universe.
Rohan Coleman