A decent, middling entry to the MCU that doesn't quite live to its potential

Rating: 7/10 (10 March 2019)

Probably the most disappointing thing about this movie is the fact that this middling, decent, but not outstanding film is the first female led movie in the MCU. Love it or hate it, at least Black Panther had some artistic vision behind it, but Captain Marvel, both as the first female lead superhero as the lead-up to Endgame feels like squandered potential.
Please note that I'm not really familiar with the comic lore, and I came in as a casual superhero movie fan.
The good things that come to mind are the relationship between Fury and Vers was fun. Slightly uncanny de-ageing effects on Fury aside, there was quite a bit of chemistry between them and I enjoyed the film when they were together.
Also the twist that happens in the middle (as someone who only had minimal knowledge on the Skrulls and Kree (I know the Skrulls are the bad guys in a lot of early Fantastic Four stories)) that the Skrulls were actually the underdogs to the growing Kree empire was neat, and that her mentor at the beginning of the film wasn't Mar-Vell (I think Jude Law was listed as Mar-Vell online before the film released) but was the true villain was also a cool secondary twist. Although I knew that Vers was actually a human all along, the way the plot revealed how she ended up having her memory of Earth wiped, and how she was adopted by the Kree was compelling stuff.
Now, the bad. The movie lacks a coherent sense of style. In terms of set design, effects, choreography and cinematography, it's severely lacking when compared to The Avengers or Black Panther. While BP was lacking in CG effects in many parts of the film, it had art design aplenty to compensate. Captain Marvel looks VERY boring, bordering on Power Rangers in terms of costuming and effects. The fight choreography took several steps back, with the awful editing to make it seem fast paced but in reality just made me dizzy and gave me a mild headache. Captain Marvel's powers, while at parts impressive, seem very inconsistent. Sometimes she's able to blow up ships, whereas others she barely dents the wall. I know that she was Nerfed by the Kree, but even then her power level seemed to go up and down a lot, without any clear rules as to her actual strengths and weaknesses at any time. Although I will admit I always have a bit of a soft spot for Avatar glowy eyes whenever they happen in movies or TV, and Captain Marvel doesn't disappoint there.
Of course, now we have to address the elephant in the room. This is gonna be one of those movies, like Last Jedi, that political pundits on both sides will use to push their agenda. The Right Wing has already attempted to review bomb this movie's Rotten Tomatoes page to the point where RT had to temporarily shut down audience reviews (and by mentioning this, I'm bound to get some hate too), and in reaction, I 100% guarantee a lot of Left WIngers will do the exact same thing, except in the opposite direction by over-praising this movie. This movie doesn't deserve the amount of hate directed to it, nor does Brie Larson. This movie is just another run-of-the-mill superhero movie, nothing worth getting into a tizzy over. The film definitely makes several pro-feminist statements, and while I'm a feminist myself, they definitely were a bit ham-fisted, even compared to Wonder Woman, which handled the feminist themes incredibly well in comparison.
I hope for the next Captain Marvel movie, they do some more interesting stuff, give the character more to do. Or better yet, do some more compelling female led superhero movies that aren't the same old space opera stuff. Do She-Hulk, or an actual Black WIdow movie, or make the Captain Marvel sequel Ms. Marvel and do Kamala Khan's story. There's a lot of room for experimentation and new stories to tell with a female perspective that I'm sure a lot of people, including me, would appreciate.
Ultimately, if this film inspires a young girl to get more into comics, then it has done its job well.