Carol Danvers gets her powers entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, forcing them to work together to save the universe.
Ever since 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame,” Marvel has lost its footing with its superhero movies. While “Endgame” brought Phase 3 to a close and the Disney+ TV series’ “WandaVision” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” ushered in Phase 4, it was a very disappointing chapter in Marvel’s history. We are now into Phase 5 and are not much better off, with only “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” being the standout to date. “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” was the first to kick off Phase 5 but failed miserably. With Marvel branching out into T.V. with titles such as “Loki,” “Secret Invasion,” the aforementioned “WandaVision” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” as well as “What If…?,” “Hawkeye,” “Moon Knight,” and “Ms. Marvel,” it is not the same as watching Marvel’s signature fun unravel on the big screen.
“The Marvels” is Marvel’s next big-screen outing, and the film had been plagued with production woes and talk of numerous reshoots, so going in to see it, I was not hopeful. But lo and behold, keeping an open mind and lowering my expectations allowed me to enjoy the movie despite some questionable special effects and a musical number that felt entirely out of place. Yes, seriously, Marvel has now executed its first musical number, and here’s hoping it will be its last.
“The Marvels,” comprising Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) must learn to put their differences aside as they prepare to team up against a vengeance-seeking Kree warrior, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who is hellbent on destroying everyone and everything close to Captain Marvel. Years ago, she unwittingly destroyed the sun of Dar-Benn’s homeworld Hala, plunging her people into darkness. As a result, the planet quickly became devoid of air, water, and sunlight. Having tracked down one-half of the mythical Quantum Bands, energy-manipulating devices of incredible power, Dar-Benn frantically searches for the other half so she can utilize their power to restart her home planet’s sun, unaware it is in the possession of Kamala Khan on Earth. Now, the Marvels must band together and prevent Dar-Benn from destroying their home world while also formulating a plan to help Hala and its people before it’s too late.
“The Marvels” brought me back to a time when Marvel actually had fun with their movies and didn’t take them so seriously (“Eternals”) or imbue them with excessive buffoonery and drastic tonal shifts between funny and serious moments (“Thor: Love and Thunder”), here, the film, for the most part, feels old school and most of the humor and the weightier scenes find the perfect balance, which is always a difficult feat to accomplish, especially in a superhero movie.
The CGI is far superior to some of Marvel’s previous entries where the special effects were notably bad (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” and this year’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”). It appears that the visual effects artists were given more time, and in this instance, considering everything, “The Marvels” looks better than any recent Marvel big-screen outing. That’s not to say the movie is perfect. In one scene, the Marvels land on the planet of Aladna, where its inhabitants communicate with each other by song, and we get an entire number of singing and dancing, which felt totally out of place. Hopefully, this will be the last time anybody in the Marvel Universe ever visits Aladna.
In one of the film’s highlights, early on, Monica is called in by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to investigate a jump point anomaly near S.A.B.E.R., a space station high above Earth’s orbit. After touching it, she, Carol, and Kamala end up switching places with each other through teleportation, just as Carol engages in a fight with soldiers on Dar-Benn’s ship. As the three women continue to swap places, from Earth to space to Dar-Benn’s ship, we are given an exciting and decidedly humorous scene that works marvelously (pun intended). We even have a hilarious scene involving Goose and her adorable litter of Flerken kittens helping Nick Fury and everyone aboard S.A.B.E.R. escape from the space station.
I honestly thought I would walk out of “The Marvels” disappointed, yet again, but I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Naturally, it sets up future adventures for our heroes; let’s just hope Marvel is up to the task. And don’t forget to wait for the customary mid-credits scene; it put a big-ass grin on my face and one I’m sure many Marvel fans have been waiting for.
Now available on Digital and on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, and DVD February 13th
