'Captain Marvel' feels at once fresh and familiar

Captain Marvel unambiguously represents a fresh new face for the Marvel Cinematic Universe — she is, as you've surely heard by now, the franchise's first solo female movie lead.

Yet Captain Marvel, the movie surrounding her, feels, for better or for worse, like so much of what has come before it.

The tone strikes that familiar mix of earnest heroism and relatable humor. The action sequences rely less on clever choreography and camerawork than on shiny CG and emotional resonance. Much of the plot hinges on twists we've seen in other Marvel movies.

And despite the intergalactic premise and period setting — Captain Marvel a.k.a. Carol Danvers, played by Brie Larson, starts out as an alien soldier in the 1990s — the sets largely resemble that nondescript airplane hangar from Captain America: Civil War.

Still, it's a testament to how reliable the MCU has become that I'm not complaining, or not entirely. It's pleasant, comforting even, to fall back into a world we know so well, cozy in the knowledge that we're in good hands.

Marvel fans can rest assured we'll laugh and cry at all the right points, that it'll leave us wanting more, that we'll sit through two end credits sequences and then exit the theater with a smile.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

In this sea of near-certainties, the biggest question mark is Carol Danvers herself. This is by design: Not only is she new to the big screen, she can't remember her past, and she seems full of uncertainty about her future, though she tries to tamp it down with snarky jokes and soldierly determination.

This can't help but create some distance between the viewer and Carol. How are we supposed to know who she is if even she doesn't know who she is? But Larson's vibrant performance more than makes up for it. Carol seems like a star worth following from the jump, and she only gets more intriguing as her journey of self-discovery unearths new layers.

She's especially fun in scenes with Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, who finally gets to bask in the spotlight for a bit, and, in the process, makes a strong case that he deserves his own movie already. While this Fury is looser and greener than the one we've seen in other movies, he retains that essential Fury-ness that tells you he'll brook no nonsense. (Unless, that is, said nonsense comes in the form of a cat, like feline scene-stealer Goose.)

I'd have gladly spent two more movies watching these two just kick it in the desert sun, just as I'd rather Avengers: Age of Ultron had been that one party scene extended to feature length. Alas, there's a world to save and all that, so off they go to chase a MacGuffin through the sky.

Captain Marvel struggles, at times, to connect the larger story mechanics to any deeper themes or emotions. A certain third-act reveal seems like the kind of thing that should raise questions about power and righteousness, but Captain Marvel wears these themes so lightly it's just as easy to ignore them altogether. Even the girl-power angle pitched in the marketing is dialed so low that a "Just a Girl" needle drop feels simultaneously thuddingly obvious and totally unearned.

The film does better with developments that are personally meaningful to Carol, that make her rethink who she was then, who she is now, and who she might become next. Her conversations with Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), the BFF she can't remember, strike a poignant note even among some (rather funny) gags about just how slow '90s technology was.

And as Talos, the shapeshifting extraterrestrial after Carol's secrets, Ben Mendelsohn emerges as Captain Marvel's secret weapon — a mustache-twirling villain with hidden depths, and a mischievous sense of humor to boot.

If Captain Marvel can't quite match Marvel Studios at its very best, if it feels a bit like a franchise in need of an identity, it's still a rock-solid introduction to a new character — who, judging by her immense power, may just turn out to be the Thanos-killer that the Avengers need in Endgame. Just as the Marvel makers wanted, I left the theater pleased to have met Carol at long last, and eager to see her again.