Director: Nia DaCosta
Writers: Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik
Stars: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani
Synopsis: Carol Danvers gets her powers entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, forcing them to work together to save the universe.
It’s finally official: The MCU has an identity crisis. The Marvels is by far one of the worst entries in the studio’s history. This film is a goofy, schizophrenic, cluttered mishmash of tone and pace, with a lead performance with zero charisma or depth. The final product is a somewhat elevated Saturday morning television affair with a script so paper-thin that the story hardly justifies the merciful Marvel Studios’ 100-minute runtime.
The Marvels is set after Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel and follows Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), aka Captain Marvel, who has her powers crossed with two other superheroes in the Marvel universe—Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (They Cloned Tyrone’s Teyonah Parris). How? Captain Marvel jumps through a wormhole to meet a Kree revolutionary, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton).
Carol deals with her past, which haunts her throughout the film. For one, Monica’s mother was Carol’s best friend, who died, and Monica has not seen her since leaving. The other is the birth of Dar-Benn’s villain origin story. Captain Marvel, a.k.a. “The Annihilator” to the Kree race, is attacking the Supreme Intelligence and causing a global environmental catastrophe. This forces her to inform the Skrull people they will be moving to their planet as a haven. Of course, when Dar-Benn sees Captain Marvel, the Kree leader suddenly takes matters into her own hands.
The Marvels was directed by Nia DaCosta, who wrote the script with WandaVision’s Megan McDonnell and Loki’s Elissa Karasik, which makes the final product all the more shocking. How can a filmmaking team with a filmography filled with projects of unparalleled mischievous, clever fun create a film that is on par with children’s Saturday morning television programming?
For one, the script is filled with exposition. Marvel then does what they do best, covering up the excessively unneeded explanations with action scenes as a beard. DaCosta uses cartoonish special effects to distract you from prolonged flashbacks and explain more backstory that is unnecessary.
Some nutty scenes don’t seem to fit and come across as needless filler. For example, a visit to a planet where people only sing (yet they abandon that premise as soon as the plot needs firmer ground). And don’t forget about Goose, the Flerkin feline. In 2019’s Captain Marvel, we get too much of a good thing with her special powers. These scenes are strung together as a patchwork to cover how the film has no real reason to exist in Marvel’s timeline.
Marvel and the filmmakers let the cast down here. However, let’s get something out of the way. Brie Larson appears to be sleepwalking through the material. She has transformed her character into one utterly devoid of personality, charm, or depth in any scene that asks for any amount of emotion, from an intense evacuation of a planet in peril to what is supposed to be a poignant revelation of her past. It’s honestly confounding.
The one saving grace is the wonderful, exuberant performance from Ms. Marvel’s Iman Vellani. The character has charm to spare, barely keeping the film afloat during long stretches because of her incredible comic timing and fresh personality. If anything, The Marvels may set up her character for future movies and would be wise to do so because she is so adorably funny in the role. Overall, the picture needs to be more cohesive and the final product is patronizing. The ending is uneventful and fails to make an impact for the audience. Many will make excuses for the Nia DaCosta film, calling it just “stupid” fun, but don’t fall for it. The Marvels is a massive disappointment.
