Recently, a Variety article detailed a “crisis” happening with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the superhero franchise that has dominated pop culture for the past 15 years. A few days later, The Marvels flies into theaters, a film that faced reshoots after mixed test screening reactions. This superhero movie is a sequel to the 2019 film Captain Marvel, a spin-off of a supporting character from the Disney+ show WandaVision and a continuation of another Disney+ series Ms. Marvel. Sound confusing? Perhaps, especially if you weren’t on board the MCU train throughout every post-Endgame installment.
The unfortunate thing about The Marvels is that it reinforces every negative stereotype the MCU faces. This poorly paced generic superhero movie feels patched together and wholly reworked in postproduction. Although the classic Marvel action and jokes may superficially entertain many fans, some of that charm is beginning to wear off. As fun as it is to see superheroes fight supervillains and familiar faces pop up here and there, it genuinely feels like this film is a harbinger of the fact that the MCU is running on fumes.
Brie Larson reprises her role as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. Fans may remember the controversy and online hatred surrounding her first movie. While some of that will likely be back for another round, especially since this is a team of three female superheroes teaming up (which is strangely offensive to some people), The Marvels doesn’t focus on the girl power angle as much. It exists, but it’s less on the nose. The film comes from Nia DaCosta, the director of the 2021 Candyman reboot and the criminally underseen Little Woods. She brings a lot more vibrance and goofiness than Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck did with the first film.
There is a lot of fun to be had with this premise. It’s a body-swapping superhero movie where the heroes swap places whenever they use their powers. This creates an early action set piece where the heroes must appear in three separate fights at once, alternating between each one. It’s one of the best parts of the film. Another shining moment is when our three leading ladies discover what’s happening and practice swapping powers. The disappointment comes later on when we realize that the filmmakers did not do enough with this concept, using it for a few action scenes but never in the crowd-pleasing fashion it deserves.
Larson received criticism for her performance in the first film. Personally, I find it strange that an actress as brilliant as Larson, who gave show-stopping performances in Short Term 12, Room, and Just Mercy, is now appearing in the tenth Fast & Furious movie and The Marvels. She is not the best part of either of these franchises. Her character is written to be awkward, but Larson doesn’t play it in a charming way. Although there are moments where she shines, there are other moments where it feels as if another actress could have approached the role with more charisma and humor.
Teyonah Parris reunites with DaCosta after their previous collaboration on Candyman. Parris reprises her WandaVision role as Monica Rambeau, the grown-up version of the child from the first movie. Although Parris is good as the character, she does not have much that makes her interesting. We get brief moments surrounding what Monica’s life has been like in the 30 years since the first film, but they don’t feel integral. One element almost works, and the other element consists of recycled WandaVision footage.
Easily the best part of The Marvels, and we all saw this coming, was Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. She shines bright as the most charismatic, entertaining part of the film. She and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury provide most of the film’s humor. We also have a few great moments with Kamala’s family, and whenever they are on screen, the film improves tenfold. An early scene even retains the stylish drawings of the Ms. Marvel TV show. Kamala is so excited to be there that her energy is infectious.
However, the villain of The Marvels is one of the MCU’s weakest. Our antagonist is Dar-Benn, played by Zawe Ashton, a Kree warrior trying to restore her homeland. She feels like a recycled version of Ronan the Accuser from Guardians of the Galaxy. When people talk about the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, they don’t talk about the villain because of how forgettable he is. Now that we have a knock-off of an already forgettable bad guy, we’ve descended into something dreadful. She’s so cliché that she even launches a sky beam for a few seconds. I’m sorry, are we back to Phase One? Is the year 2011?
Furthermore, much of the villain’s motivation occurs in a very brief flashback. We get glimpses of what she is fighting for and what Captain Marvel’s role is in it. But they’re few and far between. When the main conflict between your hero and villain happens offscreen before the events of your movie, you have to do a lot of heavy lifting to catch the audience up. Unfortunately, it feels as if there is a whole movie of events that get briefly referenced when we need to actually see these events to get invested in the story.
At times, it feels as if we’re watching Captain Marvel 3. It feels like we’re missing a giant piece of the puzzle, especially since two Disney+ streaming shows are required viewing for this theatrical movie. It would have worked so much better if this was a third Captain Marvel movie, and we got a Captain Marvel 2 in which Monica gets her powers, Kamala becomes a superhero, and we have the backstory and conflict between Captain Marvel and Dar-Benn in that movie, which would carry on into The Marvels.
The stakes are unclear, there’s no urgency or ticking clock, and the movie never pushes Captain Marvel into deep places for her character. None of the emotional character beats are effective, which is not a good look, especially since this is the first MCU movie since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, one of the MCU’s most touching chapters. The third act feels rushed and anticlimactic; there’s an obvious moment of ADR that took me out, and it feels like we’re seeing superheroes we’re not invested in doing awesome superhero stuff.
It can sometimes be genuinely entertaining, especially when The Marvels embraces its goofy nature. A sequence near the end surrounding Goose is a key example. However, with every fun moment, some moments don’t work. For example, there’s one scene where all three leads are in a spaceship. The ship lands in an empty field in an extremely wide shot because the entire shot needs to be computer-generated. We then see the three heroes’ CGI bodies exit the spaceship, staying in that extreme wide for a logistical reason, not for a storytelling reason. Then, the rest of the scene features medium closeups of each actor standing in front of LED screens.
The pacing is too fast, and it can feel like we’re watching four movies simultaneously. With a weak villain in a weaker script, The Marvels is one of the most underwhelming entries in the MCU. There are excellent moments, but the final fight is too brief, the emotions don’t work, and we’re stuck with more of the mind-numbing drivel we got from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, fans will be talking about the ending and mid-credits scenes because if there’s anything an MCU movie is good for these days, it’s setting up what’s coming next without paying close attention to the quality of what came before.
SCORE: 5/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.
