Cool moments but a boring movie overall.

Rating: 6/10 (9 March 2019)

This is it. We're finally here, after weeks of backlash towards Brie Larson, after weeks of anticipation, weeks of wondering whether this movie will be good or bad, it's here. Is the movie bad? No. Is the movie good? Absolutely not. This is a very mediocre movie in the sense of its characters, story and the world in itself. Brie's portrayal of Captain Marvel is very bland, there are moments of hope where I thought she was becoming interesting but that hope is rendered false quickly. At no point does the movie make me feel sorry for her or love her and that's an immediate problem. Fortunately, the movie also has other characters, most noteably a young Nick Fury. Samuel L Jackson is great as usual but I have to mention this, the de-aging was done exceptionally well. The CGi didn't even look like CGi, it just blended and it looked perfect. Seeing Nick Fury here was different to what we're used to, he's more cheerful, fun and trusting of others. In that sense, it's a completely different portrayal and Samuel L Jackson does a great job. Jude Law did the best with what he was given. The character was written poorly with no real surprise to his story. Other characters in the movie kind of just fell into the background where they either became irrelevant or they never had enough attention for me to notice them too much.
The story. This is where the movie did half a decent job. The origin of Cap Marvel isn't just another "I lost my parents/family so I have to be a hero". I won't spoil or say too much but the story makes sense and there's one twist that I thought was done well. However, the movie also reveals how Fury lost his eye and it is one of the disappointing factors in the movie. It's made out as comedic relief and that's just ridiculous. Nick Fury told Steve Rogers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier that he lost his eye as a result of trusting someone. The way he loses his eye here isn't half as personal as he makes it sound. Unfortunately there's a fair bit of exposition in the movie as well. Instead of being shown how things turn out, you get told sometimes and it really affects the flow of the story. Also, there's a plot hole regarding the official name of SHIELD in this movie and that was a bit of an annoyance for me and the people I watched it with. Overall, the story made sense and it was okay but other factors in the story didn't stick too well.
The world and tone in this movie are kind of weird. I feel like the movie never really finds itself. One minutes is comedic and the next it's dark and serious. Even the colours used in the movie were dark half the time but then other scenes looked rather different and it always kind of played around with the tone. Black Panther or Thor: Ragnarok immediately make it know what kind of movies they are. This one is lost within itself and that's evident through the whole movie. The movie also relies on referencing stuff about the 80-90s simply because this movie is set in that time period, another thing is the movie also relies on references within the MCU. It's okay sometimes but other times I found myself enjoying a scene just because of that reason and not because the scene was really good.
The choreography here is honestly nothing special at all. Its just a bunch of people shooting laser beams at each other. When it does get to the hand-to-hand combat, the fight scenes are uninspired to say the least. The fight scenes in Black Panther, Winter Soldier and Civil War were greatly appreciated because of how fresh and exciting they felt. I can't say the same here. Other times Captain Marvel kind of just flies through stuff and blows them up. It's nothing we haven't seen before but it's also just enough to get you through the movie. It's not exciting but it's not horrible either, it's kind of just okay.
That's my problem with this movie. It always just feels okay. It never really "wows" me, I sat through the first act and I got really bored, halfway through it started to pick up and the third act was just okay. Some characters were okay but others were just boring or never given enough time. The fight scenes were uninspired but they weren't horrible. The movie always sits on the fence and never really does anything new. After so many Marvel Cinematic movies, the fans need something new and this movie doesn't give us that. It has fun moments and the post credit scene is really damn cool. Certain Easter eggs in the movie were pretty good but there's one that really annoyed me. The Stan Lee tribute was wonderful and a class act by Marvel and the people behind this movie. Going into this movie, I didn't give a care about the controversy around Brie Larson, I was open-minded and I was actually excited. The movie didn't live up to that excitement but it's just okay.