The Marvels is a very complicated movie. Even at 105 minutes with credit, it seems that it lags at some scenes but rushes to get other things over once it’s starting to get interesting. I feel the movie was the result of many issues Disney and Marvel Studios had with the big disappointment that was Phase Four.
And it’s that disappointment which I think led to what was originally intended to be massively rewritten and reshoot. Nia DaCosta, who directed and co-wrote, probably spent a fortune on antacids because the movie seems to be a sequel to Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel as well as somewhat to WandaVision. One of the best things you can say is how it brings everything back so perfectly you don’t have to go back and rewatch everything out of fear you might be lost. The end credits sequence from Ms. Marvel had Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) switching locations with Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) at her Jersey City, N.J. house. This is because of a Quantum Band that Kamala has.
So, the beginning has Carol, Kamala and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who’s in space with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as an astronaut for S.A.B.E.R. switching around places on Earth and in space. As usual, there’s a lot of early action sequences as the Carol, Monica and even Kamala and her family battle Kree soldiers. Carol is being targeted by the Kree because she destroyed the Supreme Intelligence which led to a civil war on the Kree home planet of Hala, blocking out the sun and no water or air.
Carol and Kamala join forces with Monica who is apprehensive about being with Captain Marvel since she hasn’t seen Carol since she was a child. Monica’s mother, Maria (Latasha Lynch) died from cancer during the five-years of the Snap, of which Monica wasn’t around because she got Blipped. You can tell how the plot was retooled following criticism of Ms. Marvel and production problems on Secret Invasion, which aired on Disney-Plus over the 2023 summer. Even though the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes were ongoing, you get the sense that The Marvels was supposed to be released before Secret Invasion.
It’s not bad like Secret Invasion. There’s actually some great scenes and Larson handles the role perfectly. Khan has a platonic crush on Carol that can only be compared to how Peter Parker was all wanting to hang out with Tony Stark. Monica is a more difficult part, mainly because I feel the writers didn’t know how to handle her. She’s already grieved the lost of Monica in WandaVision. Her hostility never seems rational in The Marvels. Maybe it’s because the studios demanded a lot of cuts.
If you take out all the credits, there is about an hour and a half of a story. This is impressive because much of the other previous movies were well past the two-hour mark. And even Ms. Marvel was longer in its length. Too long to be honest. However, because of the shorter time frame, The Marvels feels like another buffer filler setting up a grander movie, such as the next Captain America movie or that Thunderbolts movie, both to be released next year. Not to give much away, but they are really teasing the multiverse especially now that Disney owns the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four. So we may find out in the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine.
The lighter tone that DiCosta and the writers take with the movie doesn’t fully crap on the subject matter like Thor: Love and Thunder nor does it seem to just be a terrible CGI spectacular which was Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The graphics here do feel a little cheesy at times. But the overall story is another Skrull vs. Kree story. I actually was impressed by Dar-Been (Zawe Ashton) who wields the Universal Hammer and is trying to restore her homeland. And I like how the movie doesn’t resort to the barroom brawl that previous MCU installments have that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law parodied.
There’s a great scene with the Flerken species that works in such a silly way it seems to have the same tone that James Gunn and Taika Waititi have brought to the franchise. However, it doesn’t act so pompous as Waititi would’ve brought.
Part of the reason for the movie’s failure I think was that it released just as the SAG-AFTRA strike ended. Therefore, none of the cast was able to do much publicity for the movie before it hit theaters. Not to say that it wouldn’t have matter. The backlash against Captain Marvel was still fresh. But that movie had an ace in the hole. It had been released in between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. People went to see if there was going to be any hint of what was gong to happen in Endgame. The movie opened in early March about six weeks before Endgame. People had to go see Captain Marvel before they saw Endgame, even though the end credits sequence wasn’t much of anything such showing Carol appear at the Avengers’ headquarters. But the movie had earned over $1 billion. The Marvels only grossed just over $200 million.
Also complicating matters is how people just outrageously despise Larson. The Oscar-winning actress has been a very outspoken activist for women’s rights. It’s almost comical it gets so many men and women upset over the way she thinks women should be treated like human beings and not sexually assaulted. The nerve, right? But I think it says more about how people think movies should be made for young men and young men only. Ironically, comic books, especially Marvel, in theory, are about inclusion. But it’s the same way conservatives and misogynistic bigots will watch Star Trek or listen to Rage Against the Machine upset that it’s “woke.”
But there’s only one main character in the movie who is a man and that’s Fury. It doesn’t help that Parris is black and Vellani is Pakistani. So, naturally, a lot of people have refused to even watched the movie and pass judgment without even seeing one frame. I do think there’s “Superhero Fatigue” with the movie but Marvel has been running on empty for the past five years. Disney couldn’t have stretched out the release farther. I mean, they could. It’s just like they decided to take their loss with this one as they did with Black Widow three years ago.
They have bigger problems with exactly how they going to handle the rest of the franchise with all the rumored reshoots and rewrites on Thunderbolts and how Jonathan Majors being let go as Kang may affect what was originally intended.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 