When you think superheroes, you’re most likely to think of the behemoth that is Marvel. Over the past ten or so years, their movies have absolutely dominated the box office. Enjoyed by nerds, critics, and casual moviegoers alike, its safe to say they have a generally high standard to look up to. On March 8th, Captain Marvel became the most recent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). So, with the high expectations, did their newest release hold up to their standards?

In my own opinion I believe that it did, but just barely. Captain Marvel wasn’t the greatest Marvel movie ever put out, but it at least wasn’t it’s worst. To give it a title, I would call it just a little better than average in terms on Marvel movies. In the grand scheme of all movies though, I would say it was a fairly good movie. It had its bland points, but it also had its more bold and powerful moments as well!

For those who want to see the movie, I will keep it spoiler free and will avoid divulging into very specific things.

Hands down, the key to a good movie is its plot and characters. Unfortunately, this where Captain Marvel tended to be on the more average side, or even lacking in some cases. The story was very slow in the beginning. I’m not too sure as to when it actually started to pick up, but it’s possible that it was somewhere after the half an hour mark. It left me just a bit bored, and it was only made interesting by the commentary I heard from those around me. Once it begins to speed up, the movie picks up a nice storytelling pace. Some scenes felt slightly rushed, but it did not impact the movie as a whole too much.

Regardless of it’s issues with pacing, the story is still on the more average side. It has it’s better moments, where I was physically kept on the edge of my seat. Despite not generally being a fan of action scenes, I very much enjoyed the ones in Captain Marvel. They were entertaining, and in an odd way quite humorous. Speaking of humour, the the comedy in this movie was one of the positive aspects of the plot. Though some of it was low-ball, it made me give more than just a chuckle in a few scenes. Despite its greater parts, the story still left more to be desired. It was predictable in some parts, and in others it seemed like it borrowed from overused hero stories. But overall, not too shabby.

It’s characters were also average. It showed the return of very few, but some beloved Marvel characters. Those said characters, or ones that makes an appearance more than once, were very interesting and provided a lot of the comedy to the movie. The newer characters however, were just bland. Not to say all of them were, but some more important ones were. It left me being unable to connect to them, which made the experience of the movie just very slightly less enjoyable.

Despite the fact that it had returning characters, one aspect of the movie (that I won’t spoil) made it to where you weren’t required to watch other movies in MCU. This gave it a huge plus in my book, as I haven’t watched too many Marvel movies. I was afraid that I would have had to watch at least one to maybe even three movies to actually understand what was going on, but I was relieved that I didn’t have to.

On its more visual and audio-related features, the movie performed fantastically. The cinematics were absolutely terrific. The shots taken brought more power to the characters, and always worked for the tone the scene. The special effects were also fantastic, which made made the universe feel more realistic and fleshed out, as to be expected of a movie with a budget of 152 million dollars. As an audio geek, I enjoyed both the sound effects and movie’s score. One outstanding choice on the music supervisor’s part was to include music that fit both within the time period and universe of the story. It gave the movie just a bit more quality, and made it more believable.

Captain Marvel as a movie may have been slightly mediocre, but that shouldn’t stop you from seeing it. I think it serves as a good starting point for those who want to get into MCU, or for those who just want to look at action scenes and have a good laugh.