Written by Nia DaCosta And Megan McDonnell And Elissa Karasik
Directed by Nia DaCosta
Kamala: "Oh my God. We're a team?"
Monica: "Oh, no, no, no. We're not a team."
Carol: "We're not a team."
2023 has seen the MCU take something of a critical battering. No longer have hey a safety net and like the DCEU, they're in a position now where critics are falling over themselves to tear down the very thing they've spent too long propping up.
I bring this up because The Marvels itself really does seem to be on the receiving end more than any Phase 5 project so far. Is this film really that bad? Actually, no, it's not but there are legitimate criticisms that shouldn't be ignored about the movie or the MCU in general moving forward.
If you've already seen WandaVision and Ms. Marvel a lot of this will be easier to follow. If not, it generally brings you up to speed as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) finds herself teaming up with Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani). These three ladies themselves are this movie's biggest strength.
Thanks to a quantum entanglement due to their respective light related powers (that also caused switching places), Carol, Monica and Kamala have a hell of a time getting used to one another at first while banding together as shit goes down. There's some great scenes with Carol and Monica going over past traumas while Kamala's general fangirl moments are nicely timed.
As a team, the three ladies are a delight with natural chemistry between them. Unfortunately for a great team, they're saddled with one of the worst villains the MCU has committed to the big screen to date. Enter, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) and add her to the list of poorly thought out baddies in this franchise.
To be fair, Zawe Ashton does try her best but Dar-Benn is such a thankless role and on paper, she should've been an instant hit. She had a decent motivation in her resentment towards Carol (calling her the Annihilator certainly struck a nerve) and even had the second bangle while wanting Kamala's but she's poorly handled from start to finish that not even her defeat is satisfying to watch.
As for the rest of the movie, Samuel L. Jackson was on better form here than compared to his Disney+ show while Kamala's family are entertaining being thrown into the mix. There's some great scenes involving the Flerken while Monica's outcome definitely set up an interesting plot but will it be enough to save the movie's box office? Likely not tbh.
- Carol had a marriage of convenience with a handsome prince named Yan (Park Seo-joon). His planet gave us a musical sequence and Carol a Disney Princess look.
- King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) popped up to help Carol with Skrull refugees after Dar-Benn destroyed their sanctuary.
- Last scene had Kamala recruit Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) for a new team while also mentioning Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton).
- Post credit scene saw Monica in a parallel universe where she met a superhero version of Maria (Lashanna Lynch) and Beast (Kelsey Grammer).
- Standout music: I'm obviously picking Beastie Boys Intergalactic because the way it was used was great.
- Chronology: Present day New Jersey as well as the S.A.B.E.R. ship, as well as Hala, Tarnax and Aladna.
The Marvels isn't quite the disaster area some critics want it to be, in terms of quality but nor was it the slam dunk that it should've been either. At worst, it's an average that coasts on the chemistry of its main team but falters with a very weak villain and script respectively.
Rating: 7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment