Frivolous fun

Rating: 6/10 (18 March 2019)

Captain Marvel is just about on the right side of entertaining. It's way above the turkey threshold but falls short of the accolade of good.
It's the standard Marvel template: our heroine is presented as someone trying to find their place in the universe, they go on an unexpected journey - battling some bad guys - and eventually discover their true power.
The effects are dated. Cartoonish and unremarkable. Thor (2011) had better FX. The narrative is something of a mess: flashbacks to future events and substandard plot twists make for an uneccessarily confusing watch. More effort should have been made to flesh out the new characters and keep the story simple. There are few people who we can identify with - including Carol Danvers - because introductions to new characters and worlds are all too brief.
These are the main flaws and the Marvel releases of late have tended to be of a similar standard, so Captain Marvel doesn't fall way short. It's just that the benchmark is quite low.
On a positive note, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel is a likeable and interesting character, if a bit ambiguous. Brie Larson does the job well and fits in nicely with the longstanding universe characters, ie. SHIELD. Some nice comic touches are woven into the script as usual, without being too out-of-place.
Overall, the film held my interest, despite the muddled start and standard lull that all super hero movies seem compelled to have in the middle (a tradtion upheld since Superman 2, 1980).