Not what a MCU movie should be

Rating: 3/10 (10 March 2019)

Badly written, poorly directed, and woefully miscast, "Captain Marvel" is a major misfire in the MCU. Brie Larson lacks the charisma, strength of character, stature, even the voice to carry the movie, while others like Djimon Hounsou and Jude Law are underutilized or simply not a good fit. Even Samuel L. Jackson cannot redeem "Captain Marvel's" treatment of Nick Fury, which can only be characterized as shameful.
"Captain Marvel" is mostly lacking in energy, suspense, and excitement, three things no MCU movie can do without. Much of the responsibility falls squarely on Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck who share writing and directing credits, but Brie Larson must shoulder some of the blame. Combined, their Captain Marvel is a dull, two-dimensional, and fairly unintelligent creature. She moves through the movie in a sort of bemused daze as the story merely happens around her until she takes the obligatory steps required by the plot. Even climactic moments are served up with no sense of excitement or wonder. As Veers/Captain Marvel, Brie Larson's dialogue consists mostly of bad one-liners delivered in a bland, flat, manner every time. Though her character is constantly admonished for allowing her emotions to get the better of her, Larson rarely evinces emotion of any kind. I never believed that she was genuinely interested in anything.
Major plot surprises and twists were telegraphed so far in advance that, by the time they arrived, there was no surprise just an ability to check that particular one off the list. If you don't know who the real villain and victims are before you go into the theater, you'll know in ten minutes. As others have already noted, even the mid and post credits scenes were lackluster and did nothing to increase my anticipation for Endgame.
Unfortunately for us, Brie Larson is locked into the role. That being the case, there is no saving this part of the MCU apart from changing the writing and directing team. Fortunately, there is a precedence for this in the Captain America, Thor, and even Avenger franchises. These profited tremendously after the Russo brothers took over Captain America and the Avengers, and Taika Waititi took over Thor. It's not too late for Patty Jenkins to become the first director to helm movies in both the DCEU and MCU lines. We can only hope.
Now for the elephant in the room. There are those who see, or want to see, "Captain Marvel" as a feminist statement. I don't particularly care for message movies. A movie should not need a message to be well made, though the two are not mutually exclusive. "Battleship Potemkin" is an example of a brilliant movie that also happens to be pro-communist propaganda. In all honesty I would prefer straightforward, well-made agitprop to whatever "Captain Marvel" is. The movie is so bland that I could not tell if it was about anything at all.