There's a montage in Marvel's first female-centred superhero flick that could belong to almost every woman alive.

Dazed and confused by her sudden arrival on earth, the titular Captain Marvel flashes back over the innumerable times in her life when some bloke told her she couldn't hack it.

From her childhood racing go-karts; her relationship with her father; her time in the US Air Force; or being harassed by a male superior: Our gutsy, space-suited hero was told over and over again to give up and get out of the way.

Luckily for film-goers (and Marvel Cinematic Universe devotees), Carol Danvers (played by Oscar-winner Brie Larson) - like many women before her - just refused to give up.

She's now arguably the most powerful Marvel superhero yet.

So powerful, I turned to my Marvel-loyalist partner and posited whether the rest of the Avengers were even needed anymore.*

The story of Captain Marvel is spectacular on the special-effects front, but it's also driven by unexpected plot twists and it's genuinely funny.

It's set some 20 years before the other films in the series, and pokes fun at the anachronistic technology of 1990s: Blockbuster Video; dial-up internet and public pay phones all get a ribbing.

Every scene is dripping with intertextual gems.

In his final cameo, the recently deceased comic book writer Stan Lee looks up from reading the comic based on the film Mall Rats (released in 1995, which he also had a cameo in).

Similarly, after her crash landing on earth, Captain Marvel browses several movies in Blockbuster Video, including 1980s flick Top Gun.

Although she hasn't yet met her marmalade-coloured cat, Goose, he is named after one of Top Gun's main characters.

Goose turns out to be much more than your average house cat.

Captain Marvel begins on the planet Hala, where the Kree Empire is waging war with a shape-shifting alien race called the Skrulls.

Kree fighter "Vers" cannot remember her past but is being trained for battle by hardened warrior Yon-Rogg (an always smooth Jude Law).

Her only weakness, he says, is her tendency to become overly emotional. (Yes ladies, get angry).

In a skirmish with the Skree, "Vers" crashes to earth.

Here she begins to learn the truth about her origins and mysterious, unexplained dreams.

Serial bad guy, Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, plays Skree leader Talos with calculating menace. As always, he's fantastic.

While hunting Skree enemies on earth, "Vers" reconnects with old US Air Force pal Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) and finally learns just what Dr Wendy Lawson's (Annette Bening) mission really was.

Hollywood stalwart Samuel L Jackson, who turned 70 at his last birthday, looks fresh-faced and not a day over 50 as Nick Fury, thanks to incredible anti-aging technology used in post-production.

The soundtrack is 90s fantastic: No Doubt's I'm Just a Girl; TLC's Waterfall; Hole's Celebrity Skin and Nirvana's Come As You Are, among others.

There are also two post-credit scenes that are really worth staying in your seat for.

All this leads us to the post-Easter 2019 release of Avengers: Endgame in April.

To quote a memorable line from another of Jackson's roles: "Hold onto your butts!"

*Not advisable.