Captain Meh!

Rating: 3/10 (10 March 2019)

Saw this last night with my wife and son, we usually differ on scoring films but we were all hugely disappointed with Captain Marvel. At this stage there are two types of Marvel movie: the ones they spend time and money on, with fully developed characters and a script to match; the flat pack generic ones built from standard set pieces and stocked with cardboard thin characters devoid of any emotional heft so there's little to latch onto if you're looking for anyone to invest in.
Captain Marvel never really gets going on any level, it pootles along not doing very much of consequence via some standard set pieces: a dull car chase; a top-of-the-train bit of bish bash boshery; a moment of realisation as to how much power she actually has - all of which never rise above a low bar of competency. What's the point of a super hero movie that doesn't have anything memorable about it other than a cat, which uses the same gag 3 times, and, yet again from Marvel, another forgettable bad-guy and latex alien prosthetics that wouldn't pass muster on an episode of Star Trek.
Actually, it's not just the bad guy who is forgettable: Brie Larson, fine but charmless, will do much better with a better script and direction; Samuel Jackson, youthful CGI face aside, walks and runs like an old man too tired to breathe life into a flaccid story; Ben Mendelsohn is dialled back to zero; as is Jude Law; while Annette Benning looks utterly lost.
Nothing really sparks in terms of the excitement or thrills expected. It's on a level with Thor: Dark World in terms of not mattering much in the whole scheme of things.