it's fine

Rating: 7/10 (13 March 2019)

Vers (Brie Larson) is a powered member of the Kree Empire mentored by Commander Yon-Rogg (Jude Law). The Kree is under attack from the shapeshifting Skrulls. During a battle, Vers is captured where the Skrulls try to extract her memories. She had lost her memories six years earlier. With flashes of recovered memories, she escapes and crashes onto a Los Angeles Blockbuster. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and new agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) arrive to investigate. It's 1995 before Fury executed the Avengers Initiative. Vers searches for Dr. Wendy Lawson (Annette Bening) who is the key to her past.
It's a prequel. It's an origin story. It's an exposition movie. It's a connective tissue movie. It's a female empowerment story. It's a Marvel movie. It's trying to be a lot of stuff. Despite that, it's fairly uncomplicated. It runs well without hitting any major potholes. It introduces a new hero. It gives her a very specific identity. It still has a few issues. First, Brie Larson is doing a specific character but the role is lacking in range. Essentially, she starts off with amnesia and that's not always great for character work. It's almost as bad as being brainwashed and comes off as robotic. There is one moment of great possibility when Carol is across the table with Maria for the first time in a while. That could have been a really powerful moment of female friendship. Akira Akbar is acting her butt off but Brie is restricted to her memory blanks. Her memories could have flooded back as she emotionally breaks down. They could have hugged and yes why not even shed a tear. Her character needs a different gear. The role is stuck in the robotic amnesia Jason Bourne mode. Bourne could have been a solid choice but that's not this movie either. She's wise-cracking right from the start but that's the limit of her emotional range.
Second is her memory flashbacks. Instead of showing those memories early, the movie should have kept them from the audience. It becomes repetitive and we are forced to wait for Carol to catch up. The movie needs to keep the audience at the same level as Carol in her discovery. It should only reveal each memory as it comes up in the plot. Her meeting with Maria should be the point where most of her flashbacks occur like when her extended memory of the inciting incident is triggered. The movie needs to rearrange a few things.
The other characters are solid. Fury is great. His humor really works. The music is mostly popular 90's female alternative voices. It's not unexpected but the climax starts with No Doubt's Just A Girl which is awkward for hitting it on its tippy tip nose. It's a weird song to fight to. It could have also added a few more male singers. It's deliberately doing something which seems unnecessary and the music taste is too similar. Why not NIN or a rapper to change the tone? I hope that Carol will be a deeper character in the future. She could face a more personal challenge with an older Monica. This film is filling out a lot of story blanks whether we like it or not, and preparing for the upcoming Avengers movie. It's fine. The Marvel universe continues.