Captain Marvel is a great movie for 10 year old girls. It’s an ok Superhero movie overall. It’s a terrible MCU movie.

Right from the start, it underlines the gender of the character so much that it’s obnoxious. And not even in an empowering way.

It reinforces silly stereotypes of women like being emotional creatures (her emotions actually win the day), and trivial concerns in moments of crisis (“how’s my hair” after a plane crash).

The writers tried to dilute these with moments of girl power and one of them is actually VERY effective. I wont lie I LOVED that part of the movie.

But the others were just corny. She- fully powered and in charge- looking down at her fallen Male mentor saying, “I dont owe you anything”. He, who thrice reiterated his motivation to “make you the best version of yourself”, cast down and dominated.

Everything- the dialogue, the soundtrack, the jokes- has some kind of reference to the gender of the hero every 10 minutes or so. That may be an exaggeration, but not by much.

Which is sad because the character’s story is independent of her gender. She is a woman in the comics, but Mar Vell is not.

And true to form for the MCU, the story is good. The twist was a surprise, something that is becoming harder and harder when audiences are searching for them. Even comic fans didn’t see it coming, and so far I haven’t heard any complaints about THAT specific part.

The CGI worked for me. The cat got the worst of it, but Mr. Fury’s face was well done. I didn’t see old Sam Jackson until he started running, but I DEFINITELY did then.

Brie Larson is terrible as Captain Marvel.

I avoided ALL of her previous movies once I found out she had been cast. It wasn’t hard, they weren’t my kind of stuff anyway. But almost immediately nerd culture had some controversy about the casting so I pulled back from judgment.

Some geeks have become true assholes lately about movies they see as some kind of “social justice”. Politics have invaded that part of our lives, JUST LIKE ALL OTHERS, but I digress.

She was awful. They tried hard to make her seem mischievous and playful but it just comes off as awkward. At one point she’s standing in the middle of her enemies and she makes some kind of 80s-style wisecrack. I rolled my eyes, which is not something I’ve ever done in an MCU movie. (I’ve done it for ALL the DCEU movies. Multiple times. They are just terrible.)

They try to create a friendship with Nick Fury using non-sexual chemistry and it just didnt work for me.

Maybe it would have been awkward, because we all know how old Sam Jackson is. But at this “point in time” the age separation between them wasn’t large enough to bridge that age gap where normal sexual chemistry would occur.

In a movie shot in the 90s with a male and female actor of those respective ages (assuming Fury was played age-appropriate), it would be awkward WITHOUT sexual chemistry.

So maybe it’s just a side-effect of the great CGI.

If she wasn’t making wisecracks or being mischievous, she was brooding ineffectively. She has a lot of meat to chew in the story. Issues with her dad (because why not), a lost memory being resurrected a piece at a time, learning the truth behind her whole life, first one half- then the other. But she doesn’t chew any of it. Too often I saw her as just standing there, waiting.

I don’t know if she’s a great actress or not, but I think she’s bad in this movie.

Lashana Lynch stole the show. She was Captain Marvel’s pilot buddy before her crash (who offers a nice segue into how “women weren’t allowed to fly combat mission so we had to test dangerous airplanes just to be able to do something that matters”. See?). She was given some bad dialogue at one point and she sold it well. You’ll see her again, bet.

Overall it’s a great movie to take your 10-year old (or younger) daughter to see. That’s not a crack- I really think it is. I’m taking my daughter to see it today.

It’s an ok Superhero movie. Better than the whole DCEU (but not by much- Wonder Woman is closest). Probably better than Thor 2, and mmmmaybe Iron Man 2 (I avoid hating this because of Sam Rockwell and the end with War Machine).

But that’s it. It’s worse than GotG2 or The Incredible Hulk (but again- I dont hate these like so many others).

Captain Marvel is not a Superhero movie that explores great issues of society like security vs. liberty (Winter Soldier), or racial obligations and resource sharing (Black Panther), or even great questions like “Who watches the Watchers?” (Civil War).

It’s a girl power movie, disguised as a Superhero movie.

Which is AWESOME for me to take my daughter to.

But if you’re looking for that next great Marvel movie that would satisfy you until Endgame comes out- this ain’t that.

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