Best of the rest, or least of the best

Rating: 8/10 (20 March 2019)

I read many low-rated reviews here in the week before Captain Marvel's release in my local theatre, and it did concern me going into watching it.
While it didn't hit the lofty heights of some of Marvel's other recent titles, I still definitely enjoyed it more than the likes of Thor 2, Iron Man 2, and I'd rank it slightly above Dr. Strange.
Young Nick Fury is great, having a kickass female lead is great, the Skrull/Kree rivalry is nice and complex, like it should be.
A lot of criticism has been directed at Brie Larson's performance. One thing I do agree is that the comic moments her character had fell short of the mark often.
This is in part due to Ms. Larson not being an experienced comic actress, and in part due to the movie seeming to be in two minds on how to present itself. It felt like they wanted to parallel the piss-take vibe that made Ragnarok successful, while also trying to be a heavier story. Half the time the jokes didn't really fit, the other half, Larson needed more direction and practise on delivering a good punchline.
I don't think this means she botched it, I still really enjoyed her as the character and I look forward to seeing her grow more in future movies.
They can definitely do more with her character arc, but as a first outing (and a tricky one, with a necessary origin story and a character that could suffer from the same OP issues that Superman, for example, does), I thought this was a perfectly good addition to the series.