Captain Marvel ★ ¹/₂

Love them or hate them, Marvel films have become as culturally ubiquitous as Coca-Cola or the color red. Yet with the immense critical and commercial success of last year’s Black Panther, the studio’s first film with a predominantly black cast, it seemed that Marvel tapped into something genuinely fresh, far from the flat soda rebrands of years past. Unfortunately, Captain Marvel doesn’t bring the same creativity to the table, instead folding back into familiar, overplayed territory to tell the first woman-led story in its cinematic universe. Brie Larson stars as the titular hero, originally known as Carol Danvers and later Vers, a trained pilot and fighter who must navigate her own memories to learn how she got her powers, who she can trust and who she really is. This nonlinear narrative adds interest beyond your typical origin story, but it’s quickly overwhelmed by the same shtick that’s in all these movies—uncompelling action sequences, recycled villains and flat direction. In many ways a spiritual successor to Guardians of the Galaxy, the film is heavy on ’90s nostalgia (Carol rocks a Nine Inch Nails T-shirt and leather jacket for a good portion of the runtime) and the decade’s girl-power feminism. Larson also gets some decent one-liners, but lacks a sparring partner to keep up the energy, because Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury is too busy being reverse-aged with CGI to care. Young girls deserve to see themselves represented in mediocre superhero movies, too—they just might have more fun with Alita: Battle Angel. Watch it at Assembly Row, Boston Common, Fenway, Seaport, South Bay and the suburbs.