The very first standalone Marvel movie with a female superhero front and centre is dominating cinemas.
Let's be very, very clear about this.
It took the multi-billion dollar Marvel Cinematic Universe 20 films before they were ballsy enough to give a female superhero her own gig.
Let's also be very, very clear - the fact they finally have done - and done it well - is something to truly celebrate.
Oscar-winner Brie Larson is Captain Marvel and this is her backstory.
It's set in the '90s, well, on earth it is but we first meet this interplanetary superhero in another space dimension altogether.
Wrestling with Jude Law and with her own sense of self, space is complicated; she has very few real memories of her past.
But when she finds herself on Earth, things start to become a little clearer.
If this feels like an Avengers prequel embrace, it's not a bad thing.
It gives Captain Marvel more mana and the interconnectivity fans kind of demand and deserve now.
But what I wanted - what I demanded - was more depth, more potency and a lot less of the box-ticking ham-fisted bids for my female feels.
But you know what?
Captain Marvel's kind of girl power isn't targeting me and what she embodies is the pop-culture potential to empower young women all over the globe.
I don't wanna be that woman and in fact I'm not that woman who hates on Captain Marvel.
The fact that this is, and will be, a massive box office superhero blockbuster is validation enough of its existence.
I just wanted a more cohesively meaningful experience that's all - without the hollow '90s button pushing and with more cinematic oxygen for Brie Larson to breathe in.
Three-and-a-half stars.
Newshub.
