The Marvels is the thirty-third film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and serves as a sequel to both 2019’s Captain Marvel and the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (and you may need to brush up on your WandaVision for some character details). While the effort The Marvels gives in trying to be a crossover sequel without going full Avengers is appreciated, it ultimately can’t juggle all its pieces, resulting in one of the MCU’s weakest efforts.
Taking place in the present of the MCU (as opposed to Captain Marvel, which was a prequel set in the 1990s), The Marvels sees the coming together of Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani). Carol and Monica already know each other from when Monica was a young girl and Carol was an Airforce pilot alongside her mother (Carol hasn’t aged due to the powers she gained over the course of her solo movie). Kamala, on the other hand, is just a high school student who idolizes Captain Marvel and stumbled into her powers in her Disney+ series.
Because of Captain Marvel’s actions in the past, the planet of Hala – home of the ‘Kree’ people – entered a civil war, resulting in the loss of most of Hala’s resources (Thanos warned us about this). A Kree revolutionary by the name of Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) discovers a powerful bangle – the matching bangle to the one worn by Kamala Khan – and with its power hopes to steal the resources of other planets and use them to restore Hala, but not before using the bangle’s power to tear open a jump point in space (it’s basically a form of ‘super teleportation,’ in case you were wondering how Dar-Benn plans to steal planetary resources). Both Carol and Monica investigate the different jump points created by Dar-Benn at the same time, and since the jump point was created using the sister bangle of Kamala’s (I guess?), the three heroes are then linked together, with each of them switching places with the others if they use their powers at the same time, no matter how far across the universe they may be. This leads to an inventive action scene early on as Carol is teleported into Kamala’s house, inadvertently bringing some Kree soldiers along with her, with the ensuing battle swapping which of the three heroes is fighting the Kree every time they use their powers.
All this confusion leads Carol, Monica and Kamala to join forces (much to Kamala’s fangirlish delight), and with some help from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), they try and solve their space-swapping dilemma and stop Dar-Benn from destroying entire worlds.
The general plot is the usual MCU scenario, but I actually really enjoy the idea of the heroes switching places when using their powers. It makes for a fun change of pace where the heroes have to be more cautious when using their super abilities (another fun early moment sees Carol – who can fly – swap places with Kamala – who can’t fly – in midair). Sadly though, the movie doesn’t make full use of the idea (I think I’ve already listed the two moments the film best utilizes the idea, and they’re both early on), and it’s not enough to salvage the movie’s shortcomings.
Perhaps the most glaring of these shortcomings is that, in a film that boasts three superheroes, only one of them really leaves an impression. Although Captain Marvel is the de facto “lead” of the movie, she suffers the same fate I often find with DC’s Superman in that, by being a character so powerful she can basically do anything, it in turn makes her uninteresting. Monica Rambeau is given a rather sad backstory: she was part of the half of the universe who was turned to dust by Thanos before being resurrected by the Hulk five years later (boy, the MCU is weird when you think about it), with her mother passing away from cancer in the interim. Monica’s backstory is the most notable thing about the character, as she was sadly never really given the chance to shine in any previous MCU material (not only was she only a kid in Captain Marvel and thus didn’t have too active of a role, but when she got her powers in WandaVision, she was only a secondary character). And she isn’t really given much more of a character here.
Thank goodness for Kamala Khan then. Ms. Marvel adds a more fun and bubbly personality to the proceedings, and she’s often the only thing holding the film afloat. Iman Vellani helps make the character one of the most likable MCU heroes, and it’s just fun to have a character have to answer a phone call from their parents while simultaneously fighting bad guys. It was the personalities of the heroes – more so than their powers – that helped make the MCU what it is today (Iron Man wouldn’t have been half as memorable if Tony Stark weren’t a sarcastic jackass who always had a quip at the ready), and while the newer crop of heroes in the MCU aren’t as consistent as their predecessors, I feel like Ms. Marvel is one of the few ‘newer’ MCU heroes who has a personality as strong as the old guard.
While the consistency of the heroes may have waned over the years, one thing that was unfortunately more consistent in the MCU’s history is that the baddies are largely forgettable. Sure, that’s been far from an absolute, but I do think the bland villains of the MCU outweigh the memorable foes (for every Thanos or Killmonger, there’s been too many a Malekith). Sadly, that trend continues here in full force, because Dar-Benn is as forgettable as any MCU villain. I mean no disrespect to Zawe Ashton, since she does what she can with the character, but the character really doesn’t give her much. Dar-Benn really is one of those villains who seems to exist simply because the movie needed a villain. I honestly can’t think of much to say about the character other than “yep, she’s the bad guy.”
One thing I commend the movie for is its rather breezy runtime, clocking in at around an hour and forty minutes in a day and age where it feels like every superhero movie is required to go well passed the two hour mark. With that said, the short runtime may be a bit of a double-edged sword, as the movie has so many places to go, and so many worlds to see, that it can feel a bit rushed. I appreciate the less-aggrandized runtime, but if that were the goal, maybe have a smaller, more focused story to go with it?
I’m afraid that, while nothing about The Marvels may be outright terrible (unless you consider the utter blandness of its villain to be an unforgivable sin), it is a case of its many smaller problems preventing the whole of it from being very good. Not only is the aforementioned plot a little too big for the movie’s runtime but combine that with the whole “heroes swapping between space” thing and the fact that the movie really relies heavily on audiences having watched every past MCU media featuring its three leads to remember important plot and character aspects, and the film is left feeling overstuffed and overwhelmed. This even leads The Marvels to feel strangely unsure of itself, as it throws in a planet where the people speak through song as a kind of last ditch effort to try and capture some Guardians of the Galaxy charm to lift itself up, but it’s too little, too late.
While there have been worse MCU properties (for all its faults, The Marvels is never the stinker Eternals was, and the Disney+ series Loki is gluttonously self-important at the expense of the entire MCU’s mythology), I’m afraid that The Marvels is another example that the MCU is not what it once was. While the mega-franchise used to churn out good to great movies on a shockingly regular basis, its post-Endgame era has been far less reliable. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of the coherent direction the MCU had back when Thanos was around or just too much content stretching things too thin – now that we also have to keep up with a dozen Disney+ series in addition to all the movies – or a combination thereof. Whatever the case, I feel like The Marvels is the latest victim of the issues that are currently plaguing the MCU as a whole.
The Marvels has its moments, but it often feels like it’s in way over its head. Much like Kamala Khan herself. But without the charm.
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