Captain Marvel

Oscar winner Brie Larson is a classy addition to the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, here playing a tough intergalactic warrior who falls to Earth in 1990s California, plagued by fragmented memories of a former life among the humans. Aided by Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, an up-and-coming agent yet to ascend to the higher echelons of SHIELD so familiar from other movies in the franchise, the good captain (aka Carol Danvers) has to use all her cunning and superpowers to protect the planet from warring alien races, the Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls. Larson makes for a feisty heroine with some kick-ass moves, but tends to make the biggest impression when verbally sparring with Jackson, and there's top-notch support from Ben Mendelsohn (seemingly unhampered by head-to-toe prosthetics) and Annette Bening. The character of Captain Marvel still needs fleshing out more fully, but that is sure to come in future instalments from the MCU, not least Avengers: Endgame.