“The Marvels” Review
(From Left) Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) join forces to take on a new threat to Earth and the rest of the universe in “The Marvels”.
What’s most anger-inducing about “The Marvels” isn’t the film itself but some of the reaction hit pieces regarding this latest chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I’ve with certain publications, social media accounts and YouTube videos declaring the film the worst in the franchise and the death of the MCU. Did we even see the same film? While “The Marvels” isn’t my favorite film in this ever-expanding series by a long shot and certainly shows several elements of weakness, it still provides imagination and enough entertainment to make this a perfectly fine film.
After the events of “Avengers: Endgame”, Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) has been exploring the far reaches of space as Captain Marvel, stopping terrible things from happening and trying to keep the peace. When a maniacal warrior named Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who has a grudge against Captain Marvel for letting her civilization be on the verge of collapse, attains an awesome power and plans to use it to destroy every planet that Danvers calls home, Danvers must take on this new foe. Things are further complicated when Dar-Benn inadvertently links Danvers’ powers with those of superpowered agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and teen superhero Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), causing the three of them to switch places whenever they use their powers at the same time. While these three become an alliance out of necessity, they eventually learn to work together and must harness this newfound team to save the universe.
“The Marvels” clearly has a lot to juggle. Not only is it the sequel to “Captain Marvel”, the MCU’s first female-led film that made over a billion dollars, but it’s also introducing characters like Monica Rambeau, who was introduced in the Disney+ series “Wandavision”, and Kamala Khan, who starred in her own Disney+ series titled “Ms. Marvel”, into the continuity of films. While it might feel like having to do homework to fans that are out of the loop, seeing these three characters become a team is one of the film’s strongest qualities.
“Captain Marvel” is not necessarily my favorite film in the MCU and I feel like its characterization of Carol Danvers felt weak. However, Larson’s performance as Captain Marvel in “Avengers: Endgame” was a massive improvement despite only being in the film for less than 15 minutes and she really gets to shine in this film. I love seeing Larson take on this mentor role with both Monica, who is the child of Danvers’ best friend Maria (Lashanna Lynch), and Kamala needing the guidance of an experienced Avenger to take on this new threat.
After making a pretty good impression in “Wandavision”, it was great to see Teyonah Parris back as Monica but the real scene-stealer of this film is Kamala Khan and her family. I was a massive fan of the “Ms. Marvel” series and it feels so good to see Khan interact with heavy hitters like Danvers and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). What makes Kahn such a dynamic character is the fact that she is a massive superhero nerd, probably because she was probably a small child when The Avengers first formed, and she is just so happy to be doing heroic things with her idol. Vellani is making the most out of her time on screen and the energy she has is quite infectious.
Director Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed the wonderful “Candyman” in 2021, has a deep love for comic books and that clearly shows with the imaginative visuals and action of “The Marvels”. Having the three main heroes switch places makes for some pretty inventive fight sequences and when the three of them are taking on bad guys, it’s handled with great style and energy. It’s particularly exciting when a character who can fly switches with a character who can’t and that character has to figure out how they’ll be able to land alive.
While I find “The Marvels” to be entertaining enough on a character level, the story is a pretty basic one. The film’s one-hour-and-45-minute runtime does feel refreshingly quick compared to more overstuffed comic book films but there’s something sacrificed when a Marvel film is made to be that short. Several scenes aren’t allowed to breathe properly and this can make certain characters, Nick Fury mainly, feel tacked onto the story. It also drastically lowers the stakes because even though Earth is in danger, we don’t really feel how serious the situation is because we don’t see how Earth is affected by Dar-Benn’s actions.
Speaking of which, Dar-Benn is just another boring villain, fitting alongside characters like Ronan the Accuser from “Guardians of the Galaxy”, Malekeith from “Thor: The Dark World” and Gravik from the series “Secret Invasion”. Since the film wisely keeps the focus on its protagonists, Dar-Benn isn’t featured too much but there’s just nothing new to this character. She’s not funny, doesn’t have a really tragic backstory and is just not that fun. With several Marvel villains of recent years, like Namor in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Scarlet Witch in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, being really captivating, this just feels like a step backwards.
I also find “The Marvels” stumbles with the incorporation of elements from previous films and series, like “Captain Marvel” and “Secret Invasion”. Where it works is when we learn things about the characters like the emotional problems or Captain Marvel or seeing Kamala putting aside her nerdy fantasies in favor of actually helping others. There’s a scene in the middle of the film where Kamala has to learn one of the hardest things about being a superhero, that you can’t save everyone, and it’s handled quite well. Do we see this lesson in a lot of superhero films? Yes but there’s a reason for that. It’s so universal. When a superhero film has a scene like that, I know that the effort put into it has had some kind of pay off.
Overall, I liked the film just enough because I did find entertainment in many scenes and I enjoyed seeing these characters work together. I just wish what they were fighting for had more of a punch. It’s not the best film the MCU has offered us recently, especially when compared to “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” and the second season of “Loki”, but it’s also not the worst thing I’ve seen from this franchise despite internet content trying to get clicks by pretending otherwise. It’s a perfectly fine way to spend an hour and 45 minutes.
