Score: 4/5

Captain Marvel is a really fun blend of superhero, buddy cop, and Star Wars that is a blast to watch on the big screen.

After a decade of Marvel movies, to say a formula has been established would be a tad of an understatement when it comes to the superhero origin. Superhero gains/learns of powers, has to deal with a personal flaw, and ends up fighting someone with a similar power set. The interesting thing with the first led female superhero Marvel movie is that it has the feel of the origin but doesn’t stick to that simple equation nearly as one would expect.

There is a lot I liked about Captain Marvel, normally I’d give a general premise of what the plot of the movie is about but it’s really hard for me to describe much without it spoiling things. What I can say is the film’s plot did not go the direction I expected in a big way, and I’m actually really happy with that and intrigued to see what that means for some of the future Marvel movies. This also goes true with the end, while the story was tied up, some key elements were left on the board that typically never do when it comes to these Marvel films. There are also quite a few connective tissue Easter eggs and cameos that really blend Captain Marvel into the bigger picture of the MCU.

Anyways, no spoilers! The big question for many is how is the new female hero? She’s awesome. Brie Larson was a great casting choice and I love seeing her shine as this bad-ass cosmic fighter pilot superhero. She brings her own kind of humor and positive toughness that feels like it will fit in well with the rest of the Avengers team. She also played extremely well with the great Samuel L. Jackson. Which by the way, let’s talk about Nick Fury and the de-aging tech at play. Granted Jackson looks amazing for a 70 year old (yeah I didn’t believe that either till I checked on IMDb), but this de-aging wizardry is getting to be really really good. Fury has a substantial amount of screen time and I never felt uncanny valley vibes with him. I did a little with Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson but never Jackson’s Fury.

Back to that dynamic between Fury and Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers. It was very interesting to see things play out between them. Seeing this younger more fun Fury and Danvers messing with him was a blast. At times it felt like they were in a buddy cop movie and that was fun. In fact tone / feel wise, this film felt like if you took superhero, buddy cop fun, and star wars action and threw them into a blender. That’s Captain Marvel, and it’s pretty great. The movie also fully embraces it’s 90’s settings with the soundtrack, the clothes, and the cars.

Like I said earlier when a lot of the bigger action scenes play out I got huge Star Wars vibes, from dogfights to some of the off planet fight scenes, it felt more Star Wars than last year’s Solo. The action also ties directly into Captain Marvel’s powers, and boy oh boy. This woman has the powers and then some. She’s like Thor power level if Thor also had suped up Iron Man blasters in his arms. And that’s without a weapon to channel these powers. One has to wonder what the first fight with Thanos would have been like if she was around. I have a feeling it wouldn’t have went the way the Mad Titan would have liked.

I realized I still haven’t talked about some of the other major leads in the cast such as Jude Law and Ben Mendelsohn. I don’t to say much as a lot of the spoilers are tied around these two characters, but Jude Law is passable in his role while Ben Mendelsohn’s character has surprising twists that gave him room to really shine.

To wrap this up, Captain Marvel is a great time. It’s not the best Marvel movie ever, but it’s a blast and a great first entry to a character that is going to have a huge role to play in the future of the MCU.