Marvel's Superman Falls a Little Flat

Rating: 6/10 (11 July 2019)

Space-themed superhero action that's reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy, minus the wealth of charisma and the groovy, well-placed musical cues. Captain Marvel tries to carve its own little niche in that last respect, with a heavy load of popular '90s radio hits spewed all over the place, but they feel far less curated and personal. In a few important scenes, such heavy-handed soundtrack choices actually detract from the action, rather than enhancing it.
The Captain herself, former test pilot Carol Danvers, is reserved and composed by design, a different cut from the brash Marvel template that takes inspiration from her military upbringing and fits her eventual role as a sort of galactic peace officer. This makes for a less colorful lead than we've been conditioned to expect from the mighty mega-franchise, and I can understand how that might rub a few fans the wrong way. Personally, I didn't have an issue so long as we were slowly unraveling the tangled threads of her origin story, but she'll need to find a richer supporting cast to thrive in future solo outings.
Lighter fare than I was expecting, and rather small in scale despite the veiled implications of a long-running interstellar war. Its throwback setting places this film in a unique position to explore and enrich the stories of several MCU playthings - Fury, the Tesseract, Ronan, the Kree - but even with those little curiosities, the whole thing feels a tad unnecessary.