The Marvels is sure to delight die-hard fans of the interconnected superhero multiverse, but there’s not much to recommend for casual viewers.
Marvel Studios‘ latest big screen offering picks up decades after 2019’s 90s-set blockbuster Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson as the titular hero, while juggling follow-ups to two Disney+ shows of varied success.
Still figuring out her place in the universe, Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, unwittingly joins forces with her grown-up ‘niece’ Monica Rambeau (played by Teyonah Parris) and young Jersey City hero Kamala Khan/Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani).
When the trio’s powers become untangled, they find themselves at the centre of the Kree-Skull war that has been reignited by a powerful new revolutionary, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton).
If it all sounds rather over-complicated and uninspired, that’s because it is.
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Director Nia DaCosta takes on the unenviable job of delivering three sequels in one, cramming in links to the original Captain Marvel as well as WandaVision and Ms Marvel.
To do so, Carol, Kamala and Monica have their respective character arcs strung across a paint-by-numbers sci-fi framework that prioritises cameos, gags and set pieces over compelling storytelling.
While the three leads are individually charming, their natural chemistry as a trio is lost in the noise of exposition dumps and rapid-fire montages of what came before, hurriedly getting the uninitiated up to speed.
On paper, The Marvels could have been a harmonious coalition of three popular new characters, but its generic filter sandpapers away any verve or stylistic energy the three previous projects had.
There are frequent gestures at something more interesting at play or the occasional spark of creativity, but they’re all too quickly shunted to make way for more continuity-building exposition, clunky action, and tedious space nonsense.
A brief visit to a planet whose population communicates solely through musical numbers is an ingenious sci-fi concept, and there’s even an early action sequence that thrillingly demonstrates the power entanglement conceit with scrappy tactility.
Unfortunately, DiCosta’s directorial voice in these moments is never given the chance to expand, which has sadly become par for the course for the over-saturated pop culture phenomenon.
Samuel L Jackson’s iconic Nick Fury also reaches a new low, leading a wacky space station subplot practically in his pyjamas that packs the runtime with tedious sitcom hijinks and cheap cat jokes.
It all culminates in yet another slap-dash third act of CGI lasers and rubbery character models, with some baffling pre- and post-credits sequences teasing more of the same – hardly enough to muster enthusiasm for.
Check it out when The Marvels is released on Disney+, but it’s safe to say the MCU can no longer be considered essential big-screen viewing.
The Marvels is out in theaters on Friday, November 10.
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