The Marvels: Film Review
The Marvels has made history by scoring the worst opening weekend ever for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and that makes me extremely sad because it is a decent movie.
Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) forms an alliance with Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and her ‘niece’ Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) after their powers become entangled, causing them to switch places whenever they use them. The trio works together to stop Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), a Kree leader intent on stealing air, water and sunlight from other planets.
There are a few reasons why people haven’t turned out to support this movie like the others. Sadly, there is a faction of men who do not support superhero movies directed, written and starring women. More generally, the stars couldn’t promote it due to the strike, superhero fatigue is very real and audiences aren’t as excited as they once were, the recent Marvel movies have not met the high standard of The Infinity Saga, and this Marvel movie is the first to feature two lead superheroes introduced in a Disney+ TV show.
You will probably be OK if you haven’t seen WandaVision (Monica’s introduction) or Ms. Marvel (Kamala’s introduction) but doing this homework will help a lot. This film picks up where Ms. Marvel ends so you should prioritise that over WandaVision (even though it’s an amazing show). Thankfully, Nia DaCosta includes helpful flashbacks to recap the important stuff you need to know. I would also recommend a rewatch of Captain Marvel because I didn’t and my understanding of her history with the Kree was hazy.
I won’t pretend that The Marvels is perfect because it is not. The storyline has been done so many times before and it felt very uninspired and generic. It would have worked in the early days of Marvel but we’re way beyond that now and audiences need some new and fresh. The villain was weak and her motives were very familiar and Ashton deserved better. Her storyline isn’t resolved in a particularly satisfying way either.
However, despite those issues, the movie is so much fun. The Flerken sequence (and the amazing needle drop) is a highlight alongside the entertaining body-swapping action scenes, the training montage and the chemistry between the leads. It is light-hearted and breezy (at only 105 minutes!), there are some cool cameos and the CGI is good after the lacklustre visuals in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Larson may be the leader of the pack as she’s been in the MCU longer, but the star of the show is Vellani. She is so charming and endearing and has so much heart. Her warm, vibrant personality eventually rubs off on Carol and she becomes softer and more relaxed. It was fun to see her in a new light, even if the musical sequence seemed very random. Parris isn’t given as much to do as the others but she doesn’t let the side down. I loved this trio.
The Marvels is not perfect but it’s also not the disaster some people have proclaimed it to be.
In cinemas now. On Disney+ from Wednesday 7th February