I’m not here to litigate the current popular assertions that 1) Marvel movies killed cinema, and 2) Marvel as a film studio is in descendance. The first is a very complex conversation that involves the fact that cinema is not dead and that the studio system carries the greater load of blame for it’s current state than any one genre. The second is as variable as it has ever been. No studio can make a grade-A product every single time, multiple times, over decades. There will be an ebb and flow. Much has been made of the supposed ebb of the recent slate of releases from the superhero juggernaut, so let me start off by disappointing those coming to this review looking for a crucifixion: The Marvels is pretty good.
It is no masterpiece, don’t get me wrong. But it is a fairly enjoyable 105 minutes of action, comedy, and female empowerment (literally). At 105 minutes, it’s also not oppressive. You get in, you have some fun, and you get out. Given the usual template of these sorts of CGI-heavy superhero films, most of the “saved” time comes from the fact that The Marvels lacks drawn out, beleaguered action sequences. No Russo Brothers-style twenty minute highly choreographed fisticuff scene, no extended lingering shots of the inevitable sky butthole threating doom upon all. The faff has been striped, leaving a still engaging, but very slim result, and the films in some ways works because of it. The final confrontation with the Big Bag doesn’t even have a score behind it, it’s just the business, and the business is brief.
I will say though that I could have used maybe another ten or fifteen minutes added in for character moments. The film is at it’s most successful when it is locked on to it’s three central Marvels, Carol (Brie Larson), Monica (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala (Iman Vellani). This trio has a complex entanglement with one another, both metaphysically and emotionally, and the film is it’s most engaging when it is dealing with those entanglements. Monica hasn’t seen Carol in thirty years, Carol is feeling guilty, and Kamala is too wrapped up in her hero-worship to see that either of them are real people. Seeing them work through those issues and grow closer together as a found family is the heart of the film, and I wish there had been more time for that. At 105 minutes, the film is brisk, and the first act moves through a lot of place setting quickly before our heroes take to space and things find a good pace.
The plot of the film strives for more nuance then these things usually do: an act of terror decades ago sparked a civil war, which has left a civilization crippled and desperate. In their desperation, they have begun committing acts of terror (and accidently engaging in the plot of Spaceballs in the process) themselves. This comes to the attention of our trio of heroes, who are all physically or emotionally intertwined with the conflict in some way. What one person views as an act of terror is viewed by the other as an act of liberation. The white and black hats are actually all shades of grey, and that take is refreshing - and fitting, as the film this is a technical sequel to, 2019’s Captain Marvel, made a big deal about the expectations of villainy.
The biggest fault of the film is that it lacks a point of view through which to engage the audience. Kamala is the most logical to fill this role, and an animated sequence that opens the film made me believe that would be what we got: a teenage fangirl who writes fan fic about her favourite superhero, who through sheer dumb chance actually gets to hang out with the object of her obsession is a good lens to enter this world and story. Added to that, Kamala’s family (Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, and Saagar Shaikh) are the focus of the films B-plot, as they and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, who is definitely showing his miles) engage in Earth-bound antics throughout. But the film doesn’t use Kamala as the audience surrogate; neither does it successfully shift perspective between the three protagonists (or the antagonist, Zawe Ashton). I think it wants to, but it never feels like we’re hooked to anyone at any one time, so the bigger sequences feel like they are floundering about on the screen and can’t find their footing. Because Kamala’s family are so present, and Carol is the established character, Monica does feel like the most underserved of the leads.
What I had worried would be a millstone around the film’s neck - the fact that Kamala and Monica both had their superhero origins on TV shows and show up in the film in medias res (another thing that an extra ten minutes would have been devoted to had this film been made even five years ago) - didn’t actually have much impact. Both characters give an elevator explanation for who they are (which, in a comic, would come is with a little asterisk and a note from editorial referring to a past issue), and the film moves on without feeling like you absolutely need a Disney+ subscription to know who they are and what their deal is.
What really works about the film is the moments it makes very clear choices to do something different, something unexpected, and something antithetical to the model of a superhero movie. The most interesting films Marvel has made (Iron Man 3, Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Ragnarok) are the ones that play with the genre and do it their unique way (it is no mistake that those films were the ones made by the most auteur-y filmmakers). 60% of The Marvels plays it straight down the line. The remaining 40% though are clearly director Nia DaCosta along with her co-writers Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik having fun. A longer than you would expect musical sequence takes you by surprise, but doesn’t feel out of place. Jackson’s Fury is used entirely for comedy. The main trio have a complex sisterhood that includes annoying one another while also loving one another.
Make no mistake: the misogynists will hate it, as will the white supremacists. Fuck them. In a couple very particular ways, The Marvels is a landmark film. Of the main cast, there are two white people: Brie Larson, and Gary Lewis (buried beneath a lot of green alien makeup). The rest of the cast are all minorities. The above-the-title cast are all women. The primary creative team behind the camera, aside from producer Kevin Feige, are all women. The complicated relationships between the mains feels honest (and I confirmed this feeling with my wife after our preview screening) because they were written by women who knew how those relationships work, not a man pretending to know what they mean.
Is it the best film Marvel has put out? No, absolutely not. But it is far, far from the worst. It’s a fun movie that I expect will have a long tail especially with young girls who take it away and go further farther faster because of it. It being slightly-more-in-lane-than-middle-of-the-road also doesn’t mean it is a herald of the cinematic apocalypses. It’s a fun movie. That’s all it needs to be.
And now for something completely different…
I am the co-host of a podcast which is entering it’s third season! Join me and Mike Pereira on Mid-Credit Scene, a podcast in which we talk about movies. And we talk about them specifically with cool and interesting folks from our local community. We’ve had lots of fun conversations - some of which stay on topic, many more that veer into far flung tangents. Started as a pandemic project between two movie nerds who wanted to capture the feeling of getting sucked into a conversation when you are out in the world at a time when we couldn’t, and we’ve kept it going because we’re having too much fun.
As part of our third season, we have abandoned social media! Free at last of the shackles of the thing that is most responsible for the current state of the world, we realized it was the easiest way for us to promote our podcast. So we’ve started a Substack newsletter for the show, the first issue of which will be published later this month. In it you will find our latest episode, news from the industry that we found interesting, what we’re most excited about, and the cool things that our former guests are up to. If you are interested, we would appreciate you subscribing.
Mid-Credit Scene is available wherever you find your podcasts.