"I don't even know who I am."

Rating: 7/10 (29 August 2019)

While watching, I couldn't help thinking this film was set in the Star Trek universe. A lot of it takes place in outer space, there's mention of Imperial Cruisers, and Talos IV was a Star Trek planet. Even the Earth name of C-53 had a Trekkie feel to it. I wanted to like it but it didn't even feel like a Marvel super-hero movie. Brie Larson didn't appear to have the gravitas required of a would be champion, as the Nine Inch Nails t-shirt she wore throughout lent credence to that evaluation. Actually, it's not a bad sci-fi, fantasy flick on it's own, but if you've seen enough of them, the formula is fairly derivative. What I did like was the opening homage to Marvel comic book creator Stan Lee, and his appearance in the film as the train rider exchanging knowing glances with Carol Danvers/Vers (Larson) in true believer fashion. If you noticed, he was reading the script for "Mallrats".
I saw this movie well after seeing "Avengers: Endgame", so in that film, the character of Captain Marvel was an unknown quantity for me. The origin story here is OK as far as it goes, but if you think about it, the connection of the name to the super-hero is handled once removed from that of Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening), who's Kree name was Mar-vell, and I didn't catch why one had any bearing on the other. Maybe I'm being picky, but even Larson's character didn't know who she was (see my summary line).
I'm probably one of those viewers that takes issue with having an original male super-hero transitioned into a female for the sake of diversity, so if one has a problem with that, it's on me. It's just that I couldn't get too amped about this film about a character that in my estimation is a minor one in the Marvel universe. With that, I'll take my leave, and get the flerken out of here.