An overall good movie, but a pretty plain marvel movie. Carol needs more characterization.

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2019)

I enjoyed the movie for the most part, The storyline was good and relatively clear, character's motivations made sense, effect were good, pacing was decent and a surprisingly good supporting cast. the only gripe i have with the plot was how some scenes seemed very forced or unnatural. i understand the female justice theme had to be a part of the movie, but a lot of scenes just seemed too on the nose. they came off as random and very hamfisted and didnt flow into the movie in a witty or natural way. it seemed like they cared too much about trying to make the movie relevant so it could be noticed and not enough about telling a cohesive story with clear character arcs. The movie is an overall enjoyable watch and as a movie it was pretty good. as a marvel movie however, it lacked in some pretty substancial ways. for starters, Brie Larson's performance wasn't terrible, but it was very clear that either she or the director weren't sure what direction to take the character in. at points she seems like she's arrogant and serious, others she's jovial and sarcastic, and her reactions to things seem somewhat unnatural. one minute she's angry, the next she's crying, the next she doesnt care and its just very jarring. she doesn't really feel like a real person like all the other MCU characters do. Maybe brie larson was trying to put too much of herself in the character instead of trying to make the character dynamic and realistic. either way theres this general ambiguity that falls over the character's actions, abilities and personality. the limitations of her strength seems pretty inconsistent from scene to scene. overall it seems like the storyline and the character were written by completely different writing teams. the story was solid but Carol herself just lacks direction as a character, any unique or interesting personality traits that help her stand out as a character and just doesnt act the way a normal person does. it seems to me like they didnt really know much about captain marvel as a character and didnt really understand how she works in general. I had been very much looing forward to the film and was only mildly disappointed walking out. i was really hoping she would be an incredibly badass and perfect front runner for the next phase of the MCU but i believe she needs more work. The writers should study captain marvel's appearances in the animated avengers cartoon series, as she is very well characterized there.