I have mixed feelings.
Pros:
- The 1990s setting is a nice touch.
- Seeing Nick Fury and Phil Coulson in their younger days should be neat. I always get a kick out of this type of digital de-aging technology (when done well). The first movie to feature a digitally de-aged protagonist for its entire runtime can't get here soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.
- Jude Law is almost always great, and now the MCU officially has two Sherlock Holmes actors (Robert Downey, Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch) and both of their Watsons (Jude Law and Martin Freeman).
- The Captain Marvel costume is beautifully designed.
- It's nice that we're finally getting to see the Skrulls.
Cons:
- I don't like how young this Carol Danvers is. In the comics, Carol was an experienced Air Force officer in her mid-to late 30s or possibly early 40s when she became Ms. Marvel, and also in the later comics when she became Captain Marvel. Having her be in her 20s changes her entire personality and outlook on life, essentially rendering her a whole new character. I think that they've said that this is because she's supposed to be one of the main faces of the MCU for many years to come, but Benedict Cumberbatch and Chadwick Boseman are also part of the "new guard" and they got cast when they were in their 40s. I think that Katheryn Winnick and Charlize Theron (both much older than Brie Larson) were the best actresses for the role by far.
- I don't like how they're handling Monica Rambeau. I was initially confused when I read that Carol would have a friend (also an Air Force pilot) named Maria Rambeau. I thought, "That's weird, why did they change it from Monica to Maria?" But upon reading further, I found that Maria Rambeau is a single mother to an unnamed daughter (who will obviously be named Monica). In the comics, Monica Rambeau was Captain Marvel
before Carol Danvers, so making her a little girl when Carol becomes Captain Marvel is an odd choice. That's forgivable, though. Some things change in the MCU. But the worst aspect of this change is not that it is a change from the comics, but that it is that is big verisimilitude gaffe. For Maria Rambeau to be a single parent and an Air Force pilot is impossible. Those two things are antithetical. The Air Force does not allow single parents to be pilots.
US Military Enlistment Standards for Single Parents
- I'm not optimistic about Brie Larson's performance. Yes, she's an Oscar-winning actress, but the role that she won for was that of a miserable, stressed-out mother in desperate circumstances. To paraphrase a well-known metaphor, she has proven that she can play a great apple, but can she play an orange well? As many people have pointed out, her face in most of the shots of the "Captain Marvel" trailer and the Entertainment Weekly photos seems frozen in the same bored/irritable expression that she had throughout "Kong: Skull Island" (the only movie in which she has played a remotely Carol Danvers-like character so far, and in which she was quite bland). Carol Danvers is supposed to have a dashing, swashbuckling personality (sort of like of a female version of Errol Flynn), and I just can't imagine Brie Larson pulling that off based on what I've seen of her in this type of movie before and the currently-released marketing material. She may have great dramatic acting chops, but I've never seen her display the type of charisma that an action heroine needs. Hopefully she proves me wrong.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B: