The Marvels

 

Score:  B

Directed by Nia DaCosta

Starring Brie Larson, Iman Vellani, Teyonah Parris, Samuel L. Jackson

Running time: 105 minutes

Rated PG-13

Long Story Short: The Marvels is the latest chapter in the MCU superhero saga, both a sequel to Captain Marvel and also a cinematic introduction to Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau (first seen on Disney+).  The plot may be hard to follow for the casual movie-goer, but it satisfyingly continues and/or resolves multiple threads from the broader superhero universe.  Still, it's good fun for anyone, thanks to great work from the cast and entertaining (but not overstuffed) action scenes.  Recommended for any superhero fans, and anyone else looking for a nice blockbuster.

When the powerful alien civilization known as the Kree hatches a new plot, three of Earth's superheroes - Carol Danvers (Larson), Kamala Khan (Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Parris) - find themselves inexplicably switching places with each other.  Carol, aka Captain Marvel, has been in deep space on her ship conducting missions; Kamala, aka Ms. Marvel, has been struggling through high school in New Jersey; and Monica, no nickname, works with Nick Fury (Jackson) in a space station orbiting Earth.  The Kree leader, Dar-Benn, is trying to restore her devastated homeworld by any means necessary, and placing the entire universe in danger as a result.  Carol, Kamala, and Monica must therefore figure out a way to stop her before it's too late.

The Marvels is a very entertaining superhero movie and a worthy next step on the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) famously interconnected path of films.  It's not among the franchise's top-tier films, but there's still lots of fun to be had for both Marvel fans and newcomers alike.  If you are a Marvel fan who has kept up with not only the movies but the Disney+ streaming series of the last few years, you'll get quite a bit more out of this (and feel a lot less confused).  The Marvels is not just a sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel, which introduced Carol Danvers, but it also continues plots and characters from Ms. Marvel, WandaVision, and Secret Invasion, not to mention including the multiverse again as a key part of the plot.  That might all sound exhausting, but I believe even "newbies" will enjoy this movie, if you just relax and not try to understand all the plot points.  All things considered, the script does an impressive job tying it all together in intriguing and (mostly) comprehensible ways - and in a very reasonable hour and forty-five minutes.  While I can get frustrated when plots like this veer too far from the superheroes themselves, the movie does a particularly nice job of integrating the fates of two alien races - the Kree and the Skrulls - who were deeply affected by events in Captain Marvel and Secret Invasion.  The tone of the movie, which is mostly fun and light-hearted, doesn't allow it to address them perfectly, but I give Marvel credit for continuing to pay close attention to the collateral effects and aftermath of superheroic events (see Captain America: Civil War, Avengers Endgame, and more).

Apart from the intricate plot, there is a lot of visual fun and humor here, too.  The primary theme, which is clear in several trailers/ads, is the superhero place-switching.  This provides both striking visuals and humor, particularly in the initial extended action sequence.  Wide-ranging - from a cramped, sterile space station to the Khan's increasingly-shredded living room - it has a frenetic pacing that keeps you glued to the screen and tests your ability to follow but is not overwhelming.  The final battle is also quite cool - not groundbreaking but also modest and brief enough to fully take in and enjoy.  There's also humor throughout; two elements in particular verge close to too silly - one involving a literal superhero musical scene and the other Captain Marvel's voraciously hungry cat - but both manage to hold it together.

Finally, the characters of The Marvels are worth discussing, as in any Marvel movie worth its salt.  Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, played by Larson, is the lead, and I'd looked forward to a sequel giving her character more opportunity after 2019's original gave us disappointingly little.  We still get little on her background, and thus her motivation, unfortunately; I think the ship has sailed here.  But Larson still gives Carol a nice, distinctive personality that is fun to watch: Tony Stark's sarcastic intelligence, Steve Rogers' sense of duty and caring, yet with a vulnerability and imperfection that is needed considering her superpowers are so strong.  Vellani as Kamala is just as charismatic as she was on Ms. Marvel, even though she is sharing the lead here.  Her spunky cheer is just what the movie needed, and it's also great to see her immigrant Pakistani family continue to play a significant role.  Parris's Monica gets the short end, not really surprising considering she had just a small role on WandaVision before this.  There's not much to her character or personality, and is honestly most important for her relationship to Carol (who was best friends with her mom... long story!).  But the ending leaves opportunity for much more.  The main actors are the film's strongest point and their chemistry and team dynamics in particular were an interesting new version of what the Avengers introduced eleven years ago.

***

Usually, the movies I score a "B" get my shortest reviews - they are neither fantastic nor terrible, with all that allows me to write about.  The Marvels is, thankfully, not a boring good-enough but bland, unambitious movie.  It has some great strengths to it, but it's also weighed down by the combination of them all, along with being a little rough around the edges occasionally.  Still, it's the best addition to the MCU in 2023, what has been a down year (well, I haven't seen all of Loki season 2 yet, though the first episode left me a bit dazed and wary of continuing).  Critics and commentators have been quick to pounce, especially since The Marvels crashed at the box office with a (relatively) miserable $45 million opening weekend.  Sure, there is definitely some superhero fatigue; and following the show-stopping, biggest-movie-of-all-time Avengers finale in 2019, it's been impossible to match those previous heights.  But the new era, which started with streaming in the midst of the pandemic, has many strengths, too, just of a different kind.  I will most definitely be continuing to follow Marvel's stories, on both the big and small screens, for the foreseeable future.  For now, there will still hopefully be plenty of other good things to see at the theater in the coming months!

* By http://www.impawards.com/2023/marvels_ver2.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73059469