Movie Review: ‘The Marvels’

Review by James Lindorf

If audiences want to be fully prepared for everything thrown at them in “The Marvels,” four projects make the must-see list. “Captain Marvel” for the introduction to Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), and the Skrulls; you also get to meet little Monica Rambeau and learn more about the Kree. “WandaVision” makes the list for those wanting to see how an adult Monica (Teyonah Parris) gained her abilities thanks to a Scarlet Witch hex. If you want to know all things Kamala Kahn (Iman Villani), the only place to turn is Disney+ and “Ms. Marvel.” Last on the list is the most recent MCU and Disney+ series, “Secret Invasion.” It is where you get all the latest info on the Skrulls and learn why Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has spent so much time in space. Whether you decide to take a deep dive into all things MCU or not, know it won’t break the movie as it only enriches the experience of watching “The Marvels” in theaters on November 10th.

The odds are good that “The Marvels” will push the MCU as a franchise beyond the $30 billion mark at the box office. It can earn less than half of what “Captain Marvel” brought in and still accomplish that feat. However, online reaction and studio projections show that it may be a bumpy ride, with “The Marvels” predicted to open up around $75 million, one of the lowest in franchise history. It, unfortunately, doesn’t come as a surprise when “The Marvels” box office hopes have to fight against a SAG-AFTRA strike, MCU/Superhero fatigue, and the misogynistic and/or racist segments of the population that are still angry with Brie Larson and trot out the tired slogan “go woke, go broke” after seeing two women of color, one a Muslim, on the poster. “Captain Marvel,” “Black Widow,” “The Eternals,” “WandaVision,” “Ms. Marvel,” and “She-Hulk” have all been review bombed by these groups on various platforms, and they have all been impacted to some degree. When potential audience goers log onto IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, or any other review aggregator, they should take any score they see with a grain of salt. Setting money and politics aside, the biggest question for fans is what happens in “The Marvels” and whether it is a return to proper MCU form or more of the MehCU.

Under the guidance of the Supreme Intelligence, the Kree became universal tyrants, conquering 25% of known worlds. After escaping their control and reclaiming parts of her identity, Captain Marvel flew to their home world, Hala, to put a stop to the wars and the Supreme Intelligence. Even superheroes succumb to the law of unintended consequences, and now Hala is dying. The remaining people are led by the fanatical Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who is hellbent on returning glory to Hala. When Captain Marvel investigates an anomaly in the universal teleportation network created by Dar-Benn, her powers become entangled with her estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau, and Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel. The trio must learn to work together if they want to control their powers and stop Dar-Benn from destabilizing the universe. The sci-fi action-adventure travels from the depths of space to desert planets to those covered almost entirely in water and back home to Earth.

At 105 minutes, “The Marvels” is the shortest MCU movie by nearly 10 minutes, taking that title from 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk.” It can be seen as a welcome reprieve for people who have spent time lamenting the ever-increasing runtimes after last month’s release of the 206-minute-long “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Runtime is essential to bathroom breaks but does not directly correlate to film quality. There are great short films and terrible epics, and the opposite is true as well. It all comes down to pacing and how that time is used, which is the biggest problem with “The Marvels.” Director Nia DaCosta (Candyman) worked with Megan McDonnell (WandaVision), Elissa Karasik (Loki), and Zeb Wells (Deadpool 3) on developing a screenplay that, according to interviews, she was adamant should be under two hours. The quartet filled the movie with many great ideas, plenty of humor, and action, but they messed up the recipe and got the ratio of those three elements wrong.

The big theme in “The Marvels” is what comes after a war. Can there be peace if all parties do not enter into it earnestly? What if there are no attempts, and a group is left isolated and emotionally and physically broken? In that darkness, hatred is born, and what crawls out of it is viewed as a villain, as a terrorist, to those living in the light, but to those that remain in the dark, they are heroes. Captain Marvel’s attack on Hala stopped the spread of the Kree but left them alone on a dying planet where every natural resource was collapsing. In that void, Dar-Benn rose to power. A great speaker and nationalist, Dar-Benn speaks of the pride and glory of her homeland and how nothing will stop its return to power. While she claimed the remains of Hala, Captain Marvel took the opposite path and isolated herself. She views herself as the only one capable of righting the wrongs in the universe, especially those created by her previous actions. The loneliness and desperation of viewing yourself as the monolith of hope and justice weigh on Carol and everyone who cares about her. She is haunted by the fact that her actions have caused harm, but it pales in comparison to her fear of how those she loves would judge her if they knew the truth. If neither of them learns to let go of the past and how to share their perceived burdens, the drip, drip, drip of pressure will never stop until it crushes them.

That is a heavy question to tackle in a movie because we are still seeking answers after thousands of years of conflict. When you add in the personal disputes between Carol and Monica and Carol and Kamala’s hero worship, there is a ton of character development to explore. Once the movie starts, it does not stop running from one incident to the next, rarely taking the time for the audience to catch its breath. Sometimes, we run from the drama to another well-choreographed, if not always well-edited, action scene. The first significant action scene, which comes early in the film, is entertaining with all the intergalactic body swapping. Still, the camera is pulled in too close and struggles to go more than a few seconds between cuts. It adds a distracting and artificial energy to the battle that has plenty of it naturally. This becomes much less of an issue later in the film. It is unclear whether that is due to the direction of the action scenes changing hands or increased confidence for DaCosta, who is still relatively new to the world of directing. The later scenes still move the camera a lot, but they show us more of what is going on beyond just the torsos of the two characters fighting.

While there are breaks for action, we are often pulled away from the emotional core of the movie to tell a joke. Way, way too much time is given to the Kahn family, and except for a single scene, it is always played for laughs. It makes sense for them to have a role as the overprotective parents of a superpowered teenager. Still, they should have been let go when Kamala joined the team. They keep reappearing even though they have nothing to offer outside of repeated jokes, often involving screaming. There is an extended evacuation scene and build-up to that scene, all of which means nothing to the plot. It is a funny and oddly adorable scene, but when you try to shorten a film to just its necessities, you can’t have 10-15 minutes of it wholly disconnected from the plot and the themes of the larger story.

While they relied too heavily on it, the humor does keep the film fun and easily rewatchable. Combined with the hurried pace, “The Marvels” fails to enter the top tier of the MCU, but it is a step in the right direction, and anything featuring Vellani is a must-watch. She is the youngest of the three actresses, but she regularly shows them up by offering consistently strong facial and physical acting paired with excellent line delivery. Larson and Parris often nail all three, but sometimes they needed another take to put the emotion into their delivery or to wipe the blank look from their face. “The Marvels” has many more hits than misses, and it is the first MCU film since “Endgame” that I am excited to rewatch, earning it a 3.5 out of 5. And if you were wondering about post-credit scenes, it is a Marvel movie, so don’t be in a rush to leave the theater. There is a stinger directly after the movie ends before the credits roll and another halfway through. I won’t tell you what happens, but this will be the most excited fans are going to be since Fury said, “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative.”

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Director: Nia DaCosta
Producer: Kevin Feige
Writer: Megan McDonnell, Nia DaCosta, Elissa Karasik, Zeb Wells
Release Date: November 10th, 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Production Co: Marvel Studios