The only thing marring my love affair with Marvel movies has been their inability to get women right. At first, they just didn’t really have any – Black Widow was the only woman in the original Avengers crew, but although I adore Scarlett Johansson, she wasn’t entirely convincing in the role (not her fault, you could tell no-one was really interested in making this work). Then Scarlet Witch was added to the line-up and while she has considerable powers, she never felt truly important to me in the movies. It seemed Marvel directors and screenwriters couldn’t create a compelling female character to save their lives.

Then, of course, came Black Panther and changed all that with a perfect display of female power. And now, at last (21 movies in) we have the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with a female lead, the long-awaited Captain Marvel. So have they actually fixed the Women Problem or was Black Panther just a glorious exception? The answer to that depends, in my view, not on the ideology – whether or not Captain Marvel is feminist enough. It depends on whether the movie is any good. And the answer to that is, broadly, yes.

I enjoyed the movie a lot* when I watched it, so much so that I forgot I still had half a packet of Pringles crisps left to eat. Some find Brie Larson wooden, I liked her. Samuel L. Jackson was great as the digitally de-aged Nick Fury and I loved watching him with Larson. As many have remarked, the middle part of the film has a nostalgic cop buddy movie feel to it: it’s fun and quite unlike anything Marvel has done so far (it must be getting more difficult to find a distinct tone for all the instalments, when there are so many of them). If you are a Marvel fan, many delicious details are casually revealed. There is a twist in the plot that I didn’t see coming and that might – if you are that way inclined – make you ponder how easily we are deceived by appearances and propaganda. Ben Mendelsohn is a pleasure to watch and it’s heartwarming to get a glimpse of the young agent Coulson. I’m also not going to complain about a soundtrack that includes Garbage and Hole. Plus there’s a rather amazing cat.

It was only afterwards that I realised that despite my enthusiastic enjoyment, the movie is flawed. That has a lot to do with expectations, both for Marvel films in general and for this one in particular. We have come to expect a certain standard from Marvel movies and for example visually, it is considerably more boring than Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: Ragnarok or Black Panther. The story and the structure are also a bit of a mess: the start is slow and generic (although you could argue the non-authentic vibe makes sense in light of what happens later), the narrative jumps back and forth rather aimlessly without generating much tension; many promising relationships/arcs are introduced, but not really explored. The entire ‘emotions are your enemy’ theme makes sense in the female empowerment context, but not necessarily for this specific character: despite a rebellious streak, Captain M is a level-headed, confident person.

This is where the expectations for this specific movie come in. It simply has too much to do: it is an origins story that needs to establish Carol Danvers solidly enough to be ready for the showdown with Thanos in the Avengers: Endgame that is coming out in April. All the other major players have had several instalments to get to that point. The movie also has to serve as build-up towards Endgame and tie up the loose ends, not an enviable position to be. And then there are of course the expectations related to Captain Marvel being female. This means there are several ‘mandatory’ moments we need to have – I am generally fine with them, but they add to the already long list of things the movie needs to address. It also means that the Captain cannot have any real flaws, as she is a symbol. This is understandable, but symbols do not exhilarating characters make.

That said, it was still the perfect movie to watch on the International Women’s Day. Not because Carol Danvers kicks ass – and she does, by the end of the movie she kicks so much ass it feels a bit unclear why she’d need the other Avengers at all. It was perfect because the emotional heart of the film is Captain’s relationship with her childhood friend (played wonderfully by Lashana Lynch) and her daughter. Because the person she respects most in the world is her female mentor. Because she forms an easy, quick friendship with Nick Fury that has no sexual or romantic connotations. In fact, there is no sex or romance in the movie at all and I applaud that choice.

All-in-all, this isn’t among my top 3 Marvel movies, probably not top 5 either. But it is a fun film that gets the big things right and I’m looking forward to Carol Danvers saving us all.

* Disclaimer: I don’t think there has ever been a Marvel movie that I didn’t enjoy.