'The Marvels' film review: Fun, laser-focused female-centric space-adventure
One of Marvel's strongest heroes must team up with two emerging superheroes to stop a galactic threat in 'The Marvels' (in theaters Nov. 10).
In short: A strange event entangles the superpowers of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), just as a new threat from Carol's past endangers planets across the galaxy. Zawe Ashton, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, and Samuel L. Jackson also star.
As always, this will be a spoiler-free review - just go in prepared for one of the most exciting midcredits scenes of any Marvel flick yet.
'The Marvels' finds one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe forced to confront of her past - the past she left on Earth and her past, mostly unseen, adventures throughout space. In the MCU, Carol Danvers has spent decades traveling the galaxy, protecting planets and trying to keep her promise to defeat the Kree Empire.
In many broad ways, 'The Marvels' follows the pretty standard MCU plot formula: villain seeks powerful McGuffin that can imperil entire planets - with the best villains having some personal vendetta with the protagonist. And, for better and for worse, 'The Marvels' works from this general plot - except this flick introduces a fun "body swap" element that mixes up the formula.
For reasons Danvers, Khan and Rambeau cannot understand at first, these three unrelated superheroes are "entangled" - causing them to switch places at seemingly random moments. Although Danvers is a battle-tested superhero who has fought and won many wars for decades, Khan and Rambeau have only started fully understanding their superpowers. And it's this secret ingredient that makes 'The Marvels' a total kick - watching Danvers effortlessly fight a horde of alien villains is satisfying, but watching Khan and Rambeau get abruptly thrown into the fray and find their footing is dynamic. While 'The Marvels' is clearly rooted in this "switching places" gimmick - the gimmick genuinely works because watching these three very different characters out of their element is so fun. And it's totally worth giving all the kudos to the movie's choreography, as 'The Marvels' elevates fight scenes into exciting set pieces, with the three titular heroes playing switcheroo amid the pure chaos of life-and-death skirmishes with aliens.
Perhaps more so than any other flick in the Marvel series, 'The Marvels' does require its audience to have some working knowledge of Disney's synergistic Disney+ TV shows with the feature film series. While it's not a total necessity to have watched 'Ms. Marvel' or 'WandaVision' in their entirety, it wouldn't hurt given that the shows function as the origin stories for two of the movie's three leads.
All that said, while Danvers carries the weight of her past, Iman Vellani brings infectious joy as the teen superhero from New Jersey. Sometimes comic book flicks get so heads down in their own pathos that it's easy to forget that comic books bring hope to kids who adore their heroes - and Kamala Khan embodies this effervescent joy. Teyonah Parris, for her part, resonates as emerging hero still mourning her mother and also hurt by the apparent abandonment of her "aunt" Carol Danvers - Monica's own childhood hero who promised to be right back - but disappeared for decades. While Kamala Khan can barely contain her fangirl inclinations, Rambeau brings a sobering and clear-eyed perspective to stepping in the boots of a superhero.
Oddly, perhaps the weakest of this trio of lead characters is Carol Danvers herself - and this is where the film's runtime should be discussed. 'The Marvels' clocks in as the shortest flick in the MCU, which is a blessing as much as it is a curse. The relatively short, sub 2-hour runtime keeps the plot clicking right along and the film focused on the dilemma at hand ... however, it does come at the cost of character development: specifically Carol's. Much of the film's actual plot and character goals are rooted in events that mostly occur offscreen - and the little that is shown is little more than a quickly abbreviated montage of events that occurred years before. One specific, consequential event directly informs the character arches of the antagonist and Danvers, while also explaining Danvers' distant relationship with Rambeau. And these crucial scenes ... are executed with some rushed flashbacks. Omitting these scenes, as well as how they directly and personally affected so many characters, hurts the emotional depth of the flick.
One of the “issues” with any Captain Marvel story is that Carol Danvers is undeniably overpowered. Very few dangers pose any genuine threat to her - so her stories must be rooted in her dramatic stakes. ‘The Marvels’ does Danvers no favor by doing the Cliff’s Notes version of her offscreen adventures that have come back to haunt her - thankfully this film is also carried by Kamala Khan, who radiates glee, and Monica Rambeau, who exudes quiet resilience.
Final verdict: 'The Marvels' is a lean and focused flick that feels like a legit "one-shot" comic book story - one that adds two up-and-coming, awesome heroes to fill in the Avengers-sized hole in the MCU. And seriously, the two credits scenes have massive and exciting implications for the MCU’s future.
Score: 3.5/5
'The Marvels' opens in theaters nationwide on Nov. 10. This comic book adventure has a runtime of 105 minutes and is rated PG-13 for action/violence and brief language.
