Captain Marvel is no marvel herself: Boring and uninspired is the best way to describe this

Rating: 4/10 (8 March 2019)

When Wonder Woman came out two years ago, it got a step above Marvel with one aspect; DC was about to produce a solo female superhero movie before Marvel did. Marvel had managed to make use of Scarlet Witch, Gamora, and Black Widow, but they were all a part of teams. Wonder Woman made her debut in Batman V Superman, but had not only shown a good origin story in her own movie, but made something that was entertaining, could make audiences happy (not just comic book fans), and made a Greek goddess human.
While not perfect, I really enjoyed Wonder Woman. I had always wondered why Marvel had not gotten around to making a Black Widow or Scarlet Witch movie. If I had to guess, it probably has nothing to do with any sexism. It's more about having a semi-known name on the screen to ensure people that would come. As hinted in Avengers: Infinity War, it looks like Captain Marvel is the one that's going to get her shot at a solo movie first. This isn't a bad thing as it does take us back into the cosmic part of Marvel, which is my favorite aspect of the MCU. Let's see if Disney can pull off something similar to Wonder Woman in Captain Marvel.
On a distant planet, a member of the Kree starforce Vers (played by Brie Larson) goes on various missions with her commander Yon-Rogg (played by Jude Law). She has been trained to not use her emotions in order to channel her cosmic abilities. While going after Skrulls, she ends up getting captured by their leader Talos (played by Ben Mendelsohn) who probes her memory. This triggers images of her in the Air Force and having friends. Without any idea of this, she manages to breakout and escape, but also crash lands on Earth in 1995.
Her arrival is met by S.H.I.E.L.D agent Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (played by Clark Gregg) who have a ton of questions for this woman who came out of the sky. She's also met by Skrulls and Taloes who can shapshift into anyone. Vers and Nick escape, but she wants to know more about her vivid images she keeps having. After investigating the information of Dr. Wendy Lawson (played by Annette Bening), she's comes to understand she used to be Carol Danvers. This puts her position as a human and starforce warrior into question.
After a lot of anticipation, I found Captain Marvel to be incredibly...meh. Given it's story and charecters, this is a movie that's clearly trying to be a lot of things. An origin story, a science-fiction, a coming-of-age, a buddy-cop, and a superhero story. The problem lies in a lot of area, but the movie does have a lot of good things as well. A lot of it is on the supporting charecters. Not only is it nice to see Samuel L. Jackson play a bigger role in an MCU movie, but the digital effects to make him younger look cool.
Ben Mendelsohn, Lashana Lynch, and Annette Bening all do well given their material. I thin my favorite was Jude Law, who takes a lot of command with his character. I won't spoil what direction they go, but it made sense and it's always nice to see him play slimy. I didn't even mention the cat Goose, who gets plenty of time to shine, though his big moment comes towards the end, in which I also won't spoil.
So what's wrong with the movie. Two things; first is the script. The story tries to juggle around it's plots from the various characters, but it becomes so jumbled that some characters disappear for a while and comeback without any segway. When we do get back to Captain Marvel's mission, once we do realize their goals, I found myself not caring to the point where much of it became boring. This mainly seems to be a filler story until the next. The other problem is Captain Marvel herself; Brie Larson. I've mentioned before that she can deliver a good performance, but it requires good direction. In many scenes where she needs to appear commanding and intimidating, I just wasn't buying it. Her performance happens to be more stoic and robotic that I can't figure out how this was meant to be an interesting personality.
I'll give this four Captain Marvels out of ten. I remember seeing this in a packed theater where the theater mostly sat in silence except for the ending. I don't know how this is going to play out, but I can't imagine this being a future major player. I'm sure Captain Marvel will have her fans, but I can't see them saying that this is the favorite of the MCU. Even with her cosmic powers, I found this boring and unoriginal. I'll wait for Avengers: Endgame instead.