Set to open on March 8, International Women’s Day for those who don’t know, ‘Captain Marvel,’ the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe features a female superhero. Co-directors and co-writers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck chronicle the origin story of Captain Marvel aka Vers aka Carol Danvers (play with great intensity by Brie Larson) with big battles, a bit of humor, intense emotions, a little mystery, and some schmaltzy moments.

In the first big battle scene, Vers, at this point a Starforce Kree warrior, fights with her team lead by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) against the evil Skrull. Captured by the Skrull, Vers’ memories are examined and reawaken because leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) wants the location of a power source developed on C-53 aka Earth. Why and how this information is buried in Vers’ memories in a mystery she is compelled to solve.

To complicate matters, the shapeshifting Skrulls have the ability to impersonate any life form, including humans, “down to the DNA”; however, the DNA issue, which is mentioned many times in the movie, must be very important in the franchise even though it never becomes important in this installment.

Nothing and no one is what they seem, so the constant literal and figurative shapeshifting of people echos a theme worth following in ‘Captain Marvel.’

  When Vers heroically escapes the Skrull, Talos and a small force follow her to Earth and morph first into surfer girls and dudes. As Vers navigates the what seems an alien and backward world to her, she attracts the attention of an early version of S.H.I.E.L.D. equipped with pedestrian, government-issue sedans and pagers. At first, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who will eventually lead S.H.I.E.L.D. and who everyone calls Fury — or else, doesn’t believe the crazy things this strangely-dressed girl tells him about an alien invasion.

After chasing Vers who is chasing a shapeshifting Skrull, Fury witnesses things he “can’t unsee” and begins to believe her. Now, Fury must track Vers down to stop the alien invasion she warned him was coming. Actually, Earth will be the location of an intergalactic battle and destroyed if Vers and Fury can’t crack the mystery of her past and its connection to the location of the power source. Their quest will take them on a banter-filled, buddy-movie road trip across America, during which they acquire a ginger tabby cat, who is more than he seems. After stealing a prototype fighter jet, their trip eventually reunites Vers with her old friend Marie Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), who has several pieces of the mysterious puzzle of Vers’ life on Earth.

‘Captain Marvel’ will have women cheering for a women hero who would never let a man finish the sentence “you’re not going to use that gun.” She’s tough and well trained; her emotions don’t get the best of her; she’s fully clothed, and when she falls or fails, she just gets up again. She is more than just a superhero; she is a role model for girls and women. The real test of Captain Marvel will be if she is popular enough at the box office to get a second film or even a series of films starring the character or whether she’ll just be a supporting player in the ‘Avengers’ franchise.

That being said, the many battle scenes provide plenty of action for fans of Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. The remarkable computer generated images for the spaceships, other planets, weapons, and battle scenes make the sci-fi sets and battles seamlessly realistic. The morphing of the shapeshifting Skrull is also very well-done; however, the transformations don’t end there. If Jackson and other actors look a little strange, it is because they have been digitally made to look younger although not quite how they looked in 1995.

  Captain Marvel’ is rated PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive language and runs an action-packed, well-paced 124 minutes. Produced by Marvel Studios, ‘Captain Marvel,’ a Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release, is the twenty-first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.