The Captain Marvel character is something of an enigma, having a complex history that has involved many different characters inhabiting the role, and let's not forget that little Marvel-DC tussle over the rights to use the name (The DC character "Shazam" who has a new movie coming up was for all intents and purposes known as Captain Marvel, but they switched his name to Shazam as of the New-52).
This version of Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers) was initially known as Ms. Marvel, receiving her powers from the original Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), and has a very interesting history that intimately includes the X-Men character Rogue.
Anyway, nostalgia aside, the Marvel team has made some changes to her already pre-established history in order to bring her into the MCU. The story is a non-linear affair, basically starting off in her time spent among the Kree. Suffering from amnesia concerning most of her life - save for a few segments she glimpses in recurring dreams - she is trained to be a member of StarForce (which just happens to include a Pre-Guardians of the Galaxy (GoTG) Korath, reprised by Djimon Honsou). It is during one of her missions that she encounters the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifting aliens, who happen to have more than a passing interest in the fledgling Kree soldier whose past may pose some special significance for their futures.
As far as non-linear histories go, this one isn't too hard to follow. Pretty quickly she ends up thrust into 90s-era Earth, and runs across Pre-MCU versions of Nick Fury and Phil Coulson (wonderfully and seamlessly de-aged for this movie). Amid the throwbacks to that era, she has to make sense of her past memories, come to terms with her unexplained and mysterious powers, and basically figure out what her place is in this universe.
The look of this movie is a bit different from other MCU movies; I think this is as a result of the 90s aesthetic, and the fact that this is all happening pre-MCU (the only prior glimpses we've had of that thus far have been from Peggy Carter's initial SHIELD adventures). This makes for an interesting dynamic. One pleasant surprise occurs at the very start of the movie. The current Marvel Logo Intro consists wholly of Stan Lee imagery. It was a beautiful dedication to a wonderful icon.
As far as origin stories go, this is not one of the MCU's strongest efforts. As Marvel builds up this character as probably its most powerful superhero in the MCU, with a big stake to play in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame, they definitely have to present her history to us to at least get us invested in the character. Brie Larson is serviceable as the character, building up quite a good rapport with Nick Fury that makes this play out like a "Buddy-Cop" film. The addition of Goose, the orange tabby cat, will definitely be a treat for movie lovers. He actually has quite a fleshed out role in this movie (one of which will likely produce a what-the-hell-were-they-thinking moment for many a movie fan), and it will be great to see how the MCU uses him in future installments.
The movie producers play it by the numbers, ticking off respective checkboxes for building up this portion of the MCU, but there is something seemingly "alien" about this effort; don't get me wrong, I see none of the feminism that was supposedly meant to make this movie a "Social Justice Warrior"(SJW) darling; rather, it feels like the stakes aren't that high in the end. There's a segment with a Pre-Guardians of the Galaxy (GoTG) Ronan the Accuser - reprised by Lee Pace - but even he is unable to breath more depth or risk into this movie.
Marvel has taken a non-traditional route in covering Captain Marvel's story, and this leaves me optimistic that there is a lot to mine in this vein in order to give us compelling stories. They've also provided surprises aplenty that might digress from the lore of other characters, and I would love to see how that plays out.
When all is said and done, it's a good-looking movie, but it would definitely have benefited from a more invested story.
I unequivocally give this movie a B-, but that still shouldn't stop you from checking it out.
God Bless
P.S: How on earth is Djimon Honsou being allowed to do all this Marvel-DC crossing over?
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