The Marvels

The Marvels
Starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson
Directed by Nia DaCosta

Lately the MCU has been missing more than hitting, and their quality has greatly diminished after the spectacular one-two punch of "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." While some have risen to the likes of greatness ("Spider-Man: No Way Home," "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," "Shang-Chi"), others have meddled in mediocrity ("Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", "Black Widow"), and others have just been horrible ("Thor: Love & Thunder," "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," "Eternals"). Honestly there wasn't much hope with "The Marvels" especially after the behind-the-scenes drama (such as the director leaving the project to work on something else during editing) and the fact that the actors couldn't promote their material due to the actors' strike, and it seemed that Kevin Feige and Disney agreed - they cut the film to a slim one hour and forty-five minutes, making it the shortest Marvel movie to date. While that's a reason to see it (you won't waste a lot of time), it also makes for a poorly written story with no character development in favor of a confusing plot and a blandly written villain that'll relegate this to the lower echelon of the MCU.

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) has been living in deep space with her Flerken cat Goose when she's called by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to investigate a mysterious jump point anomaly that he's studying with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). Once the two women touch it, they're transported to different places, along with Kamela Khan (Iman Vellani), who possesses a magical bangle that allows her to create hard light constructs - a bangle that matches the Kree leader Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) is looking for. She wants to pull elements from other planets to save her Kree homeworld that was inadvertently sent into a civil war after Captain Marvel destroyed the Supreme Intelligence. As the women learn that whenever they use their light-based powers they switch places, they band together to stop Dar-Benn from destroying the universe and the planets they call home.


The Good:
At a scant one hour and forty-five minutes, the film doesn't waste any time in delivering the action or something exciting happening on screen, so that's good.

Iman Vellani shines in her first major theatrical role as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, as she exudes a youthful excitement and vigor that is more infectious than annoying - a trait that served her well in the critically acclaimed "Ms. Marvel" series.

Likewise Teyonah Parris excels as Monica Rambeau, a character she developed in the equally critically acclaimed "WandaVision" series. She exudes a strength and also a deep emotional depth that director Nia DaCosta easily pulled from her after working together in 2021's remake of "Candyman." Monica is still grappling with the death of her mother while she was Blipped and how she is angry still at Captain Marvel for seemingly deserting her and her mother while she was out in space.

The comedy of the film is a highlight as there was several moments of hilarity - especially from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury.

The comradere between the actresses is highly visible as they pull off a ragtag team extremely well, making you feel a connection between the three that goes deeper than their surface.

The action is fast and fun, especially when they switch places mid-fight.

The mid-credit scene is epic and gives me a slight glimmer of hope for the future of the MCU, along with the film's ending.


The Bad:
Brie Larson tries to showcase emotion, but she remains stoic throughout the film. She seemingly struggles with inadvertently causing a civil war on the Kree homeworld that is leading to its destruction, but you don't sense the actual pain through her plain performance.

As with recent MCU films, the CGI is utterly terrible, laughably bad and takes you out of the story - but at least they're not as bad as "Love & Thunder."

Zawe Ashton's Dar-Benn is your generic, run-of-the-mill villain of the week who has the same motives as pretty much any superhero villain - save their planet by destroying other planets and seeking retribution for wrongs brought upon her. She has no depth or emotion, and is extremely bland and quickly forgettable.

There's a side story involving Flerkens that is completely pigeon-holed into the story and doesn't add anything to it, and could've been abandoned entirely in favor of deeper character development.

Speaking of, with the short runtime it doesn't allow for any depth to be had with the characters. The whole premise of the movie is Dar-Benn seeking revenge against Captain Marvel for her taking out the Supreme Intelligence which led to the slow demise of Hala, but that's only shown in a brief flashback that doesn't resonate anything other than "oh, that's why she's angry" thought.

There's one particular sequence involving a planet where all its inhabitants interact by song that's totally out of left field, makes no sense, and is cringe as anything I've ever seen before. Even Captain Marvel gets a glamorous Disney princess style makeover complete with the sparkly starry motif that literally had me taking a drink of my friend's alcoholic drink to try to endure it.

The movie's plot is literally an exposition explosion as the characters spend the majority of the film talking about their powers, why they're switching places (which, even during their explanations, still doesn't make a lick of sense), and why they're on their mission. There's nothing in-depth about the story and it just repeats itself over and over and maintains a surface-level feel that should've been better if it was a strictly Disney+ movie.


The Summary:
While I didn't have high hopes for "The Marvels," it still didn't deliver with my already low expectations - although it's not a total waste, it wastes the talents on screen and offers nothing more than an action-packed exposition-logged film that thankfully doesn't drag on.


The Score: C+