Not a Marvelous Debut

Rating: 5/10 (7 March 2019)

Captain Marvel had all the tools needed to tell an interesting superhero origin story. Unfortunately, it truly did feel heavy-handed with its message (agenda). It was as if the movie was lecturing you, something I personally felt cringey and took me out of the moment.
Compare this to Wonder Woman, and let's not kid ourselves - Captain Marvel is Marvel's answer to DC's Wonder Woman. Comparisons are unavoidable. Place this beside WW and it's shortcomings are even more glaring.
I think one of the biggest problems with Captain Marvel revolves around the portrayal of the titular heroine herself. Portraying your character as overpowered is difficult but possible if handled with subtlety and nuanced. Something the script didn't even bother to do. She's Captain Marvel, everyone else is inferior. That's the take away after watching the film.
The fight scenes felt somewhat bland but has enough flashy explosions to serve as eye-candy. One fight scenes though was, again, a bit cringey. Especially, if you're familiar with all the noise going on with its marketing. The positive parts are definitely the interaction between Carol and Fury. It did feel like a buddy cop film at one point, but that premise is too small in scope for a super powered cosmic character like Captain Marvel. Again, there's something there but it felt like the movie didn't bother pulling that potential out from its characters. It did not want to take any risk. Understandable, yes, but that's one way to turn your film into a by the numbers movie.
Captain Marvel is an MCU movie that could've have been so much more. Unfortunately, the tone-deaf marketing already had the deck stacked on Captain Marvel. It is still possible to do a 180 for this character in future installments but it will be an uphill battle to prove herself to the core fans from here on out.