This is an MCU film so it was a must watch but I’m beginning to think that I’ll have to be pickier after Avengers: Endgame. As Marvel’s first solo movie featuring a female superhero lead, this was always going to be heavily anticipated and predictably elicited a toxic response from the anti-feminists. Unfortunately while the intentions here are laudable, this is a mediocre film at best, let down I think by the untested directing duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

Vers is a superpowered operative of the Kree Empire who has no memory of her past. While participating in a mission against the Skrulls, she is captured and subjected to a mental probe that unlocks some of her memories. In the process of escaping she and the Skrulls end up on a planet that is of course Earth in 1995. The Skrulls are after a supposed light-speed engine invented by a scientist on Earth and who appears in Vers’ memories. SHIELD intervenes in their fight pulling in a much younger agent Nick Fury. Their investigation reveals that Vers was originally US Air Force pilot named Carol Danvers and that the scientist was a Kree in disguise. A plane crash six years ago caused her to lose her memories and gain mysterious powers and so they set off to find the surviving witness: Danvers’ then best friend and fellow pilot Maria Rambeau.

While not quite descending into being actively terrible, Captain Marvel is a thoroughly mediocre movie on all counts. Since I’ve watched and liked Brie Larson in both Short Term 12 and Room, I would place the blame on the directors who seem to be painting by the numbers to create a formulaic MCU film without any real vision of their own. As I’ve noted the MCU has been successful so far because in addition to being superhero movies, each of them has also been able to exploit a unique angle or genre. Here the only angles are female representation and 1990s nostalgia and it’s just not enough to cover the directors’ shortcomings even if some of the nods to the films of the era are somewhat amusing. In the end, it’s just a standard superhero origin story which we’ve long since grown bored of, up to and including a power-up sequence that is ripped right out of shounen anime.

What’s especially frustrating about this is that it is full of elementary mistakes that shouldn’t appear in such a prominent and expensively budgeted production. The action choreography for example is non-existent, making the early fight between Jude Law and Larson cringe-worthy. The CGI is technically proficient but lacks imagination and vision. Even the dialogue and attempts at humor fall flat. The sole exception is that the crowning moment of awesome finale is decent. Everything else is sub-par. Speculating about the reasons why is always dicey, but it feels to me that while Larson herself is visibly passionate and enthusiastic about this project, neither Kevin Feige nor the directors appear to be stepping up to own it. It seems to me that Marvel is doing this because of public pressure to finally put a female hero front and center as part of the MCU but none of the creatives seem to be emotionally invested.

Anyway this is an all around disappointment and solidly in the bottom tier of the MCU films. I think it’s a sign that Marvel is getting complacent and perhaps their creative juices are being drained after a punishing schedule of needing to release one hit superhero film after another. It’s like their just going through the motions and not really caring any more, confident that their tried and tested MCU formula will always work. Well, they’re wrong and Kevin Feige needs to be reminded of the most important rule of filmmaking: get a good director.