Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

The return of Carol Danvers to the MCU comes at a vulnerable time for the series. It’s been years of hit-or-miss products, all reliant on an expansive storyline built out by series only available on Disney+, and it goes out into a misogynistic society where a certain number of people will openly revile any iteration where women save the day. A movie about Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, would have to be a nearly flawless entry to be widely loved, an expectation her movies should never be held to. But even on a level playing field, where Brie Larson as the central hero and co-writer/director Nia DaCosta only has to clear the same bar as most of their MCU counterparts, The Marvels comes up well short.

The film splits time between Larson’s Captain Marvel, Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel, and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau (pointedly and funnily not given a superhero name). The latter two have light-based powers that were introduced in Disney+ series, which connect them to the source of Danvers’ immense powers. When Kree leader Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) begins amassing similar powers through fancy bangles (what is it with the MCU and bling?), the trio are linked and begin switching places if they use their powers at the same time.

Look, I know that’s a weird conceit to bring these three characters together, but The Marvels knows that, too. It mostly speeds past the technical points, getting right to the silliness of this uneasy trio. Danvers is a loner, Ms. Marvel is a teenage superfan of Danvers, and Monica is the abandoned child from Danvers’ found family when she lived on Earth. They all have to work together to stop Dar-Benn, at first just wanting to stabilize their lives and later realizing they have to stop the Kree leader from stripping planets of resources.

It’s a ramshackle plot, one that’s less about the trio saving the day than getting through it. And the MCU doesn’t need massive stakes every time. These movies can be fun little adventures, and that seems to be what The Marvels was going for. It’s a borderline serial, with little adventures and fights happening in odd places across the universe. A few are delightfully absurd, most notably the home-destroying tussle in Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan’s Jersey home and a visit to a linguistically musical world. In both cases, the time given for this film to just be is what brings about the hilarity. Kamala’s family are fish out of water regular people, but they try their best to help their daughter. And in the latter, well, pay attention to everything Teyonah Parris does. Her halting attempt to go with the flow is a masterpiece of background comedy.

The issue is that these bright spots are few and far between. Otherwise, the film feels like a deflated balloon floating to the ground. Energy and enthusiasm are entirely lacking, and the film never finds something to be about. Dar-Benn is a severely underdeveloped villain whose intellect and powers come and go as needed, and her conclusion is as rote as they come. The relationship between the main trio, whose interpersonal connections are fraught, to say the least, is only sporadically explored. And the humor just isn’t consistent enough to save it.

The MCU has long had a handful of formulas they cycle through, which can make their films numbingly familiar in the aggregate. Few, though, have felt as soulless as The Marvels. It lackadaisically moves in the precise direction you expect, hits no unexpected bumps along the road, and its efforts to move the overall MCU story along feel like side notes that will easily be handled by other heroes in the group.

The question of ‘why we’re here’ drags it down as much as its paucity. The MCU has always been on the entertainment side of film. They aren’t shooting for artistic masterpieces, and that’s fine. Entertain us, then, and for a long time they have. But after 33 films the familiar won’t cut it. Something must be brought to each entry, whether it’s the cooky energy of Sam Raimi or the enthusiastic charm from Shang-Chi. The Marvels was seemingly designed to coast, bringing nothing that we haven’t seen before. It will delight only those who are in the bag for all things MCU, and everyone else will be left scratching their heads. Is this what we’ve turned up to for decades? Didn’t this used to be fun?

It was. It still can be. But they’ve got to try harder than this.

Release: available now in theaters
Director: Nia DaCosta
Writers: Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik
Cast: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton