A film review by Craig J. Koban November 29, 2023

THE MARVELS

2023, PG-13, 105 mins.

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel  /  Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau  /  Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel  /  Zawe Ashton as Dar-Benn  /  Park Seo-jun as Prince Yan  /  Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury  /  Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau  /  Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan  /  Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan  /  Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan  /  Daniel Ings as Ty-Rone  /  Gary Lewis as Emperor Dro'ge

I'll start this review of THE MARVELS - the 33rd entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - by stating that we need more female representation in genre films, with superhero pictures being no exception.  

Even though the MCU was seriously late to the inclusion game with 2019's CAPTAIN MARVEL (it took them twenty films and ten years in to have their own solo female driven outing...better late than never, I guess), it was a move that should have been welcomed with open arms.  Even though I didn't find that film to be particularly inspired (not to mention that it kind of squandered the immense talent of star Brie Larson - who then came off of her incredible Oscar winning performance - and one of the last decade's best - in ROOM), I nevertheless left that film genuinely wanting to see more of the Carol Danvers character.  I really wanted to like her first solo film more.

Larson's Captain Marvel would appear again in AVENGERS: ENDGAME, but it would take another four years for us to see a direct sequel to her first appearance in the MCU, which brings us to THE MARVELS (yes...plural), which now has the character sharing the spotlight with two other super powered heroines.  On a positive, Larson has certainly injected quite a bit more personality and charm into her role than she did before, not to mention that she has a good, easy-going rapport with co-stars Toyonah Parris and Iman Vellani (with the latter single handedly stealing the film, more on her later).  

Regretably, though, that's where the praise really ends for THE MARVELS, which is way, way too jam packed with characters, story arcs, and future entry setups for such a relatively short MCU feature (it's all a mercifully brief 105 minutes).  Is watching all previous MCU product (including past films and past MCU Disney+ shows) a requirement to enjoy and understand THE MARVELS?  Not really, but I can easily understand how some viewers - including myself at key points - might find the story here somewhat jumbled together and - at its worst - incomprehensible.  Narrative coherence is not this film's main issue, though.  THE MARVELS never really owns up to its promises as a solid female super hero squad picture, not to mention that it has a very weak villain and the stakes rarely, if ever, feel weighty enough.  If there was ever an MCU on pure autopilot, then it's this.

The discount rated baddie here is Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton, doing what she can with a decidedly underwritten role), whose evil desire is to lead the Kree race into a new period of dominance while searching for a pair of quantum bands that will give her unlimited, universe spanning power (there's always a MacGuffin fashion accessory in these films that antagonists want, preferably in glove form or - in this case - dual bracelets).  Dar-Benn is very - and some would say justifiably - angry at Captain Marvel for her actions at the end of the last film, which inadvertently led to the near decimation of the Kree as a whole.  Dar-Been's scheme leads to weird energy fluctuations in space, which prompts Nick Fury (a very misused Samuel L. Jackson) into action to recruit Captain Marvel to investigate.  Carol seems equal to the task, but when she interacts with the strange cosmic phenomenon she discovers - to her ample frustration - that her powers become hopelessly intertwined with two other heroes, Kamala (aka Ms. Marvel, played by Vellani) and Monica (aka...well...she has no super hero moniker yet, played by Parris), the latter of whom was the daughter of Carol's late friend that she hasn't seen in years.  It appears that when each of them uses their respective powers at the same time, it awkwardly and instantly teleports them and switches their respective places, which is a real mess for any prospective superhero team.  Complicating things is (a) young Kamala is a die-hard Captain Marvel fangirl (like, really die hard), (b) she happens to be in possession of one of those quantum band thingies that Dar-Benn wants and (c) Monica has abandonment issues with Carol.  Realizing that they'll have to work together (and find a way to use their powers without the aforementioned side effects), Carol, Kamala, and Monica band together to face their new menace.     

The hook of these three heroes having issues using their extraordinary abilities simultaneously is one of the fresher angles of THE MARVELS, which leads to a few clever sequences.  The early introductory moments of the trio space hoping at the most inopportune time because of this issue is kind of nifty.  It's especially annoying for poor Kamala (at first), seeing as she never gets to meet her idol face to face because she keeps switching places with her.  There's a well choreographed fight sequence between The Marvels and Dar-Benn's minions that straddles - at the same time - between Fury's Earth orbiting space station, an alien ship, and Kamala's own home (much to the chagrin of her disapproving parents).  Later on, there's a slick training montage of the trio learning how to balance their powers and control that thorny teleportation dilemma (the use of the Beastie Boys' INTERGALACTIC on the soundtrack while the women are training on Carol's starship is a bit on the nose).  Most of this is outdone by the film's opening, which takes us into the recesses of Kamala's hero-worshipping mind and shows her big-hearted obsession with Captain Marvel in a fan-fiction inspired animated sequence that's meant to evoke her own doodles.  Pretty rad stuff.

I think that THE MARVELS is a looser and sillier film than CAPTAIN MARVEL, which is both positive and detrimental here in equal measure.  Consider, if you will, the whole arc of the villain.  Dar-Benn is seriously angry with Captain Marvel and feels that she's guilty of Kree genocide.  That's a pretty dark thematic undercurrent for a film like this that sometimes parades around the issue with obligatory (and very out of place) MCU-inspired humor and shenanigans.  Clearly, Carol didn't mean to hurt this alien species in any calculated way and meant to use her powers for good, but in doing so there were unintended and far-ranging circumstances.  I kept on thinking all throughout THE MARVELS about this endlessly compelling idea of the consequences of superheroes using their powers for noble reasons and then causing serious collateral damage, but writer/director Nia DaCosta and her co-writers Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik seem totally reticent to deal with it in any compelling manner (mostly because they need to get to the next big VFX heavy set-piece...or ill placed moment of humor...and so on).  Too much side-stepping of important themes hurts THE MARVELS on top of Dar-Benn herself ranking among the least memorable villains in the entire MCU.  She's weakly developed and simply not terrifying enough as a vile presence.   

And, yeah, there's just so much thrown into the jumbled stew that is this story to leave any kind of lasting impact on viewers.  We have the three heroes (two who are new to the MCU film world), Kamala's bickering parents, the new villain, multiple planets/species and their respective conflicts, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. figuring in to all of this...and on and on.  There's nothing wrong with a superhero adventure that wants to be lightweight and nimble-footed, but too much that goes on in THE MARVELS seems needlessly hurried through.  That, and the makers here have an obvious priority to connect everything that happens here to past MCU films and streaming shows and move the whole franchise forward with future teases.  Watching THE MARVELS is like reading a twelve-issue comic book arc condensed to one issue.  There are obvious requirements of the makers here to continue to spin the gigantic wheels of this massive thirty-plus film saga, but those wheels are spinning too leisurely and without much innovation and freshness.  And - I know it's a phrase that has been uttered a lot these days - but maybe franchise fatigue is rearing its ugly head in plainly obvious ways.

It's all too bad, because DaCosta (who previously helmed the recent CANDYMAN remake) is an inspired and outside of the box choice for this material, but like Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (who directed CAPTAIN MARVEL before her), there seems very little room to impart any level of stylistic uniqueness on this franchise (unless you're James Gunn) because of the ready-made, assembly line aesthetic sameness that typifies so many of the MCU films as a whole.  Visually, THE MARVELS looks kind of flat and bland, sans a few key scenes that - as mentioned - I liked (I also really dug a story detour set on a planet whose denizens can't understand what Carol and company are saying unless they relay it in song, which might be the film's only moment of joyously bizarre creativity).  However, there are so many other moments that either left me asking far too many questions or just throwing up my hands in disbelief.  The latter is true in a truly inane third act scene involving a little army of cats (all distractingly CG...don't ask).  As for questions, I had more than a few about Captain Marvel's powers.  She's shown at one point to have the God-like ability to fly into a petering out sun and jump start it, but why does she even need a spaceship for travel then?  Or why does she resort to getting physical with adversaries when she could have her way with any of them with relative ease?     

The three main leads in THE MARVELS are not the problem here...at all.  They all bring a winning presence together on screen and have natural chemistry.  The breakout star here is easily Vellani, whose performance as the infectiously endearing Captain Marvel superfan is filled with so much wide-eyed joy and energy that she nearly saves the whole film from total implosion (she's also the MCU's first Muslim superhero, but my reckoning, which is awesome).  It made me think that perhaps a better version of CAPTAIN MARVEL would have been a more streamlined team-up effort with just Kamala becoming the Robin to Carol's Batman (so to speak) and her having to come to grips with her fascination with her idol and how the reality of meeting her comes crashing down hard.  THE MARVELS doesn't have time for deep and penetrating introspection in its characters and themes, though.  If anything, and now nearly three dozen (holy!) films in, the MCU needs a hypodermic needle of innovation injected into its heart to overcome more dry regurgitation of well worn and used franchise troupes.  THE MARVELS should have been an euphoric pleasure to sit through, but it felt like another safe and pedestrian MCU placeholder piece that takes very little - if any - chances or risks (by comparison, 2020's female-led BIRDS OF PREY team-up film for the DCEU felt gutsy and edgy).