Captain Marvel: What critics thought

We don’t have to wait too long to witness Brie Larson take flight as Marvel Cinematic Universe’s brand-new heroine in Captain Marvel. The critics reviews are finally in. 

Mashable’s own Angie Han believes the film feels fresh because it’s about MCU’s first woman superhero but it also relies on the familiar. That’s not necessarily a complaint, though. 

If Captain Marvel can’t quite match Marvel Studios at its very best, it’s still a rock-solid introduction to a new character. 

As of right now, the film is enjoying an 86% positive review on Rotten Tomatoes. 

For more spoiler-free goodness on what to expect, read on: 

Everyone agrees that Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers is a badass  

Kate Gardner, The Mary Sue

Carol is fierce and funny and represents a movement of women who are, as Carol says in another trailer, tired of being told what they can’t do. She gets up and keeps on fighting, letting her power flow through her. Carol gets to be a fully realized character. She is the beating heart of the film, and she gets to be her own hero. There is no last-minute saving of the day by a male character. Carol is not defined by men, or by gendered trauma. She is simply a hero.

Susana Polo, Polygon

Larson is great at the hero pose and the serious good-guy affirmation when bad-guy butt is about to get kicked. But Her Carol is also full of one-liners, sneaky grins, and teases. I found myself marveling (if you’ll pardon the pun) at the novelty of this. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is humorous in her naïveté; Black Widow, the Wasp, and Jessica Jones are all business and deadpan snarking. Captain Marvel gives us the rare female action hero who is funny, knows she’s funny, and enjoys it.

April Wolfe, TheWrap

Carol’s arc is defined by shedding those bonds to that identity and to her mentor/father figure, speaking and acting with directness. Larson’s quite capable of selling that oscillation of maturity without losing the humor of her character; she may be confident, but she’s still crafty and calculatingly playful. And what really sells this film is that playfulness.

Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm 

Much hoopla has been made about Carol being an unsympathetic character, that’s not the case at all. Larson imbues her with an edge, for sure, but Carol is vulnerable and sarcastic, and — as seems to be in the contract with every Marvel superhero — she’s quippy. As she unravels, Larson effortlessly displays the full range of emotions of a woman grappling with her own identity and self-worth. Even at her most stoic, particularly at the beginning of the film in which she’s ordered to keep her emotions in check, there’s clear turmoil underneath the surface.

Meg Downey, IGN

Carol’s struggle against forces that want to delegitimize her becomes the recurring theme of Captain Marvel. Everywhere she turns, she’s facing down someone who doesn’t think she’s worthy of the power she has or doesn’t think she belongs in the position she’s in – and yet, again and again, Carol finds a way to prove them wrong and keep fighting regardless. Higher, further, faster, as the film’s tagline goes.

This film also doubles as a great buddy comedy 

Susana Polo, Polygon

Pursuit of the Skrull terrorist Talos brings Vers to the backwater planet of Earth, where she runs into mid-level SHIELD agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Along the way, Larson and Jackson show off an irresistible buddy-comedy chemistry, which is only amplified once the film introduces Maria Rambeau, a moving role from Lashana Lynch.

Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm 

Larson and Jackson’s buddy-comedy routine becomes the heart of this film, and Fury’s introduction is where the film finally settles into its rhythm. The two partner up after Carol crashes into a Blockbuster store, with Fury at first in pursuit of this errant alien soldier before allying himself with her upon witnessing a Skrull attack. With this duo at the center, Captain Marvel seamlessly moves from road movie, to heist film, to mystery thriller.

Meg Downey, IGN

Carol’s dynamic with her human friend, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), provides the emotional core. Lynch manages to ground the movie with a serious and poignant throughline and perfect counterbalance to Carol’s brash heroics and her sometimes slapstick buddy-cop relationship with Fury.

Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

As soon as she meets Jackson’s Fury — the character’s just beginning his career as a government agent, and is called upon to investigate her unexpected arrival — things click into place; the two actors have an easy, funny chemistry, and the film nicely balances saving-the-day-swooping-around with charming character bits.

Where Captain Marvel probably goes wrong 

Lindsay Bahr, AP 

There are some twists and turns and a scene-stealing orange cat that would be difficult to discuss here without spoiling everything. All-in-all it’s fine, but nothing to get too excited about. And it could have and should have been so much better: The cast was there, the cool directing talents, the budget and the “brand” goodwill. Halfway through most Marvel films I don’t often find myself dreaming up some other Brie Larson, Jude Law, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Gemma Chan movie (oh right Gemma Chan is in this as a glorified extra), but it happened in “Captain Marvel.” The first female-led movie of the MCU deserved more.

Hoai-Tran Bui, Slashfilm

However, the biggest failing of this film comes from a common Marvel hiring practice: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who made the jump from directing indie darlings to helming Captain Marvel, have never directed a large-scale action scene. As a result, The action in Captain Marvel is on autopilot — all rapid cuts and no rhythm, and very clearly shot by a second unit who were well-versed in the technical aspects of such a scene. This doesn’t become a problem until the big final battle of the film which utilizes a painfully on-the-nose needle drop of No Doubt’s “I’m Just A Girl” while Carol fights off a group of villains. It’s a pale imitation of the more dynamic musically-driven battle sequences in Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor: Ragnarok. Poking fun at the fight scene with a needle drop doesn’t work when the fight sequences are so listless.

Meg Downey, IGN

The Phase One nostalgia does seem a bit jarring at times. It’s strange to feel the MCU suddenly pivot back to the pure origin story routine after the last two years have been so experimental, and it’s hard not to walk away wishing that Carol would have gotten the Black Panther or Spider-Man treatment with an introduction built into a previous movie to help add a bit more narrative weight. The exposition, especially in the first act, feels a bit breakneck at times as it rushes to try and get out of its own way. This leads to a couple of moments of, “Wait, what just happened?” or, “Why would they believe her?” that could have been avoided with a more carefully paced script, or, in a perfect world, a more thoroughly constructed preamble in another movie altogether.

Catalina Combs, Black Girls Nerds

The first act of Captain Marvel is a bit lackluster. But, I get it, it’s building the world and setting up the plot. We are introduced to the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Bening) who takes the form of the person you admire the most. We are learning who Carol is, along with Carol herself. We are trying to fill in some of the same gaps that she has. The second act starts and it’s a bit more satisfying. I do wish there was more of a “wow” factor throughout. There just wasn’t enough at stake

Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8.