I LOVED this, just not as much as I wanted to.

Rating: 7/10 (8 March 2019)

Let's get this out of the way first -- this film is good and non-preachy. All of the internet panic about it being a vehicle for feminism and Brie Larson being a horrible actress and the wrong choice and politically motivated was, of course, crap. The dogfights are cool, the effects on Fury and Coulson (who's barely there) are fantastic, and the movie offers an interesting if predictable twist on the first movie origin story (let's face it, if you've seen a trailer, you can guess with a reasonable accuracy how the plot will fall out). Where the film falters, though, is its villains and references. Without getting too spoilery, there's a few previously seen characters who could have been replaced in this by a random new character and nothing would have changed. There's also an appearance of something that I'm pretty sure is already in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody when this takes place (1995), so its appearance here, while impactful, may have a brief timeline hiccup. Also also, the name Fury gives the report he's typing at the end and what it references is just a little too much of a gimme. Of all the ways to come up with the needed name, that had to be one of the dumbest and most infuriating. Overall, the movie harkened back to the good old days of phase one, before the movies got so bogged down with connectivity and could just stand apart. That's not a bad thing, exactly, it just seems to be holding the character from going as high and as far and as fast as she really deserves to. Regardless, the movie is still good and worth checking out, both for putting it in the saga appropriately and for that super-cute, super-awesome kitty.