Captain Marvel Review: 7 Ups & 6 Downs

1. The Majority Of The Lead Performances

While there was a lot of concern after the first trailer that Brie Larson's performance might not be all that great, she's mostly very solid as Carol Danvers. Most importantly, there's definitely an arc in her performance that reflects how the character changes and as she discovers more layers of her humanity, you tangibly get the sense of more warmth. It might still be a divisive performance, but there's justification built into some of the choices, at least.

Alongside her, Samuel L Jackson is enormously rewarding as a more comically-focused Nick Fury. He's not yet the grizzled old warrior he will later become and a lot of the biggest laughs come from him - to the extent that one revelation that could have been a bit of an ass-pull ends up making even more sense than it ever should have.

Elsewhere, Ben Mendelsohn is brilliant, as ever, and Lashana Lynch offers strong, emotionally affecting support as Carol's best friend and co-pilot. Jude Law is also pretty good, even as the work that's gone into immaculately constructing his hair to look completely unworked on is a little distracting. To say much else about him is too much of a spoiler.

It's a shame that some of the supporting cast, like Phil Coulson, Korath, Ronan and Annette Bening's role are slightly under-nourished, but those with the most to do are good. Even the cat is notable, though if you've fallen for the hype built on the back of its own poster, you're to blame for the post-credits scene nonsense.

What did you think of Captain Marvel? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.