The Marvels review: a fun party at the end of Marvel’s worst year

Marvel Cinematic Universe: The team-up movie Marvels Has a lot of unjustifiable work ahead. Think about the baggage that is on your doorstep. Consider the baggage on its doorstep.

Here’s the good news: Marvels shoulders every one of these concerns like it isn’t even trying. What’s even more exciting? It’s fun as hell, even if you don’t know about any of this stuff.

Photo: Laura Radford/Marvel Studios

Director Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed 2021’s CandymanA remake of an existing project has few benefits and all its downsides. The good stuff that she can work with is? She sings it.

First and foremost is the film’s cast, pulled from three previous MCU ventures with no prior interaction before MarvelsIt was a very short development. Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel is the biggest victim of that lack of development: Her one solo outing, Captain Marvel, was a ’90s period piece that did nothing to establish her in the MCU’s present. It spent the majority of its time with Carol an amnesiac and less clearly drawn as other Avengers. It was a lot of fun. Avengers: EndgameThe role was neither informative nor insightful: She simply appeared as a quiet bruiser.

Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau is similarly undefined. She’s a child in Captain MarvelIt is her role as an investigator that she will be focusing on. WandaVisionShe was only doing support work and her powers were not fully displayed.

This is the best, most complete and most realized version of Marvels’ three main protagonists is the one who brings them together. Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel’s a Goddamn Delight, an ecstatic fan of Captain Marvel and The Avengers with one of the cosmic subplots that begins the story of Marvels. The bangle Kamala inherited from her grandmother, which activated her latent mutant powers, is one of two Quantum Bands sought after by the villain Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who needs them to save her dying world — by dooming others, of course.

Photo: Marvel Studios

Kamala, the silver bullet is both the cause and effect of her success. Marvels is a good time even for viewers who aren’t fully caught up on the MCU tapestry surrounding it, and also a reminder that Marvel’s movie continuity can be a hoot and not a burden for people who engage with it from the right perspective. Kamala — a Pakistani teen and amateur superhero trying to protect her hometown, Jersey City, and placate her worried family (who are in on her superpowered secret) — is literally tangled up in the plot when Dar-Benn’s schemes cause all three women’s powers to get tied together. Carol, an lone space traveler, must team up with Monica, Kamala, and Dar-Benn when their abilities are linked.

Through Kamala’s eyes, DaCosta is able to succinctly introduce the audience to Carol and Monica. Larson and Parris make the most of the little that the script provides. In a quick 105-minute runtime, Marvels doesn’t have much time to do anything deeply, but DaCosta keeps the camera intimate when there’s no room for the script to be, giving both actors just enough room to convey a level of depth I wish the film had time for. Carol Danvers is a great actress, and Monica Rambeau has a wonderful performance. Then, you can get a hold of us. characters. They’re both alienated by recent events in their lives, and longing for some kind of connection that they could have had, but were robbed of.

Three writers are credited and there have been reported reshoots. Marvels feels stitched together with dental floss when its characters have to give way to the film’s plot, which is underexplained and slapdash. This script was co-written with Megan McDonnell and DaCosta.WandaVisionElissa KarsikLokiDar-Benn tries to make her actions of destruction seem more complex and tragic. But there’s simply no time to give her reasons credence, or even see them through. One imperiled planet in the film’s second act is simply abandoned mid-battle, and no one ever says whether it or its endangered inhabitants survived!

Photo: Laura Radford/Marvel Studios

While focusing on Marvels’ The plot of a film can make you crazy, but the other aspects are a pleasure. The combat scenes in particular, choreographed by fight coordinator Liang Yang, are a small marvel, making inventive use of the heroes’ place-swapping affliction to construct manic action with tremendous clarity. MarvelsIt is an action movie that has a surprising amount of physical conflict, despite the heroes’ cosmic abilities.

Its best moments Marvels Just throws great ideas on the screen. There’s a planet of people who only sing, a space station full of cats that blithely devour furniture and humans alike, an animated depiction of Kamala’s internal monologue — the movie can feel like a mood board assembled by an overcaffeinated Star Trek fan, with a sense of imagination suitable for reminding the audience that comic books can be cool in the moment that you’re reading them, as opposed to for what they promise in the future.

Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are often criticized for feeling more like television than film: they’re episodic, don’t resolve, and tease the next movie. Marvels won’t dissuade anyone from that notion. In fact, it’s the most like a TV show an MCU film has felt like, with its incremental updates about what existing characters have been up to since their last episode, and the various serial threads leading into and out of it. Like a great episode of a bad season. Marvels reminds the fans why they’re watching — and it might even be someone’s favorite installment in the ongoing story.

MarvelsReleased in theatres officially on 10 November.