Review Detail

Overview:

The movie establishes very early that the Skrull expansion threatens the universe, and that the Kree are all that stand in their way. The MCU often makes the mistake of presenting these world-ending stakes at scale, which make them hard to relate to. In Captain Marvel, this is expressed through Vers’ personal grief and what the Skrull have taken from her. This is an important point for a movie with a central theme of individualism versus nationalism.

For this to work, the audience needs to find the protagonist relatable. In the original release, Vers comes across as arrogant and stand-offish. While this might have been by design for Vers to put a wall up between herself and her Kree allies, it also put a wall up for the audience. The edit creates a more sympathetic character, allowing Brie Larson’s facial expressions to carry more of the subtext. The edited down humour shows Vers as brash, but not cold and insulting. The addition of the teaching scene early on also helps create a more caring mentor dynamic between Yon-Rogg and Vers.

In the original realise, we are told men -and specifically men- are what stands in the protagonist’s way. What I see in this edit is that controlling forces and the lack of agency are the enemy. While with the Kree, Vers Is told to let go of her emotions and unknown past, and to submit to the collective. By the end of the movie, Carol has reconciled her individuality, and adapted within that concept the Kree motto of putting others before herself. That’s a broader, more accessible arc that doesn’t alienate anyone nor take away from what the original release tried to achieve.

Through the edit, Captain Marvel tells a story less focussed on outside influences telling Carol she is a failure, and more on her internal conflict of failure, determination, and success.


What I liked:

Only 45ish seconds were shaved from the original before the Kree arrival on Torfa, yet I found the edit better paced with better exposition.

Adding the scene with Yon-Rogg teaching the children is a good choice. In addition to what I previously said about the scene, it also added some more sympathetic humour from Vers as we do tease each other in a more direct way when appealing to a childhood audience.

The scene of Yon-Rogg talking with the Supreme Intelligence was a good addition and adds more weight to his later line about going back to Hala empty-handed.

There were some very clever editing choices during the Skrull memory search scene.

I had no particular problem with the original “biker” scene or its extended version, but throughout the movie we don’t see Vers/Carol seek any personal satisfaction in causing harm. For someone who sees herself as a Noble Warrior Hero, this was out of character. The edit better expressed her need in that moment. There’s a memorable scene in the pilot of Alias that plays out in a similar way.

The edits to remove some of Vers/Carol’s coldness result in better payoffs for when she’s deliberately untrusting or arrogant. Such as when Carol is talking to Maria’s neighbour, or during the fight between Carol and her former Kree allies in the finale.

Replacing the “Carol stands up for five minutes” scene with one of Carol experiencing her recent memories with Fury, Maria and Monica was one of the best parts of this edit. It showed that while Carol doesn’t have any old memories, her few days among humanity let Carol know herself more than six years with the Kree did.


What I might do differently:

Some of the scenes on Torfa were quite dark and I found it difficult to follow each character as their faces were shadowed. I compared the Torfa scene side-by-side, and the original release was already pushing the limit on lighting. I think some of the colour-correction during flashbacks were a little distracting, also.

The small flashback we get on meeting Goose near the records room was probably unnecessary. It doesn’t do any harm, but it might be a case of needing to trust your audience more.

While I agree that Just a girl by No Doubt was a little on the nose, it left the editor an interesting problem. Do you replace it with 90s rock? Grunge? Maybe a girl-power jam that could leave you with the same original problem? The editor went with Violet by Hole which is a solid choice. I think the only options were to find a rock song to match the beats of that fight (like Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill), or lean so hard into the kitchy contrast and go with an extremely era pop song (something like Wannabe by the Spice Girls). I can imagine Marvel tried to go with the second option with their original choice.

Some of the cuts were rough which isn’t a criticism of the editor as they can only work with the material given. In particular, the cutaway after Goose scratches Fury’s eye is jarring. Considering the effort the movie went to create red herrings for how Fury loses his eye, leaving the line “It’s just a scratch” and editing out Talos’ reaction would have played equally as well.


Final thoughts:

This edit shows us the movie we could have gotten. A more widely relatable lead, while still representing the original message that was likely targeted towards young women. Tremault should be very proud of this effort as it shows what a love of the source material and more ruthless editing can accomplish.