The Marvels

The Marvels is a fun-filled 1 hour and 45 minutes, powered by an entertaining cast, several laugh-out-loud comedic moments, and some expertly choreographed action sequences.

Premise:  When Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Captain Monica Rambeau aka TBC (Teyonah Parris) find themselves switching places with each other whenever they use their powers, they soon discover their quantum entanglement is connected to a sinister plot by Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) to restore the Kree Empire to power after its destructive civil war.

Review:

After 32 previous films and several TV shows over the last 16 years, there’s definitely a risk now that new viewers will feel they can’t jump onboard an MCU film without being fully versed in the entire history of the fictional universe.  Thankfully, that is something that The Marvels tackles head on, with an entertainingly light-hearted opening recap that gets audiences completely up to date with everything they need to know about the three main characters.  The opening scenes also set the tone for what is a playful and fun – and breezily paced – action adventure that should entertain notice and veteran viewers alike.

Brie Larson is back in this semi-sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, and this time gets to play a lighter side to Carol Danvers, thanks to her interactions with her main co-stars.  I sometimes get the impression that Marvel hasn’t been entirely sure how to use the character of Captain Marvel (her screentime in Avengers: Endgame was pretty limited, and she’s barely appeared in the four years since her debut), perhaps because she is such a powerful character – but here, director Nia DaCosta (who directed the surprisingly excellent Candyman sequel in 2021) has found a way to let Captain Marvel shine by teaming her up with characters that give her a chance to play different notes (literally, in one unexpectedly musical subplot).

“…Iman Vellani’s vibrant performance brings the film to life…”

Teyonah Parris returns as Captain Monica Rambeau (a character first introduced in the brilliantly original TV series WandaVision), and here she gets to unpack the emotional baggage her character has carried since her ‘Aunt Carol’ abandoned her as a child, and left her to deal with the death of her mother Maria (Lashana Lynch) on her own.  Teyonah Parris is having quite the year between The Marvels and They Cloned Tyrone, and here she expertly balances the emotional and action beats, with her comedic moments and exposition responsibilities.

Completing the main trio is Iman Vellani as the superpowered uber-fan-girl Kamala Khan, first introduced in her hugely entertaining TV series Ms. Marvel.  It’s hard to believe that this is only her second acting project, as she’s such a natural, and she infuses her character with an infectious sense of wonder and excitement.  In the story, the presence of Kamala Khan brings out the best in Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau – and in real life Iman Vellani’s vibrant performance brings the film to life.

“…the action scenes are an absolute joy to watch…”

The film’s tone is surprisingly playful and fun, and there were several moments that were laugh-out-loud funny, including an incredible scene set to a Barbara Streisand song.  Kamala Khan’s family from the TV show have some great comedic moments despite their limited screentime, and even Samuel L. Jackson gets to bring out the funny side of Nick Fury.  (Another good thing about The Marvels is that it completely ignores the events of the atrociously bad TV show Secret Invasion, which in my opinion was the worst thing the MCU has done in its 16-year history).

Although Nia DaCosta doesn’t come from an action background, the action scenes in The Marvels are an absolute joy to watch, because DaCosta has fun with the idea of the main characters swapping places with each other mid-battle wherever they use their powers at the same time.  The direction in those scenes is kinetic and immersive – playing with the characters’ disorientation without ever becoming disorientating for the audience itself.  There’s also a great training montage at one point which was tremendous fun.

“…a standalone adventure with more than enough laughs & action to keep new & old viewers entertained…”

There’s an awful lot to recommend in this film, and I had a tonne of fun watching it – but one of its main strengths (that it’s a brisk 90 minutes or so, minus credits) is also its main weakness, because for me, there just wasn’t enough to the plot.  As a result, although Zawe Ashton brought a lot of flair to her role as the villainous Dar-Benn, she didn’t get a huge amount to do outside of advancing her main scheme.  So overall, although I loved spending time with the main characters, I laughed all the way through, and I thought the action choreography was fantastic – for me, the plot was about as basic as it could get, and didn’t really provide any major surprises along the way.

But maybe, if you’re the 33rd film in a series, that’s exactly what you need to be – a plot-light, standalone action adventure that provides more than enough laughs and action to keep new and old viewers entertained for an hour and a half, without them having to have a PhD in the MCU’s fictional history.

But if you are a longtime Marvel fan, you should find that the final scene, and the mid-credits scene, set up some very interesting potential future storylines…