November 17, 2023 · Watch the trailer
The fatigue is real.
It’s honestly getting tiresome to have to have the same discussion after each new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie comes out, but Disney continues to churn half-baked films out with reckless abandon and the results are less than ideal.
Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s difficult to make a film about the most unstoppable hero in their canon feel like it has stakes or the fact that audiences are tired of bigger upon bigger stories with middling special effects.
But director Nia DaCosta’s “The Marvels” completely underwhelms in a season where audiences should be spending their money on incredible and original filmmaking.
Unable to truly figure out where to head next, Marvel studio head Kevin Feige has placed the future of his franchise in building new team-up experiences that require viewers to learn about characters in Disney+ miniseries which really makes casual moviegoing difficult.
Such is the case with “The Marvels,” a pseudo-sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel” where two of the three leads are relative unknowns unless audiences have already spent an entire season on “Wanda-Vision” to get the backstory on Monica Rambeau as well as a completely separate season on “Ms. Marvel” for context about Kamala Khan and her quirky family.
For bizarre storyline reasons created to cram together an unlikely team, “The Marvels” finds Captain Marvel, Rambeau and Khan having their cosmic powers entangled, which hinders their ability to save the universe from a vengeful Kree empire seeking to destroy everything Captain Marvel has ever called home.
With an Oscar winner like Brie Larson leading the way, “The Marvels” should be a film that has quality moments outside its action sequences, but the film is so unbalanced in its tone that it never really is able to connect with audiences as it wanders back and forth between being a fun, lighthearted mashup in the style of “Guardians of the Galaxy” but plays so heavily on its underdeveloped dramatic stakes that it’s difficult for anyone to just relax and enjoy the film.
To little surprise for those who have seen “Ms. Marvel,” Iman Vellani is by far the most entertaining part of the film as it’s clear throughout that both the actress and her Kamala Khan character are having the absolute best time. She brings a passion and energy to “The Marvels” that is desperately needed to breathe life into an otherwise lackluster feature.
The same cannot be said of Teyonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau, a character struggling to find her footing as the undisputed third wheel of this trio and the awkwardness between her and Larson far exceeds the instability in their characters’ relationship.
Larson, to her credit, can handle the more lighthearted and dramatic elements of the film, but for whatever reason, she’s taken away from her best scene partner in the MCU as there isn’t any of the dynamic on-screen chemistry that audiences saw between her and Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury in the original “Captain Marvel.”
As is the case with most recent Marvel films, the action sequences languish due to relatively unoriginal and uninspired CGI work, which makes it difficult to root for the heroes when every action sequence feels the same.
Because the film will inevitably end up on Disney+ and the consequences of its storyline will certainly slowly play out over the next five years in other films and miniseries, there’s no immediate rush for even hardcore MCU fans to head to theaters to see “The Marvels” beyond a desire to avoid being spoiled about Easter eggs, cameos and teasers for future Marvel projects.
Leave a Reply