This review contains spoilers for the movie “The Marvels”
I’m going to be upfront with you: I did not go in expecting to like this movie. Though I liked “Ms. Marvel” quite a bit, “Captain Marvel” remains one of my least favorite movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and Captain Marvel is just one of my least favorite characters in the movies and the comics. So when I first heard about “The Marvels,” I was determined to miss it. After watching “Ms. Marvel,” though, I decided to give it a shot.
After watching the movie, I have very few negative things to say about it; I had an unexpectedly good time watching it (while occasionally clowning on it with my friends). If I had to describe its place in the MCU, I would say that it feels like a sequel to both “Ms. Marvel” and “Captain Marvel” because of how it balances the characters. If you haven’t seen any of the trailers for the movie, the premise is that Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), and Captain Monica Rambeau have become entangled with each other such that when two of them use their powers at the same time, they swap places.
With three main characters, I was expecting “The Marvels” to center on one of the three characters and have the other two in the background, but I was delightfully surprised to see how each character has their moments throughout the film.
In my eyes, there are two big issues with this movie that prevent it from being great: a weak villain and Captain Marvel. Dar-Benn — a former Kree Accuser who was present when Captain Marvel killed the Supreme Intelligence — is leading the Kree people, who are living on the dying planet Hala after the events of “Captain Marvel.” We’re given very little backstory about the Kree civil war after “Captain Marvel” or Dar-Benn’s rise to power. Dar-Benn feels like a fairly one-dimensional villain, which, unfortunately, is common in recent MCU films.
But enter the other issue: Captain Marvel. She’s been running from the problems she created on Hala following the death of the Supreme Intelligence, and it’s all falling apart now. The main conflict of the movie comes from the fact that Captain Marvel didn’t take responsibility for her actions, and even though she acknowledges this at one point, it doesn’t make up for how many people indirectly died for her actions. When she eventually restarts the Hala sun at the end of the movie (which she could have done the whole time?), we see a little bit of redemption in her character, but it felt like too little too late. If Captain Marvel is used in future films, I hope she’s slightly more tolerable.
Okay, we’re done with the serious stuff now. In the typical fashion of many of the recent MCU movies, there was some ridiculous stuff happening in this movie, and for the most part, I thought they elevated the film. For instance, S.A.B.E.R. needs to be evacuated but there are too many people and not enough evacuation pods. Solution? Have a bunch of newly-born flerkens (aliens that look just like cats but have giant tentacle mouths) swallow everyone, herd the flerkens into the escape pod, and then have them spit everyone up on Earth, all while “Memory” from “Cats” is playing in the background! Utterly ridiculous and very entertaining!
Was I expecting a musical sequence in the middle of the movie when they’re trying to save a planet from having all their water stolen? Absolutely not, but it wasn’t unwelcome. “The Marvels” did a great job playing into its strengths, especially character interaction. Was Kamala a bit too annoying when she met Captain Marvel for the first time? Yes, but what else are you going to expect from a teenage girl who has worshiped Captain Marvel for the past few years?
The last thing I want to address is the ending and the end-credits scene. (It’s a Marvel movie, of course there’s an end-credits scene.) Do I understand why Monica has to cross the incursion point between two realities to close it? Nope! I imagine it has to deal with the fact that Monica needed to end up in the alternate universe for plot reasons, and that’s about it. But when I say I was excited to see Beast in the end-credits, I think it’s an understatement to say that I’m excited to see what they do with the X-Men in the MCU.
So what’s next in the MCU? Honestly, after all the recent release date changes, 2024 is a bit sparse compared to past years. “Deadpool 3” is slated to come in July, and that’s the only Disney movie coming out next year. Sony will have “Madame Web,” “Venom 3,” and “Kraven the Hunter,” and we’ll see how those do. Disney also has four shows (“Echo,” “X-Men ’97,” “Agatha: Coven of Chaos,” and “Marvel Zombies”) premiering in 2024, and given how good the second season of “Loki” was, I’m looking forward to seeing what will come out of these shows.
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