With ‘Avengers: Endgame’ just around the corner, Marvel have come at us with a final blockbuster, leading straight into the finale of the current series of films.

Brie Larsen enters the Marvel cinematic universe higher, further, faster than ever in the franchise’s first female-led superhero movie.

Captain Marvel opens on Kree planet Hala, as Vers (Larsen) trains to fight a war with Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), her Kree mentor. She is an amnesiac, and only has visions from her past when interrogated after being captured by the Skrull.

Her glimpses of a past life as test-pilot Carol Danvers lead her to escape her enemies and pilot a pod landing her in Los Angeles in 1995, where she bumps into Marvel familiar faces Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), de-aged by CGI magic.

The latest Marvel instalment is completely new to us, or at least those who aren’t familiar with the comic books.

A keen comic fan will know the Skrulls most memorably from ‘Secret Invasion’. Here’s the key information you need to understand the background – the Kree are the mortal enemies of the Skrull.

The Skrull are shape-shifting aliens who normally look like green people with elvish ears. This, of course, gives a constant sense of paranoia to the film.

When Fury and Vers meet for the second time, Fury is taken aback by the hero, for what seems like the first time in the cinematic universe’s history.

Fury has always been knowledgeable, but here we see him as a very raw, but still as an impressive S.H.I.E.L.D agent, who shows us that he has always enjoyed a good old-fashioned car chase.

Fury is only just learning that alien life exists, and his look of disbelief is childlike when Vers fires a photon blast. It’s magical to see Fury’s growth in the film; it’s character development like we’ve never seen before in Jackson’s acting in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have created a new generation in Marvel – the pace is fast, the story is solid and the jokes are witty. No longer are Marvel forcing humour into tight spaces.

It can be hard to keep up with at first, but this film won’t disappoint. The film has the elements of a retro alien invasion movie with all the excitement that fans of the franchise expect.

So does it live up to what we’re expecting this close to Endgame? In short, yes. This origin story gives a new lease of life to modern-day feminism. Captain Marvel is an unstoppable force, and she’s going to be the perfect addition to the universe.