THE MARVELS (2023)

THE MARVELS (2023)

Tagline: Higher. Further. Faster. Together.

(Action, Adventure, Lots of Switching Locations) [PG-13]

That…is a different reality bleeding into ours. 

In this one, Captain Marvel has her past catch up to her concerning the fate of the Kree. Dar-Benn, a revolutionary who wants to restore her dying planet to greatness, now seeks revenge on Captain Marvel known to her and the Kree only as “The Annihilator” as part of her plan. Meanwhile, Captain Marvel’s powers have become entangled with Captain Monica Rambeau’s and Kamala Khan’s (aka Ms. Marvel) who is a huge Captain Marvel fan-girl. 

First off, at just an hour and 45 minutes, this movie is the shortest film in the entire MCU. To be honest I never watched the Ms. Marvel TV show even though I had friends that loved it. I just didn’t care about this character. I am sure that I am not alone and perhaps this movie could have spent 10 minutes giving us some sort of backstory on her saving New Jersey, but alas, they don’t and it’s not really that big a deal. Kamala is easy to warm up to right away and her character is extremely easy to like. 

I guess there were a ton of problems with this production but to be honest, I really didn’t see any animosity on screen and the chemistry between the “Marvels” is really fun to watch. I thought this thing had a lot more depth than I expected. The lack of trying to cram some weird agenda down our throats was surprisingly refreshing given how wicked Disney as a company is. I am never going to throw punches at a really fun and well-done film just because of “who” it comes from. If I am that worried about who made or financed the movie, I am not reviewing it in the first place. Which brings me to a bigger point about the response to this movie. I never felt the need to be "represented" on screen. I already live my own life, why would I need to see other people "like" me all the time. I didn't feel like this movie was trying to force-feed me any agenda. So if my fellow movie reviewers and critics are seeing that, sorry. You went in pre-mad and looking for trouble. Some advice. Get back to that kid-like wonder and try to enjoy something without forcing your own ideas into it, that either are not there or are so subtle it doesn't matter.

Acting-wise, I thought this was by far Brie Larson’s (UNICORN STORE) best Marvel Cinematic Universe outing as Captain Marvel. I highly doubt her and I have more than 15 things in common, but she did a great job here. Teyonah Parris (THEY CLONED TYRONE) was fantastic as Captain Monica Rambeau. I have had zero complaints about her in anything I’ve seen her in. Samuel L. Jackson is good in this as Nick Fury, not really a shocker there, the dude kills this role. Iman Vellani is amazing as Kamala Khan. I do think they gave her a cringe line in this that was completely unnecessary during a really solid emotional moment in the film but that isn’t Iman’s fault. Zawe Ashton plays a really cool antagonist Dar-Benn who was given a bit of depth and purpose here that really helped this film out. 

In spite of some reviews, this movie isn’t hard to figure out, it’s not messy, it’s just pretty straightforward fun. This is not to say it’s perfect. I like Bollywood stuff, but thought the Bollywood scene was forced and actually let Bollywood fans down. Some of the effects are great, but others are really bad, especially for a movie that costs as much as this one did. When it comes to the score, that was fine, but I really liked the soundtrack. 

I am not going to give anything away here, but having that many cats in your movie is never a bad idea. The end of the movie was rocky for me with the exception of the very last scene. The mid-credit scene was meh and I really didn’t like how they got there. So just a few of my thoughts on that. 

If you actually enjoy movies, I can’t find a reason to not love this. I’ve heard a few excuses on this one, but we got a movie out of Marvel if we are looking at it logically, that wasn’t an agenda trying to get us to use cardboard straws, eat bugs, or assume everything is racist.

This one gets a 6 out of 7. I actually liked it more than CAPTAIN MARVEL. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF MARVEL STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.