The Marvels: Not So Much Modern Marvels

Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as “The Marvels.”

Review:

Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) has the distinction of being the first woman superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s also the dullest- a taciturn all work and no play type. She really needs a sidekick. She gets two in her technical sequel The Marvels. The first is Ms Marvel aka Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), the youngest MCU superhero, a chirpy New Jersey PakistaniAmerican teen and a Captain Marvel fan, who also has her own Disney Plus Series. The other, is Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who has grown since Captain Marvel into a 30 something black superhero astronaut- one of those worthy of mention but not worthy of her own story MCU characters.

They all have powers related to a different form of light energy. Kamala’s seems to derive from the stories MacGuffins, a wrist cuff gifted from her grandmother. Monica got her powers when she walked through a witch hex. Disney Plus fans of Ms Marvel and Wandavision would know that, for those who don’t, you must jump to the underlined hyperlinkks.

Oddly, the three can’t use their powers simultaneously without swapping places due to a short circuit in the Jump Point System, meaning their wasn’t the budget for overly elaborate special effects. The JPS is a network of wormhole portals that make galaxy jumping easier.

Obviously The Marvels is just for the fans and female obsessed MCU fans in particular. Nothing makes sense unless you have fully absorbed the previous MCU films and watched all the MCU based series on Disney Plus.

The basic story paraphrased from a New York Times Review: The Marvels is basically the story of four women (the aforementioned Marvels and the film’s villain, an alien named Dar-Benn, played by Zawe Ashton) who are fighting over — wait for it — jewelry. Not just any jewelry, mind you, but a mate to Kamala’s magical wrist cuff, a source of great power that Dar-Benn acquires in the film’s opening scene, and which she spends the entire rest of the movie trying to pair, forcibly if necessary, with the one on Kamala’s forearm. All the while, the Marvels are trying to wrest Dar-Benn’s bracelet away from her, as Dar-Benn moves throughout the cosmos stealing oxygen, water and sunlight from various worlds to replenish the ruined resources of her own ecologically devastated one.

This is the MCU bitch fight movie, woman fighting over a piece of jewelry and other shiny things. It definitely does not help the female empowerment theme. It’s also not a good look to hang the fate of the world on. This is the MCU spinning its wheel and dying with a whimper. Marvel has finally over cloned itself.

There are only two enjoyable bits for the non-fans. The gang’s visit to a planet where the inhabitants can only communicate through song and dance-is a chance to change Brie Larson into an official Disney princess of sorts. The even loonier one, uses cats (the animal and Broadway musical) particularly Goose, Captain Marvel’s feline Flerken, who has an inner octopus that suck humans up like an out of control vacuum cleaner. Those bits just barely made The Marvels enjoyable.