An okayish MCU origin flick at best

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2019)

Easily one of the last people to review it as I just saw this movie a month after ENDGAME but that allowed me to see this movie from a fairly different perspective than the rest of the world. I've said it once and I'll say it again Brie Larson as Carol Danvers was a really good choice, although the movie is nothing special.
By the rule of thumb as for all MCU movies so far I'll evaluate it without regards to its source material but will list my gripes in the end.
This movie isn't genre bending or astounding or for the most part something new. It is as generic as a MCU movie is allowed to be and its self aware of the fact, for better or for worst. It puts really little emphasis on creating its own stature and be on a stand of its own, which is somewhat disheartening considering how they marketed the movie as empowering for women. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of empowering moments but I feel like the blandness of the movie does disservice to its target demographic.
The sloppy editing further muddies the overall viewing experience, rendering the movie to feel like it was shot randomly. As we all know hardly any movie shoot takes place where the scenes are shot in sequential order but the point of editing is to divert the attention of the viewers from thinking about that, unfortunately this does not. The distorted flashback scenes are solid piece of work but it baffles me to see the same effort wasn't taken for minor stuffs like screen transition.
The acting is subpar for the most part and Brie Larson is fairly inconsistent in her portrayal. It may as well be due to the writing but she doesn't get out scot free. There are moments where her "dead plank" persona is actually a charm of her character and needed for the plot but she gets too comfortable with that in a lot of her scenes. The overabundance of smirks and smug are a parcel of Captain Marvel from the comics as far as I can remember but it gets too repetitive for my taste.
Speaking of taste, as much as I have a soft spot for 90's music the score in this movie doesn't properly utilize it to its full potential. Sure the movie is peppered with popular 90's track and also borrows heavily from "feel good" movies from the past; it doesn't set any standard of its own. The upbeat song played during her final confrontation with the Kree soldiers felt forced-in and being nostalgic for the sake of being nostalgic.

Now that I'm done with the weaker aspects of the movie, I can go into the writing and the plot. The plot might be somewhat generic but it kind of works for me as they embraced it rather than trying to hide it. The writing is not necessarily bad as it doesn't over convolute itself with subplots and decides to take a "one-goal" approach. Tie-in movies can easily be gateways to massive plot holes and inconsistencies but there are rather less inconsistencies than I thought there would be so it gets a plus. A lot of people complained that the whole movie was shoe-horned in and deliberately forced, which I didn't feel during my first viewing and I guess it's because of watching it rather late.
As it's a movie that hardly tries to standout, it's even harder to point out the plus points of this movie. The easy way out could be by branding it as a "slightly above average MCU movie" and coming from someone who enjoyed most of the prior 22 movies, it's a praise. I loved how they didn't nerf Captain Marvel since nerfing characters is what gets Kevin Feige turned on (Bad phrasing but I'll stick with it).
The buddy cop vibe sways me every time with this being no exception. The CGI was standard but the de-aging of Nick Fury was simply brilliant. Monica and Maria Rambeau were definitely the better parts of the movie and Ben Mendelsohn gives a solid performance yet again. I was mad at the initial shaky-cam fight sequences but thankfully there is very little of it later on. Goose was a delightful addition to the cast and I personally don't have any issues with the gender-bend Mar-vell as she had hardly a major role to play which couldn't have been done by a woman.

Now let's talk about missed opportunities but stay assured, none of what will be written below influenced the rating for this movie. Many might argue but if I judge a MCU movie strictly based on the comics, rest assured that they have very little to do with the comics. Talos being the good guy was a big gut-punch for me and I can't explain how many pages of content they forever erased for MCU. We'll never get to see Talos vs. Hulk and it is a wasted opportunity, although the present condition of Hulk surely eases the pain. Turning the Skrulls into legit good guys flushed my hopes of ever getting a Secrets Invasion arc down the drain. Can't believe they couldn't see the potential of Skrulls in the MCU and instead try to play it as a twist for the sake of creating a twist. One of the main reason I was even excited for Captain Marvel was expecting it to set up Secret Invasion and be a prelude for phase-4, but alas Feige believed a C-grade character from the Marvel comics is actually what we all been waiting for in the MCU. I like Ms. Marvel from the comics but Captain Marvel burned away way too many pages worth of content to properly establish her.

All in all Captain Marvel was just more of the same where it could've easily taken to newer heights. It doesn't disappoint neither does anything groundbreakingly new.
To put it simply, it's a typical MCU origin flick.