"Captain Marvel" is mid-level superhero fun and games - neither extraordinary nor dumb. Just somewhere in the middle as an adequate effort that makes one wish it was so much more.
Right at the opening, it was hard to be enthusiastic from the numerous visual and special-effects in another galaxy that looked no different than "Guardians of the Galaxy." We see Brie Larson and Jude Law engaged in hand-to-hand combat and Law has the upper hand. She tries to pick herself up again and is warned not to use her emotions, such as anger, or resort to humor to fight. Gee, pretty much old-hat "Star Wars" philosophizing and, if I didn't know better, I almost felt I was watching a Star Wars movie. Actually it is more like Starforce Wars with Larson as Vers, a Starforce recruit and Kree member and Law plays her mentor, Yon-Rogg (there is no way in hell I can remember those names). The planet is Hala (inhabited by the Krees) and the alleged villains are Skrulls, an alien shapeshifting race. Nothing that transpires here was particularly new or fresh to my eyes, not even a woman able to fight and shoot aliens (oh, yes, Virginia, this has been a long standing staple of sci-fi and comic-book stuff for eons). The color green is fairly prominent here and it gave me "Green Lantern" vibes.
So the Skrulls capture Vers and probe her mind, skipping past many of her memories to locate a certain Mar-Vell (known as Dr. Lawson on Earth and excitingly played by Annette Bening). Before long, Vers escapes and lands on Earth as she crash lands on a Blockbuster video store! It is 1995 and she eventually meets up with a young Nick Fury minus an eyepatch (a de-aged Samuel L. Jackson). There is much fiery action on Earth and, after a while, Vers discovers her own true identity.
"Captain Marvel" is competently made and I like Larson in the title role but I didn't love her work here. She is fine and pulls it off admirably enough yet her few dramatic, revelatory moments don't have enough punch. There is more of a dramatic pull from her memories that we see frequently, as a kick-ass Air Force pilot and her sharing of laughs and family time with her best friend and fellow Air Force pilot, Maria Rambeau (a divine Lashana Lynch). There are small splashes of humor from Larson's superheroine that I enjoyed and it is nice to see Larson break free a little from the confines of most other stalwart superheroes.
Samuel L. Jackson's Fury and a golden cat, which is much more than it seems, give the film some measure of variety and a sense of fun. Ben Mendelsohn is terrifically engaging as a Skrull who shows he's not quite the villain he appears to be. I just wish there was more of a sense of joy to Larson's performance to really kick it up a few notches. Or maybe she just has nothing left to prove to us.
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