Early in "Captain Marvel," an alien soldier named Vers (Brie Larson) is captured by a green-skinned creature called a Skrull, who hooks her up to a memory probe. What spills out of Vers is, unexpectedly, a montage of Air Force uniforms, cocky banter, derring-do and kitschy dive bars. Apparently, before Vers left Earth, she was in a gender-flipped "Top Gun."
Adding to the weirdness, the Skrull begins to speak in an unmistakably Australian accent. "Am I the only one," he asks, "who's confused here?"
You might raise your hand at this point in "Captain Marvel," a surprisingly clumsy and clunky production from what is usually the slickest entertainment-factory around, Disney-Marvel. The movie is only partially groundbreaking _ the "second" modern female superhero film, after 2017's "Wonder Woman" _ and ostensibly long-awaited, bringing a long-running if obscure character to the big screen. Marvel is known for making gold out of lead ("Thor"), but its magic touch fails with "Captain Marvel."
