The Marvels

There is a LOT to talk about here, so get a snack and get comfy. I had fun with The Marvels. I did not find it to be the worst MCU movie of all time, not even close (hi, Eternals). I found a lot of redeeming values in this movie, and I will get into them. But I also found them amidst a movie that, structurally, functionally, and thematically, is a complete mess. Like, start to finish, this thing is a hurricane of bad choices. Let’s start with the characters, and with Captain Marvel herself. One of the biggest problems I’ve had with her is her characterization. Mainly, she hasn’t had one. In her own movie and her guest spots everywhere else, she’s been stoic to the point of iciness, somewhat condescending, and equally selfish. Her first movie also suffocated her with a ham-handed GIRL POWER theme, screaming it at the top of their lungs to cover up for not actually writing her as a strong character. There is more character development in this movie for Carol Danvers than any appearance prior. She actually shows emotions, and Brie Larson actually gets to act. But almost all the character growth occurs in expository dialogue, which ties into a major issue the film has. So, while it is great to see Danvers become something other than Stoic Woman, it is done so clumsily, it feels unearned. I wish I could say the same for Monica Rambeau, but she’s given no personality whatsoever here. We know precisely as much about her as we did from WandaVision. It is through sheer force of wil, namely the performance of Teyonah Parris, that she is enjoyable. The same cannot be said, though, for Iman Vellani, whose brightness and energy and enthusiasm could set off Geiger counters from a mile away. Her character, Kamala Khan, is pure magic, and every moment she’s on screen is to be savored. As for the antagonist … she exists. She is given a great motivation, but … we’ll get to that. One thing the internet buzzed about before release was the length. At only an hour-forty, it is the shortest MCU movie in a long time, perhaps ever. This is both good and bad, like a lot of things. On the good side, director Nia DiCosta made this thing run and never stop. It is adrenaline and spectacle from beginning to end, and it’s never exhausting or dull. There isn’t any bloat in the script or the direction, it’s all meat on the bone. But the downside is that there isn’t ENOUGH meat. Plot points are whipped through like a race car driver making a run at first place. It feels like there’s 20-30 minutes of table-setting missing from this movie, for the plot, for the characters (especially the antagonist, whose name I cannot remember), for backstory, for emotional arcs … everything in this movie feels like a half-baked cookie. Yeah, everybody loves eating raw cookie dough, and everybody loves cookies, but I want one or the other, not a middle ground. The Marvels is a half-baked cookie. DiCosta had this same problem with Candyman; the movie feels like it’s in a hurry to make its points, but in doing so glosses over them so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, but in doing so, it underserves the themes it’s trying to convey. And that brings us to the story, and **SPOILER WARNING** if you don’t want to know. As it turns out, the events of the first Captain Marvel, where she destroyed the AI ruling the Kree home planet, triggered a global cataclysm. Drought, famine, the slow destruction of the atmosphere, and the slow death of its sun. She is know as The Annihilator. The antagonist is using powers to open wormholes to take air, water, and sun from planets Captain Marvel values to rebuild the Kree home world. Her methods are terrible, but her desire to save her home planet is understandable, and she’s willing to die for the cause. This is, in essence, the plot of Spaceballs. This makes the antagonist weirdly relatable and hatable, and the same for Carol Danvers. But this is delivered all in exposition. It feels like it could’ve filled two movies and told a better told story. I wanted to feel the sorrow of Carol for her actions and how that affected her decision to stay in space; I wanted to feel how it affected Monica and the Kree. Instead, we were told, because this movie has to get a move on, it’s only got 100 minutes. But for as cluttered and weird and poorly told as the story is, it’s not boring. It presents these as points along the path of a thrill ride. Is it the right way to tell a story with this much emotional complexity? No. But it’s the characters and the action and the adrenaline that keep you from asking questions, at least until the movie is over. There’s also the Disney+ of it all. Do you need to watch Miss Marvel to get this? I don’t think so; I didn’t see it, but I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. You definitely don’t need to watch Secret Invasion. You do get a passing reference to WandaVision, but only in how Monica gets her powers, so I guess maybe not? And it’s good that this movie doesn’t force the viewer into Disney+ homework. But at the same time, if the D+ shows aren’t going to impact the movies, WHY HAVE THEM? I mean, Secret Invasion was all about the Skrulls, and even though they only make a short appearance here, they play an important role. So why isn’t the Super-Skrull here? Why aren’t the events referenced at all? It feels like the movie wants to sample the shows without actually integrating them, as if the shows are optionally canon instead of fully integrated. So, it puts the movie in a weird place, where it is riddled with flaws. The story feels incomplete. Some characters are barely more than cardboard stand ins. The editing can be haphazard, and the story is a tornado. But it’s never not full of energy and excitement, and it is scientifically impossible to not be enchanted by Iman Vellani. I had fun with The Marvels. It was entertaining. But, as a movie, taking into how storytelling works, and as a part of the MCU? I can see why it failed. It is a mess. But it is, somehow, an enjoyable mess, in spite of itself.