Fun but flawed

Rating: 7/10 (10 March 2019)

If you go into this expecting to be entertained then you won't be disappointed! Samuel L. Jackson was brilliant and **spoiler** the cat/alien scratching his eye out seemed fitting with the current MCU angle. I also really enjoyed the Australian actor (name escapes me, sorry) and the 'is he or isn't he a villain?' story that develops. The soundtrack is fantastic and sets the film nicely in 1995. There were also a few laughs which again fits in with the fun aspect of more recent MCU films.
The film has its flaws and that can't be denied. The first third was very jumbled, to the point where me and my partner turned to each other a few times and said 'what the hell is going on?' However, all the lose ends get tied together by the end. Also, the alien design isn't the best we've seen from the MCU but I think this was done deliberately to tie it to the aliens in the Guardians' franchise, especially with the Ronan the accuser plot (although adding him as a character seemed forced in this film). Additionally, a major plot point could've have been avoided by simply turning the invisibility cloak back on the ship and seemed like carelessness on the main character's part.
Speaking of the main character, I found Brie Larson to be brilliant. She was badass and carried the film well. You could see her softening slowly as her memories returned and she escapes the Kree mentality to become more human. My main criticism would be that it wasn't entirely clear by the end who exactly Captain Marvel is; is it Carol (Larson), or is it Wendy? Carol is not once referred to as Captain Marvel and this seems odd considering she is the main character in this film. However, that may be my own fault for not being entirely knowledgable of the source material. It also seems odd, as many others have said, that she has no obvious weakness, even once her memories have returned and it's established that she's a human.
On the whole, I enjoyed this film and it was great to see a strong female lead in a male-lead dominated universe.