My Review of The Marvels (2023)

 

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 

My Review of Captain Marvel (2019)

 

Written by Anna Boden And Ryan Fleck And Geneva Robertson-Dworet And Nicole Perlman And Meg LeFauve 

Directed by Anna Boden And Ryan Fleck

Captain Marvel: "I've been fighting with one hand tied behind my back but what happens when I'm finally set free?"

It's been two years since this movie was released and it's amazing that in some respects that it seems to be quite a controversial film within the MCU with extreme groups either declaring it the best or worst of this particular franchise.

I say that because after finally sitting down to watch it, there isn't anything remotely controversial to behold here. I will say however that it took the MCU far too long for a female led property but overall this movie itself is a delight.

Brie Larson is wonderful as pilot turned super powered force of nature Carol Danvers/Vers/Captain Marvel, though she's never called the latter in this movie. Carol's origins are nicely set up, going from her discovery that her mentor Lawson (Annette Bening) was a Kree scientist named Mar-Vell  to being forced into working for the Kree, as somewhat led to an extent by Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), along with some fellow teammates who don't especially care for Carol.

However it's an encounter with the Skrulls in which Carol finds herself questioning the last six years of her life and crash landing back on Earth with Skrull leader, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) in hot pursuit along with a teaming up with a rather younger Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is definitely where things get more interesting and Carol finds herself learning a lot more about her past self.

The reunion with her friend and fellow pilot, Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) and the latter's daughter, Monica (Akira Akbar) adds a nice touch of domesticity to proceedings along with the nice twist of Talos being more friend than foe.  Mendelsohn does some brilliant work through this movie as Talos and I really enjoyed his scenes with everyone here.

Also the more said about the Flerkin known as Goose, the better because that character more than justified the character poster it was given for this movie. Goose had some brilliant moments, especially with Fury and how it handled the Tesserect to boot.

Anyways this motley crew make for a good team against Yon-Rogg and the fight between the latter and Carol are especially well done. Of course the movie also ends with there being the plot threads of Carol wanting to end the war, Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) also wanting Carol as a weapon and of course, whatever the Supreme Intelligence also has planned next.

- Gemma Chan who played Minn-Erva will also play Sersei for Eternals. Clark Gregg's younger Agent Coulson popped up here as well.

- The opening credits were a massive tribute to Stan Lee and he was a train commuter in this movie for his cameo.

- Standout music: Too many 90s goodness but the highlights were Garbage's Only Happy When It Rains, No Doubt's Just A Girl and Hole's Celebrity Skin.

- Chronology: Carol went missing in 1989, most of this movie took place in 1995 and the post credit scene with Natasha, Steve, Bruce and Rhodes was in the present day to set up Avengers: Endgame.

Captain Marvel is an interesting movie to watch. In terms of MCU movies, I'm not sure if it's a Top 10 for me but there's a lot to enjoy here. I loved the 90s and that in a lot of a ways, it's essentially a prequel for a lot of the MCU we know along with being a strong origin movie for Carol Danvers.

Rating: 8 out of 10