I’ve never considered myself a massive superhero fan, yet I’ve seen almost every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie at least once.  At this point, superhero films have become so ingrained into pop culture that it’d nearly impossible to find someone who hasn’t seen a few MCU blockbusters.  Every new release from the studio winds up being a box office juggernaut, and “Captain Marvel” is no different.

“Captain Marvel,” directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, is the 21^st entry in the MCU and stars Brie Larson as the titular hero.  The story follows Vers (Larson) on her quest to uncover her lost past and stop a race of shape-shifting aliens named Skrulls from acquiring a deadly weapon.

Within two weeks of its release, the film has already broken records and reached a grand total gross of $270 million domestically, according to Scott Mendelson of Forbes.com. “Captain Marvel” has reached massive success, and for good reason.

Despite the plot leaving her as a sort of blank slate character, Larson portrays the energy-blasting heroine with a kind of playful ferocity and intense stoicism that makes her a unique addition to the ever-growing catalog of superheroes. Her character is further aided by the presence of Samuel L. Jackson as Agent Nick Fury, remarkably de-aged through the use of technological wizardry. Larson and Jackson work off of each other perfectly and some of the strongest moments in the film involve the interactions between them. All this pales in comparison to the absolute best character in the movie: Captain Marvel’s surly sidekick cat, Goose, played by rescue animal Reggie (truly, a national treasure).

Besides likable characters and adorable felines, we’ve come to expect intense action and fantastic visuals from our superhero movies, and luckily enough, “Captain Marvel” delivers both in spades. There is one sequence near the end in which Vers unleashes her full power onto a fleet of alien ships, and the spectacle presented makes watching the movie in theaters a must.

As the first female-led MCU movie, “Captain Marvel” has crushed all expectations, reaching a nearly $800 million gross globally with estimates projecting it to reach the $1.1 billion mark by the end of its run. According to TIME Magazine, this would place “Captain Marvel” amongst the likes of “Captain America: Civil War” and “Iron Man 3,” ranking as one of the most successful MCU films. “Captain Marvel” faced the monumental task of being both a follow-up to the biggest MCU movie yet (“Avengers: Infinity War”) and setup to an even bigger entry (“Avengers: Endgame”); in that regard, “Captain Marvel” soars.