Captain Marvel's greatest strength is probably derived from all the MCU buildup which seems to surround the movie's very plot, characters, and actions taken by aforementioned characters throughout the narrative. Despite all the fanfare bolstering this movie's apparent agenda of women-empowerment and considerate support from political and societal heavyweights, the plot remains a rushed cavalcade of scenery and action scenes, with admittedly enjoyable references to Marvel's comic book history.
The primary liability of Captain Marvel's plot is the reliance on convoluted flashback scenes and frantic spouts of dialogue to explain the superheroine's backstory quickly, without ever engaging with in-depth moments from her past as Carol Danvers. Her life as a child, teenager, and young adult are marked by persistence and mental fortitude. Unfortunately, these admirable qualities are displayed only near the movie's climax, when the plot requires CM to break free of the evil Kree AI's hold on her brain.
Speaking of antagonists, the surprise twist Kree villains were visible from kilometers away, which could've been an excusable offense, had they been entertaining enemies with understandable motivations and coherent backstories. Marvel has always had major problems with their villains, only recently breaking away from their traditional archetypes to illustrate convincing baddies, namely Thanos, Killmonger, and Vulture. Unfortunately, it seems CM was a step back in this progress, as the two primary antagonists, the Supreme Intelligence and Yon-Rogg (A Kree Commander), are both highly xenophobic mass-murdering imperialists. Not being a comic fan myself, I cannot make fair judgement on whether the Supreme Intelligence acted in this demeanor within the comics, but considering he/she/it's an artificial intelligence program, shouldn't its primary concern be the betterment of the Kree Empire, rather than extermination of innocent species? Classic evil for the sake of evil characters that remain cardboard cartoon centerpieces rather than cinematic terrors.
However, the side characters in Captain Marvel, such as Nick Fury or Ben Mendelsohn's Skrull character Talos provide fun comedic relief and characterisation to this chaotic movie. I found the character Maria Rambeau an amazing presence on-screen. Simply a heroic woman seeking to help an ailing people in the face of extinction, uncaring about the differences in race.
I mentioned this movie's hefty reliance on MCU relics and lore, and it remains steadfast, albeit Captain Marvel embodying the Tesseract's powers is likely a lore centerpiece anyway, though SHIELD and Nick Fury's presence, while enjoyable, is a blatant reference. While it's not bad Marvel can create movies supplicated with lore built up for a decade, I did also enjoy the brief moments of independence this movie had with the Kree and Skrulls. Despite them also being aspects of Marvel's comic-book history, they were completely new in the universe, and it's always fun to see new elements being added that could make appearances in future films.
Overall, Captain Marvel's potential was nearly squandered by the predictable plot, political agenda, and boring villains, but the movie's enjoyable aspects derived from the cast of characters and Brie Larson's stellar acting prowess. Many complain Captain Marvel is extremely powerful and can ruin the MCU's intrigue by possessing such immense capabilities, but I'm certain the Russo brothers will find interesting new avenues to negate Marvel's intense abilities to showcase the power of later villains, hopefully with more character. Therefore, it earns a solid 6/10.
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