SPOILERS DOWN THE PATH; THE DISCUSSION BELOW WILL NOT BE COMPREHENSIVE WITHOUT IT.
TREAD CAREFULLY. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.
Captain Marvel is Marvel Cinematic Universe's first feature length film starring a female superhero. Promoted as the key to reverse the aftermath brought by Thanos' action in Avengers: Infinity War, this origin tale walks us along her history and how she became the womb The Avengers Initiative was born of.
Carol Danvers' (Brie Larson) backstory was interesting, and the way the motion picture has chosen to explore it from start to finish was decent as well. Skrulls sifting through her past as we witness it with their commentary in the background was definitely something new. Just like the concept of shrinking and enlarging in the Ant-Man celluloids, the makers here have used Skrulls' shapeshifting ability effectively to ramp up the surprises and revelations. The first infiltration mission was thrilling and mysterious enough for sure.
However, the story and characters lacked emotional heft, thanks to the aggressively physical telling. Even emotions, relationships and changes needed to be explained via words. Not sure if it's the character or the actor, but Brie Larson's facial reactions were flat. Any attempt at humor fell flat too. We couldn't see much personality behind the character of Captain Marvel due to the emptiness on the actor's visage and the stiffness in her posture at most times. Although Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) was only used as a comic relief vessel, his interactions with Captain Marvel here and there were nice. Not to forget, Goose aka Flerken was awesome!
We all know Disney loves shoving their views down our throats post 2010s social justice warriors and political correctness movements. Because of this, there were far too many on-the-nose, inorganic moments, dialogues and scenes that raised flags for female empowerment. Cinema exists to tell stories about characters, not to spread messages or force personal agendas. It is sad to see what celluloids have become nowadays, focusing on everything else but the fundamental content. Had the makers spend their time thinking about ways to clarify expositions through visual narratives instead, Captain Marvel would have been a much better product at the end of the day. Thank you for the beautiful Stan Lee tribute though; it was feared his unfortunate demise and legendary contributions would be disregarded since he's a white male.
Nevertheless, it's hard not to notice the flawless production design and world building. Pinar Toprak's techno based score was fantastic for the most parts. While at certain times you could say the visual effects looked unfinished, the deaging work on Samuel L. Jackson and Clark Gregg were immaculate! We have reached another milestone, ladies and gentlemen!