We’re in dark days for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A few years of post Endgame mediocre movies, The Spider-Verse, and Barbenheimer have started to push the MCU off the top of the movie mountain. Kevin Feige’s counter? An all girl singing superhero group that are also superheros! Ok, that’s my ideal version of the Marvels, but Feige’s version is a reset/fusion of previous characters that works in fits and starts. So, sadly, more of the same for Marvel, adrift and unclear where it’s going next.
Captain Marvel Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) has been out in space since Endgame, alone and trying to fix a bunch of problems by herself. Via the antics of chaos engine Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), Carol is brought into contact with two other super beings: Carol’s estranged sorta niece grown up Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and superhero superfan Kamala Khan (Miss Marvel, played by Iman Vellani) who idolizes Danvers. The three women’s powers become interconnected, as they teleport into each others lives unexpectedly, forcing what I hoped to be a Motown like singing collaboration while also kicking some butt.
Instead, we get a Marvel attempt at a girl power superhero extravaganza. In order for that to work, we need to care about these people first. If you’re just a movie fan, that’s a tall order, because you have to build Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan from scratch in about 30 minutes. That also means little to no time for Zawe Ashton’s Dar-Been: a fascinatingly motivated character that gets no time to build on that strong foundation. Poor Teyonah Parris gets no identifiable character traits or personality, forced to tie her whole existence to Brie Larson’s Carol, and their previous relationship in the 1990’s set previous film. On top of that, Brie Larson can’t naturally find the light, quippy tone the MCU wants her to have as a foundational piece for their future, so that’s not great either. Thank goodness for Iman Vellani. In a rare piece of good news for Marvel, her TV show personality translates extremely well to the big screen. Vellani’s Miss Marvel gives The Marvels an infectious energy and more of an emotional resonance than the big Rambeau/Danvers relationship because of how perfect Vellani is playing Kamala Khan. The movie’s best character moments are when Vellani, Parris, and Larson are trying to figure out how to control their teleportation, letting the triad hang out and have some fun together, but that’s only about 15 minutes in a 2 hour movie.
The sad thing is The Marvels could have taken a different approach. Much like her Candyman remake, director Nia DaCosta’s superhero movie is at its best when it’s allowed to be really weird. Taking a page from the Thor reclamation, The Marvels sends the three ladies planet hopping, giving us little insights into new worlds we haven’t seen yet. After an hour or so of trying to be MCU funny, the movie let’s Nia DaCosta make a 30 minute short film on her own terms. We visit this one world with an incredible quirk that legitimately made me sit up in my seat with wide eyed glee. That’s followed up by this bizarre, insane solution for how to save a bunch of people on a failing ship that fully utilizes one of the best parts of Captain Marvel that you barely see coming and erupt in laughter when you realize what’s going on. I wish the MCU machine allowed DaCosta more time to make moments like that instead of simply repeating the soulless beats of the other film Kevin Feige wants The Marvels to be.
But alas that is what the MCU is these days. A movie machine trapped between its past and its future, unsure of how they want to proceed. The end credits give us two possible scenarios for Marvel’s future. One will get the bigger “oh sh*t” moment, but I prefer the one that gives us more Kamala Khan. There’s your future Marvel. Lean into it.