Movie Review: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel was okay. The film as whole was perfectly watchable and generally satisfying with great energy and good-natured fun, but it was also loaded with issues that pulled me slightly out of the film.

The narrative, in particular, was too ambitious to a fault that it really struggled under the weight of what the movie was asked to do - an origin story, a link to the past, a setup to the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, and a possible start to the next phase of MCU. It was doing all of that simultaneously that it really came off a tad cluttered. Morever, unlike say, Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel didn't have a distinct visual flair and spectacle with absolutely no standout moment. Some of the fight scenes had lackluster choreography and the musical score was oddly uneven - the song choice in one of the fight scenes was both predictable and strange.

As for Brie Larson, much like the movie itself, was fine. Her physicality was fantastic, but there was something slightly wooden in her portrayal. I wasn't sure if it was an acting choice or the direction or maybe even the writing, but Brie Larson as Captain Marvel came off a little bland. Her chemistry though with a younger Samuel L. Jackson, which had a phenomenal de-aging visual effects work, was terrific and possibly one of the highlights of the film.

While still a solid, dorky, and retro action romp with plenty to love, Captain Marvel just fell a little short of what it could've been.