I really wanted to like this movie. Despite my best efforts to temper my expectations, I was still hopeful – unreasonably so. I will not go so far to say that Captain Marvel was a bad movie, but it was lackluster. It was missing the punchy colour and world building that went into Black Panther and sadly, unlike Wonder Woman, I found Captain Marvel largely lacking the ability to engage the audience.

I wanted to say how I thought that Captain Marvel was missing a personality and any decent characterization. I still think this is true, but I have been reminded by friends that most superheroes are pretty flat. They have a good point. Thor and Captain America – particularly in their first movies – were rather drab as characters. They did not emote a great day, being all bushed with warrior stoicism that we attribute to epic heroes. So, really it comes back to my foolish hope for something more. Because I certainly don’t think it would have take much to make some huge improvements to the movie.

For a better Captain Marvel, I would only tweak the script enough to give more dialogue and character development to the principal leads and supporting cast. Something I strongly feel should have been done as there really is a rather small cast on this film and small cast means we should know them better.

Starting at the begging, please give Vers more of hook than occasionally emotional. Also, if she is going to be the joker on the team, the reactions of the others should reflect this role. Not only do they fail to make interesting the alien homeworld where we first meet Vers, the also fail to explain who the Kree are. Now, I am not an expert in superheros. I have never read a Captain Marvel story and I come to this movie largely ignorant. So, please, take a few minutes to lay the framework for the plot. Who is this collection of various aliens, spread across the galaxy with incredible tech and an AI overlord/god? What is interesting, unique or quirky about them? What do they stand for? Are they a melting pot of alien cultures? Doe something with these first few minutes beyond a generic hand-to-hand training room and public transit railcar.

[Note: I have since learned the Kree are not a melting pot of different alien races, rather they show some variation in their appearance. I wish this had been noted in the movie.]

When Vers goes to join her team for that first mission, I cannot tell if this is her first mission ever or if she has worked with these people on many prior occasions. I almost wonder if the writers know this information, because the reactions of the rest of her team should be either to welcome/tease the newbie or role their eyes at her regular antics. There should be either feel that Vers is just joining a group of strangers, or that they have a longer (6 year even) history of working together. If the latter is more true, then some of these teammates should demonstrate this history through their comments and actions. There should be passing references to previous missions, or inside jokes that develop between friends. Some of the team can hate or dislike Vers, but some should be friendly. Also, their names should be far clearer. Coming out of the film, I couldn’t name anyone of Vers’ Kree team that I think she worked with for at least part of her 6 years with them. This would certainly make the twist at the end more impactful.

I really liked the pre-2000 time setting. I thought the jokes about slow and simple tech cute. While I would like to have seen more for this time, though I am not actually certain what they could have done differently. I thought they did a great job with Nick Fury –  one of the highlights of the movie. I also thought that the impeding of Vers’ powers until the end was notably well done. I understand that Captain Marvel can easily be overly powerful, so their use of her fire-blasting hands and military training to kick butt and still be at risk was a good balance.

While I will always argue that more time should be spent on dialogue and character development and far less time should be spent on fight scenes, there were some moments of visual interest. One that stood out was the early fight with the old lady on the train. I liked that the bystanders worked to stop Vers – I would have loved to see them have an even faster, stronger reaction, but the scene ended in a pretty good manner. I guess, that is something I would have liked to explore, the cultural differences between life on the Kree homeworld and Vers’ return to earth. After all, she is missing her memories, so she wouldn’t know or understand things. They had a moment or two of this, but there could have been greater humour derived from these social misunderstandings.

There were good points in the Captain Marvel film. Not knowing anything about the comics, I would not change the arc of the plot. But certainly, this film needed stronger characterization of not just Captain Marvel, but also her friends/enemies too. With the notable exception of Fury, everyone else needed some character work. Oh, and I don’t like the explanation of the eye. That was better left to the imagination as mystery is more powerful than explanation. In the end the movie was fine, feeling more like a middle chapter in a longer narrative and over missing the engaging hook to make it stand out from the rest of the Superhero Movies.