Movie Review: ‘The Marvels’

Director: Nia DaCosta

Cast: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Samuel L. Jackson

Plot: When the actions of Kree warrior leader Dar-Benn entangle the powers of Captain Marvel, Ms Marvel and Monica Rambeau. This brings the three super-powered women together to face this new threat.

Review: We are, of course, obligated to discuss the downturn of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since the box-office shattering culmination of their ‘Infinity Saga’ producer Kevin Feige greenlit every property they could think up as part of their ‘Multiverse Saga’. Now that we’re in the second phase of this epic story things are moving at a slugs pace. The number of Disney+ shows produced in the last few years have added a massive amount of required viewing time to those wanting to follow all the content, and characters introduced through this platform are now picking up roles in the movies. Overall the response to the movies have been cooling off, with some groups of fans getting unreasonably angry (doubly angry if some of the characters are women) about things.

At the root of the problem is the lack of cohesion between the properties. The pandemic restricted how they could film, release dates got pushed around and some of the key figures introduced have turned out to be horrible people. We haven’t had a clear sense of direction for the overarching story since the battle with Thanos. It’s true that the Infinity Saga didn’t start out with Thanos at the end, but they started bringing the characters together from the get-go and seeding the idea of the Infinity Stones early on. As the Marvel pool of characters is being spread out wider and wider it’s difficult to see how any of them are going to come together and interact. Some of our favourite moments from the Infinity Saga come from character interactions, such as the Avengers shooting the shit after a part in Age of Ultron. Now characters who have fought together, like Thor and Ant-Man are having adventures that don’t connect with the wider world that has been built.

Shang-Chi introduced a bunch of interesting characters and groups, including hidden magical worlds and a global crime syndicate but we’ve heard nothing about them since – not even an announcement for a sequel. Namor and the Atlantians have been introduced and unused, She-Hulk is a major public figure, a new Captain America has arrived, Moon Knight saw a couple of ancient Egyptian Gods throwing each other in pyramids in the modern age. The Eternals ended with a stone giant sticking its head out of the ocean and a Celestial standing over the Earth, but this could have happened in a vacuum for all the difference it makes. Other characters have been shown to us and remained unused and unexplained – Scar, Black Knight, Blade, Clea, Hercules all dropped into post-credit scenes and let hanging. During the first few phases these teases would usually be integrated in the next film.

A short, snappy action-adventure that pulls a few of this loose threads together into a team is just the thing the MCU needs. Something that answers more questions than we’re left with and gives us something to look forward to. The Marvels, coming in as the shortest MCU film, wastes very little time introducing the main trio to new viewers (and those with a D+ subscription). Carol ‘Captain Marvel’ Danvers (Larson) was introduced as part of the battle with Thanos, and we’ve got some context galaxy-saving to be filled out in between those initial appearances and now. Monica Rambeau (Parris) was a child during the events of Captain Marvel, and was reintroduced as an adult in the show Wandavision. It was here that interacting with the Scarlet Witch’s magic imbued her with the ability to manipulate electromagnetic wavelengths. Thirdly we have Kamala ‘Ms Marvel’ Khan (Vellani), a teenaged hero from New Jersey (and her own origin show Ms Marvel) who can create hard-light from cosmic energy. Once this is established, we get the evil Dar-Benn (Ashton) breaking open a tomb on some desolate planet and retrieving a bangle, a powerful artefact that is paired with one worn by Kamala.

Shortly after this, Carol, Monica and Kamala discover that using their powers at the same time causes them to switch places, dropping them into all manner of difficult and violent situations. Nick Fury (Jackson) manages to pull them all together to resolve this, and the three begin working together as a team. Dar-Benn is revealed to seeking revenge against Captain Marvel while repairing damage down to the Kree home world of Hala. What we learn is that after the events of Captain Marvel, Carol returned to Hala to destroy the Supreme Intelligence (represented as a big green face, thank you for the comic visual) and basically wrecked the place, even causing damage to the very climate. Using the bangles, Dar-Benn is tearing portals in space that will siphon the air, water and whatnot from planets that are important to Carol.

This is one aspect of the story we’d have liked to see more of. We get glimpses into Carol’s memories of the event, and see it briefly from Dar-Benn’s perspective, but this is the kind of power demonstration that we don’t get often enough from Captain Marvel. Absolutely going Kaiju on an entire planet, seeing what happens when Captain Marvel loses complete control and rages out. It would make her character arc more interesting if we had experienced what her mistakes were rather than hearing them talk about it. Make it a personal conflict. This would have a knock-on effect on the characterisation of Kamala who would has to accept her idol as a real person.

Maybe we’ve gotten spoilt with Killmonger, Thanos, Namor, Kang and other interesting villains, because Dar-Benn feels like they have very little going on. Performance and design are just fine, but we know very little about this foe. They’re most distinctive feature is the ‘Universal Weapon’, the hammer originally wield by Ronan the Accuser. When the most recognisable aspect of the character is lifted from another, more compelling villain you’ve got a bit of a problem. As someone to bring together three characters for some punching…it’s fine.

What really stands out in this film is the introduction of Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan. Finding this young performer was a godsend for Marvel, as she perfectly embodies as new, popular character from the comics. Kamala is a fangirl turned super-powered hero who idolising Captain Marvel. Most of the laughs in this movie comes from Kamala going full fan on the situation. It could be cynically read as an attempt at a fan-insert character, but Vellani is so charming in the role you can’t help but like her. Hopefully this brings more viewers back to her own show to see more of this actor and character in action. Vellani has become so ingrained with this character she also writes stories for Marvel Comics. We also get a first look at Kamala bringing together the younger, next generation of Avengers through a cameo appearance, something they’ve waited way to long to start doing.

Another strong point is, of course, more screen time for Goose. Carol’s feline sidekick is amazing, he flies through space and we could watch him all day.

This is a fun romp. It’s kept light and breezy with the cool characters and great performers. It does feel rushed at points, there’s some character beats we would have wanted to spend more time on – a musical society on a water planet feels underused – but it keeps things rolling and helps keep the MCU above water (along with Loki).

Rating: EIGHT out of TEN