Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Captain Marvel

Set in 1995, Captain Marvel finds Kree operative Vers (Brie Larson) attempting to understand the dreams she’s having that place her in a strange body facing off against a Kree assassin. After being captured by a group of Skrull mercenaries, Vers begins to unravel the flashes of memory she’s had by traveling to Earth where she hopes to uncover information about the Pegasus program with the help of S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

The film, positioned well before current events, establishes Captain Marvel as a character whose power could be crucial in the fight against the events of Avengers: Infinity War. Learning more about this character in this origin story gives the audience a better understanding of who this character is and what she stands for. A potent feminist narrative, Captain Marvel is a tightly written, twist-heavy adventure that also lets us get to know a younger Fury and gives us a brief glimpse of an even younger Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg).

The effects are abundant and the narrative fresh. What’s most entertaining about this film is its constant references to things that are so 1990s, such as Blockbuster, Radio Shack, and dial-up internet. It’s a fascinating time capsule of an era fewer and fewer Marvel fans will be able to connect with. Throw in terrific bits featuring the semi-affectionate cat Goose and you have a film that’s more enjoyable than it is frustrating, which best describes how formulaic the film is. Unlike Black Panther last year, this Marvel Cinematic Universe “first” doesn’t have a freshness of setting or narrative throughline. It’s a film that very much sits in the pedestrian center of the Marvel universe even if it does far better at it than some other films. Larson is a terrific lead and I will be excited to see how her involvement in the franchise plays out over the next few years.