The film is mostly the same as the original with some noted changes:
More time is spent on Hala and Carol’s life as Vers with a small sequence included before she trains with Yon-Rogg, Carol meets with Minn-Erva first. The two jog through Hala, serving two purposes—establishing Carol’s camaraderie with Minn-Erva and amongst her Starforce rangers, and Carol’s comfort amongst the alien world of the Kree. As an audience, this helps to cement the Kree as the good guys and makes the reveal later in the film all the more impactful.
Yon-Rogg is on a path of redemption after his failure to capture Mar-Vell and the Tesseract. His manipulation of Carol and control of her as a Kree asset is to gain favor with the Supreme Intelligence (SI). Throughout the film, we see Yon-Rogers consult with the SI and it’s a reflection of himself (as in the actual deleted scenes).
Kree Sentries are deployed against Captain Marvel instead of missiles.
Ronan fights Captain Marvel in the finale. Like her, he’s a result of genetic Kree experimentation. He still is no match for her but his augmented strength, speed, and hammer do give Carol trouble before she has final words with the SI when it appears via hologram in it’s true form. Carol tells SI to order the Kree to retreat and never return. And that she’s coming to end the empire’s lies. The SI ends the transmission and the remaining Kree ships depart.
NOTE: Highlighting genetic augmentations for Ronan now opens the door for a possible return post-GOTG despite his apparent death in that movie. Kree science may be more advanced than we know …
Howard Stark is featured, and worked with Mar-Vell (Dr. Wendy Lawson) and Carol Danvers in 1989 at Project Pegasus. He is at the SHIELD facility that Fury and Carol infiltrate in 1995.
The relationship between Carol and Monica is romantic, making this the MCU’s first film to feature a same-sex couple and on-screen kiss, which occurs when the two say goodbye at the end of the film.
In flashbacks, Carol’s brother is omitted. Only Joe Danvers, her father, is featured as one of the voices in her head trying to keep her down when she falls.
Talos succumbs to his wounds and dies, leaving behind his wife and daughter. Soren, Talos’ wife, assumes his role as leader (and replaces him in Far From Home to work alongside the real Maria Hill, serving as Fury’s eyes on the ground whiles he’s in space, and in the upcoming Secret Wars). Soren is overall portrayed as a much stronger character—in her time hidden away in Earth’s orbit, she’s grown and changed. Her stepping in for her husband is a natural progression.
During the film’s final moments as Soren leads her people to a better world with Captain Marvel, we learn Talos’ daughter’s name: Veranke (a tease for things to come in the MCU).
Nick Fury does not lose his eye in this movie but he does purposely keep Goose after being the sole witness to see it eat the Tesseract. This plants seeds that maybe Fury isn’t as green as we all thought, and he’s already becoming the super spy we’ve seen in The Avengers and The Winter Soldier. While there’s humor in early interactions between Fury and Goose, it’s dramatically reduced in this version of the film.
Having failed twice now, Yon-Rogg kills himself by destroying his own ship while he’s in it rather than face the judgement of the Supreme Intelligence and the Kree.
Overall, punch up the nineties flare to the Earth-sequences with better/more music (more akin to GOTG, but without feeling like a James Gunn imitation). The music should be from 1995 (the movie’s present-day) and 1989 (when the Light Engine explodes and Carol is abducted by the Kree).
Sharper action sequences, especially the fight on Torfa in Act 1. This is a big Fourth of July event film—it should have echoes of Independence Day and major summer blockbusters before it.
POST CREDITS #1
Peggy Carter shows up on Monica Rambeau’s porch to offer her a job (hinting at the foundation of SWORD).
POST CREDITS #2
We hear the words of the Supreme Intelligence (as Mar-Vell) to Carol echo in the black void: “We made you..one of us. So you could live longer. Stronger. Superior.”
“Longer…”
Carol, present day, is drinking at an alien bar, barely aged since 1995 (a thread to pick up on in sequels). Suddenly, half of the patrons begin to dust as her beeper beeps…
A week later, at Avengers compound, the original post-credits scene is now shown: the collected Avengers (Banner, Rogers, Romanoff, and Rhodes) are studying Fury’s beeper when Carol arrives.
“Where is Fury?”
THE AVENGERS WILL RETURN.
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