The Marvels is the latest offering from Marvel Studios and is directed by Nia DaCosta, who also co-wrote the script alongside Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik. Brie Larson suits up again as Captain Marvel. She is joined by Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani as Captain Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan, respectively. Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury. Zawe Ashton plays the main villain known as Dar-Benn, a cosmic revolutionary rather angry at Captain Marvel who inadvertently destroyed her planet’s sun. Other cast members include Gary Lewis, Park Seo-Joon, and Zenobia Shroff.
Carol Danvers is the real identity of Captain Marvel and begins this adventure working in deep space checking out anomalies or something. Monica Rambeau is working on another project while Kamala is indulging her interest in superheroes and trying to make it through high school. Fury is on a space station trying to work out a peace treaty with a couple of alien civilizations. Anyway, there are alien artifacts, one of which Kamala possesses. The arrival of the anomalies causes the three super-powered women to be linked by something called a quantum entanglement. When their powers are used at the same time, the women switch places with each other throughout the cosmos. Captain Marvel, Monica, and Kamala have to come together to separate their powers, however they have to learn to work together in order to accomplish that. There is some family drama between Danvers and Monica that make their teamwork a little awkward. Kamala is just a kid who calls herself Ms. Marvel after her favorite hero. Then, Dar-Benn is hellbent on tearing the universe apart if she can save her own people.
The main storyline is a bit of a problem. It is confusing and wanders all over the place. I can’t even explain it that well in this blog. The performances are pretty good. There are some humorous moments that land rather effectively. I noticed that Iman Vellani is a bit of a scene stealer. She’s a bit of a diamond in pretty rough ground. Vellani manages to portray an annoying, overeager teen-ager quite charmingly. Really, the three lead women were quite good, but they were dealing with a poorly written concept.
There were a few charming moments. I liked the moment when the trio was sort of practicing how to coordinate their superpowers and make their sudden switches work in their favor. The film has a few charming moments, that usually showcase Vellani’s comedic timing.
Overall, the film was a little better than I had already heard, so I was relieved that I didn’t consider a complete waste of time. It still has some major flaws, but the performances and a few moments of charm and wit help considerably. It becomes precariously close to being too silly at times, but it is a comic book movie, so one must extend a little grace there. This one is by far not the best movie in the franchise, but it holds its own in some ways. It’s a bit of a roller coaster ride when it comes to the overall quality. The film is adequate entertainment, but it’s a far cry from a marvel.
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