“Captain Marvel” came out on March 8 and I went to see it soon after, hoping to be treated to two hours of fun female empowerment. I’m proud to announce that that’s what I got.

Apart from being immensely entertaining, it didn’t give me any more unnecessary emotional baggage! But the thing that made it truly spectacular was the hero herself.

Ms. Marvel (the name she was called in earlier comics) is a wonderful character. She’s amazingly sassy and incredibly strong. She exudes confidence in every way, from her posture to the way she talks. She’s incredibly strong— physically and mentally. You’ll fall in love with her instantly. The same can be said for other characters as well.

It was pretty fun to see young versions of some of the characters that I know and love today. Like Nick Fury. He was so young and naive; it’s kind of adorable. The characters have great chemistry and their relationships seem pretty natural.

Now as for the film in its entirety… it’s not perfect. It has its flaws. There are some parts that seem too rushed, but in order to maintain a spoiler-free analysis, I won’t go into detail.

But, if we’re being honest, we weren’t expecting a masterpiece. The reviews I’d read prior to viewing it were really harsh, but the film managed to prove them wrong for the most part.

Surprisingly, the tie-ins to the other movies actually didn’t seem like they were just thrown in there. You could tell that there was real planning and the way they fit actually made a lot of sense.

I think my favorite part of the film overall are the life lessons. It’s not often that I walk out of a superhero movie with this much food for thought. There were many things in the film that tie in very closely (whether this was planned or not) with ever present issues in society. My favorite had to do with adequacy.

Sometimes, as women, it feels like we have to prove ourselves to men. After centuries of oppression and consistently being underestimated, we’ve been conditioned to walk around with a chip on our shoulder. We feel the need to show the world that we are worthy of being treated equally.

This movie reminds us that this is not the case. We have nothing to prove. We are perfectly adequate. We don’t need anyone’s approval. If the world doesn’t see our value, that’s their problem. In the meantime, just keep being awesome.

I could go on, but you probably don’t want to hear me rambling about this movie, so instead go watch it if you haven’t seen it. It’s marvelous.

The views in this opinion piece do not necessarily reflect the views of the GENESIS staff. Email Abigail Gratzol at [email protected] .