We’ve been heavily anticipating Captain Marvel since they announced the hero’s involvement in The Avengers series. When we saw her insignia flash on Nick Fury’s pager as he faded to dust, we were fully prepared to dive into a whole new superhero origin story. Now she’s here and she is burning bright in every sense of the world.

Set in 1995, Captain Marvel revolves around Kree soldier in training Vers, who is part of an elite Starforce on the planet Hala and has no memory beyond her six years on the planet. The alien-race of Kree are fighting a war against shape-shifting Skrull army. When Vers is taken hostage, the Skrulls unlock memories from her life before. Throw a daring escape, Vers is sent to Earth alongside a handful of Skrulls. To stop the alien-race invading Earth, Vers pairs up with SHIELD agent Nick Fury and may unlock the very secrets to her being…Could she be Carol Danvers?

Captain Marvel is a pretty good thrill ride. However, unlike Black Panther’s new take on a solo outing (where he has been an established character, working on his own separate family issues,) this is an origin outing and therefore suffers from trying to establish a character already part of a grand-scale story.  The film lacks any connection during the beginning which means you aren’t completely invested in Carol “Vers” Danvers. It isn’t until she is jettisoned to Earth and she meets Fury that she opens up and becomes a more intriguing character with serious stakes in the mission.

Brie Larson is always brilliant – and here is no different – but Carol is an amnesiac hero from start to beginning and the grandeur elements of the story engulf the character, losing her from time to time. Whilst Larson does get to the heart of Carol, and she is the bright, smiley spirit within the film, Captain Marvel overwhelms her with on-the-nose empowering messages and nineties nostalgia. This is best exampled when a big fight sequence is set to No Doubt’s I’m Just A Girl. Yes, it’s enjoyable, but also oddly jarring too. It’s great to have a female-led superhero film from Marvel but it’s not good to sound off about it every five minutes.

This may sound like a negative review. It’s true that Captain Marvel is flawed but it isn’t more flawed than say Captain America: The First Avenger or Doctor Strange’s opening act. It hits every Marvel checkbox from the witty-lines to a somewhat weak enemy.

Positively, Captain Marvel is a lot of fun. From bombastic battles and Carol unlocking her powers  to Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson’s BFF relationship, Captain Marvel delivers a lot of super-charged energy. Ben Mendolsohn is a terrific supporting character who has, perhaps, a better arc than our leading character whilst Lashana Lynch anchors the film with more emotion. The soundtrack is brilliant too – making anyone millennial cheer.

Captain Marvel is good – great when you consider that it has a cat called Goose which at one point gets called a Flerken – but it’s not as strong as some movies that have come before it.

Captain Marvel is out on DVD & Blu-Ray now!