Movie Review: Captain Marvel

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2019)

It certainly looks like the internet has broken into two camps over this movie. Either its an incomprehensible mess with way to on-the-nose feminist messaging or its a feminist masterpiece with great characters and bad-ass action scenes.
Personally I think it's somewhere in the middle.
Boden and Fleck have proven themselves with character based indie films such as Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind. Captain Marvel is at its best when they channel that style, Larson and Jackson have great on-screen chemistry and watching the two becoming friends and solve the mystery of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) past makes for a fun buddy type film.
Ben Mendelsohn is clearly having a lot of fun playing a slightly different role than he is known for and it is great to see Clark Gregg back on the big screen as Agent Coulson.
The 90s nostalgia aspect of the film can come across pretty heavy-handed at points but I think for the most part it works. The soundtrack is full of great 90s songs, even if one particular music cue was way too obvious.
As far as the feminist undertones go I think this film did a pretty great job at incorporating a pro-female message without it ever feeling preachy. When the film does decide to focus on it's feminist theme it tends to do so with a humours tone that feels even more satisfying after seeing the immediate backlash this film got from certain pockets of the internet.
Despite all this, the film does lack the unique visual flare of the past few MCU movies. At points Captain Marvel feels like it would be more at home with the phase one Marvel films with its lack of direction which is disappointing as I have already said that Boden and Fleck are talented filmmakers. Most action scenes are forgettable and without that extra visual element even the dialogue scenes can tend to drag and even enter melodramatic territory at points.
It should be said regardless of your opinion on the film as a whole that the special effects used to deage Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg are absolutely remarkable. For the most part the special effects are really good throughout the film, one model towards the end can look a little rubbery but compared to some of the character models in Black Panther this is absolutely an improvement.
Overall Captain Marvel is far from the best MCU film and certainly isn't the masterpiece that many fans had hoped it to be but it also isn't anywhere near the garbage-fire that many other fans where ready for it to be. I have to recommend this one on the basis of it being a fun buddy movie with a great cast.