Not Marvellous, not awful.

Rating: 6/10 (8 March 2019)

I went into this movie with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised.
It does go some way to explain how Carol Danvers obtains her super powers however it is still unclear to me what exactly those powers are - absorbing an enormous amount of energy seems to have given her the ability to breathe in space unaided and fire lasers from her arms, sort of a jack-of-all-trades super power. She's pretty much indestructible, which hampers the film somewhat as there are no instances where she is in any danger, at no time are you in any doubt that she'll prevail.
While Brie is a phenomenal actress she falls flat as Captain Marvel, Carol has one expression which serves as default for every situation. Ironically she is told throughout her development that she needs to "control her emotions" yet she shows as much emotion as a cheese sandwich from start to finish.
Given the drawbacks that predominantly rest on clichÃ© superhero tropes it's still a fun origin movie with a fantastic supporting cast.
The best parts of the film nearly always include Nick Fury and Goose, the cat. The de-aging of Phil Coulson and particular Nick Fury is really impressive, it's not at all jarring and that's one real strong point for the movie. The effects generally are what you come to expect from a Marvel movie nowadays.
There are a couple of unanswered questions, nothing that compromises the plot but I don't expect them to be answered in Endgame as they have no relevance to the bigger picture.
Overall if you're interested in the MCU I'd definitely recommend seeing Captain Marvel to benefit from seeing how it fits into the universe - there's a few nice connections in there. Let's be honest most people are only seeing it for their Endgame fix.