My admittedly bias review

Rating: 1/10 (8 March 2019)

I admit I was not looking forward to this movie anyway but I was hoping for a pleasant surprise. Instead I got pretty much what I dreaded, much to my own disappointment.
I went in with misgivings because I had never liked the skrulls. I had gotten bored with the skrulls in the comics a long time ago. The skrulls were used too often in the comics as a retcon device. "Don't like how this character has been written for the last ten years? Skrull!" "Don't like that character's wife? Skrull!" You get the idea... They were and are my least favorite Marvel villains. My favorite Marvel villains are Doctor Doom and Marvel's version of Dracula.
In this film there is a little twist about the aliens and their war but not big enough to keep me interested. The skrulls are kind of just refugees so it's not as bad as the tired use of the comics but now what? They're kind of sympathetic.
Brie Larson isn't a very pleasant actress. I liked Wonder Woman and I liked Gal Gadot. She is friendly and personable. But despite my views of the actress I tried to give Captain Marvel a fair chance.
The character feels underdeveloped. She was abruptly added to a ten year long franchise and we are supposed to accept that she's the "Bestest" (I wrote it that way on purpose) and strongest character who ever was. This revisionist history does comicbook fans (and other female characters) a disservice. Does no one remember that Rogue was able to overpower her and knocked her into a coma for nearly a decade in the comics?
Honestly, Carol Danvers feels very under-developed. She's flat and two dimensional. She has a message about overcoming oppression and I suppose that's good but that doesn't make up for a very flat character and an uncharismatic actress whose unpleasantness seems to leak into the character.
As a comics fan I wasn't very fond of the drastic revisions to Carol's origin, especially with weirdly increasing her victimhood (in the name of empowerment?!) It's strange and I'm afraid it's done a disservice to the entire MCU.
I admit I'm bias as a fan of the older comics (The current Captain Marvel comics aren't very good at all). For a more comicbook faithful version of this character I strongly recommend the animated series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest heroes. That depiction of Carol in that show is very faithful to the comics.
If you want a great female hero, I recommend watching Wonder Woman instead or if you want something darker and an action heroin overcoming manipulation, then go for Underworld instead. There are plenty of great female heroes. You don't need to feel ashamed or think of yourself as "anti-woman" if you happen to not like Captain Marvel. It's okay. We don't deserve pandering and Mary Sues (Under-developed and over-powered characters that feel half-hearted "but they're 'the best' at everything so it's okay!") We deserve well written characters with relatable personalities. Men and women alike. We deserve better than this.