The Charming and Exuberant Characters Save the Otherwise Messy 'The Marvels'

By TK Burton | Film | November 12, 2023 |

By TK Burton | Film | November 12, 2023 |

It’s not much of an overstatement to say that Phase V of the MCU’s cinematic dominion has been, more often than not, a disappointment. Sure, the films continue to make money — most of the time — but the audience’s box office fatigue is clear, and the idea-well seems like it’s past dry. One of the few bright spots has been the delightful appearance of young Iman Villani, who portrayed the plucky Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel in the eponymous Disney+ series. That series, while sometimes spotty, was made lively and bright in no small part to Villani’s ability to convincingly portray the exuberance and exhilaration of a teenage superhero who is just really happy to be there.

It’s Villani’s enthusiasm, joined by a once-again excellent and reliable Brie Larson as the sardonic-yet-sweet Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel and Teyonah Parish as Monica Rambeau (coming off a strong supporting performance in WandaVision), that takes the weird, surprisingly wacky story of The Marvels and elevates into what is quite possibly the most enjoyable of the Phase V films. The Marvels throws the three of them together in a wild space adventure, where they must face off against an angry and vengeful Kree revolutionary, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), and her forces as they seek to rebuild their homeworld at the cost of ruthlessly destroying others.

The plot is messy as hell. Directed and co-written by Nia DaCosta, it shows some of the same flaws as her Candyman reboot - despite its inventive and stunning visuals, its script gets mired down with a little too much, and a series of plot holes that truly make no sense. DaCosta has a lot of ideas, and they’re even good ones, but there’s that feeling beneath the surface that the film is teetering under them rather than being bolstered by them. Perhaps this is also hindered by yet another weak Marvel villain - Ashton certainly does her best with the menacing Dar-Benn, but the script does her no favors — halfway through the film, and I’ll bet that more than half the audience still won’t even remember her name. More frustrating is that she’s the rare villain with a legitimate gripe, just executed with the zeal and fury of someone driven mad by their losses. Yet that fury gets lost in the shuffle.

Despite that, the film still somehow works, and that’s due to the good side of the script — a sweetly lighthearted tone that gives the three leads the chance to form bonds that feel real, even in the short time that they know each other. Forced into cooperation thanks to a wild side effect of Dar-Benn’s machinations that results in them randomly switching places — regardless of where they are — the trio learns to live and fight together in a whole new and thoroughly inventive fashion. The action, with the three of them jumping back and forth from room to room or planet to planet, is fun, not to mention cleverly executed, and absent is the clunky special effects that marred some of the more recent MCU entries.

The chemistry between the three is off the charts, and while Larson continues to nail the role of Danvers, it’s Vellani’s Khan that truly binds them together. With her unbridled lack of chill, she somehow manages to entertain rather than annoy and comes out the other end as charming instead of twee. Couple this with a solid supporting role by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and fantastic use of the terrifying-yet-adorable alien-cat Goose, and there’s enough hijinks and humor to save us from the overly dour and unengaging villain.

The Marvels is a colorful, clever, joyous film that dodges many — but certainly not all — of the issues of its recent predecessors. It keeps the tone light and moves at a quick pace and — finally — doesn’t abuse the audience with an onerous runtime. At a brisk 105 minuted, it’s refreshingly short but mostly uses that time well, even if the result is a few half-baked ideas. It’s reminiscent of Guardians of the Galaxy, only a bit more kid-friendly, with a team-up that reminds its audiences that the dream and power fantasy of that superhero life can still be pretty damn fun.