Captain Marvel

Now well into the double digits of MCU and following the ultimate clash of superheroes in Infinity War, introducing a completely new character set in the past was going to be a bold, and ambitious, move at the eleventh hour. Just as Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped out half the world's population, Nick Fury was able to send a distress call in time to the unknown Captain Marvel and this is her origin story.

Following an ambush mid-mission somewhere in space, the captain (Brie Larson) crash lands in 1990s America and, while trying to end a war between her race and Ben Mendelsohn's Talos, she discovers a secret about her past. The story is a tricky one to explain without spoilers and is one of the film's better features in that it isn't quite your typical origin story thanks to Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's direction but this is one adventure that isn't exactly marvellous.

The Marvel team clearly want this to outdo what DC achieved with their own strong female character, Wonder Woman. While that regrettably suffered from a weak third act, it was still a fine film and is arguably the best offering so far from DC. This however struggles to offer an engaging protagonist despite Larson's best efforts and is what ultimately makes this feel like just another Marvel film instead of something as epic as Black Panther. The script seems to be largely at fault here as it struggles to make Larson's character interesting and the action sequences, including a psychological fight with beams, are all spectacle without much substance to make them exciting. 

With that said there is still plenty of entertainment to be had and much of this comes from a scene-stealing, digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson and there were some good beats in the story which promise future adventures that will tread into Guardians of the Galaxy's territory. Mendelsohn and Jude Law also come away with top performances but it's sadly the leading lady who's left with little more to do than look stern as things blow-up. In short, Captain Marvel remains a fine but forgettable experience that is serviceable with enough entertainment to keep the MCU machine running in full swing.