Yup, I saw Captain Marvel, and have some thoughts.
First of all I'm going to address the elephant - that being the repeated allegations that Captain Marvel is imperialistic war propaganda. Admittedly, this impression is not helped by the military ads that appear to be airing with quite a few showings.
The elephant might be very small with large ears, if it's even there at all (Incidentally, the Dumbo live action remake looks awful and pointless. Ahem).
Captain Marvel is not imperialistic war propaganda. The imperialistic warriors are the bad guys. In a bit of a shift from the comics idea of the Kree-Skrull war as something which was the fault of both sides, the MCU has come down firmly...on the side of the Skrull. (And no, I was not expecting that).
One of the movie's two most important themes is "Don't blindly follow orders, schmuck."
Carol's arc is literally her transformation from "Vers," the Kree soldier who only cares about the mission back into Carol Danvers.
This is a movie about how war dehumanizes you. Literally, in this case, as she's transformed into part Kree. It's about getting your humanity back after what war does to you. Characters directly talk about how a good man (in this case, a rookie Coulson) learns to know when to follow orders and when not to. It's a movie that eviscerates the "I was just following orders" defense.
For all of the spectacular space battles, Captain Marvel isn't pro-war.
It's anti-war.
So, what's the second theme?
Friendship.
Platonic relationships.
Yes, tons of people are shipping Carol and Maria, and I'm not going to say they should stop.
But the movie literally hangs on the friendship between Carol and Maria and the friendship between Carol and Fury. There's no romance. This is a movie which says "Men and women can be friends without anything happening." This is a movie which hinges everything on friendship, and leaves sex and romance completely out of it to the point where you could legitimately head canon this version of Carol Danvers as asexual. The writers resist the temptation to bring romance or even sexual tension into the relationship between Danvers and Fury, as some writers probably would have. There is amazing chemistry on screen between Larson and Jackson (And the CGI de-aging is a little jarring at the start, but I got used to it), but it is clearly and obviously platonic. They just don't let anything leak in.
They become friends almost instantly and they stay friends.
Which brings me to another interesting thing about Captain Marvel. It's Captain Marvel's origin story. It's her coming into power as a hero and making the transition from good little soldier to one woman protector. (And they don't skint her power levels, either. They don't nerf her at all).
It's also Nick Fury's origin story.
The Nick Fury we see in Captain Marvel has just been promoted from field ops to "riding a desk." He's not quite sure where his career is going. He's less cynical, more fun loving, but also a lot less sure of himself.
And as Carol learns how not to be a good little soldier and that following orders is no defense, Fury learns that there's more to the world than he thought. You can see him take the first steps down the road to becoming the cynical spymaster we all know and "love." You can see why Fury becomes what he becomes. He's not a supporting character, he's the co-lead. (Oh, and Jackson is clearly having so much fun in this movie).
As a side note. Yes, they completely change Mar-Vell. I'm sure that annoyed a few fans. It sideswiped me a little, but I liked the replacement character enough that I forgive them.
Oh, and yes. It is true. The cat stole multiple scenes. (They had four different actors, but I couldn't tell them apart, so good casting there).
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