The Marvels is pleasurably lightweight, its story unburdened by the off-screen drama of the studio that made it.
The Marvels arrives at a strange moment for Marvel Studios, the company that ushered in more than a decade of spandex-clad blockbusters. Because the (just-ended) SAG-AFTRA strike prohibited its actors from participating in promotional activities, the film is being released with little fanfare and is on track to make less at the box office than most of its comic-book predecessors. Plus, as the 33rd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with characters pulled from both big- and small-screen projects, it’s been positioned as proof of Marvel’s overreach. It’s all in the title, really: The “Marvels” refers to the trio of superheroes with related powers at the story’s center, but it invokes how oversaturated the pop-culture landscape has become with Marvel-related work.
As it turns out, though, The Marvels itself is pleasurably lightweight, its story unburdened by the off-screen drama of the studio that made it. The shortest film in the MCU at a runtime of 105 minutes, this sprightly sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel operates like a breezy road-trip comedy set in space. Sure, there’s a universe-threatening villain, reality-warping “quantum bands” to collect, and visual-effects-laden explosions aplenty, but the director Nia DaCosta prioritizes a welcome sense of play, yielding a fizzy popcorn movie that’s a refreshing change of pace—at least for a franchise that’s gotten largely somber in tone and convoluted in plot since Avengers: Endgame.
Not that there’s a lack of story to catch up on when The Marvels begins. Thankfully, the film briskly sets up the stakes: Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel (played by Brie Larson), is off in deep space when she encounters a malfunctioning wormhole created by a vengeful Kree warrior named Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who seeks to rebuild her home planet—a planet Carol had a part in destroying during the finale of Captain Marvel. When Carol touches the anomaly, she begins swapping places with a Captain Marvel fangirl named Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani, reprising her role from the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel), as well as her estranged niece, the astronaut Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris, reprising hers from Disney+’s WandaVision). All three have light-based, wavelength-manipulating abilities that manifest in different ways. Carol and Monica, for instance, can fly, but Kamala can only create platforms she can jump onto in midair.
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The trio must chase Dar-Benn through space before she destroys entire planets and species to save her own, but the film isn’t too concerned about Dar-Benn’s master plan. Instead, it devotes more screen time to the hijinks of its protagonists as they try not to teleport into one another’s lives, to showing off the various alien destinations they visit, and to spotlighting each of their personalities. The world-saving takes a backseat to their growing camaraderie, and DaCosta imbues fight scenes with a boisterous energy: With the three switching places every time they use their powers, they end up landing punches on unintended subjects, traveling light-years in seconds, and crashing through Kamala’s Jersey City home, to the consternation of her family—and particularly her strict mom. One of the most delightful sequences has the three heroines trying to coordinate their abilities by practicing jump rope and juggling in tandem. If they can’t fix their Freaky Friday–like problem, why not have a little fun?
That’s certainly Kamala’s ethos, and Vellani is an incredible scene-stealer as the youngest, bubbliest heroine of The Marvels; her wide-eyed wonder at the journey she’s on with her idol infuses the movie with pure joy. Indeed, the film is at its best when it evokes her enthusiastic energy. One standout set piece, involving a musical interlude on a planet whose inhabitants communicate by singing, is goofily charming. Another, which includes a needle drop from a Broadway mainstay I don’t want to spoil, is delightfully absurd. These moments offer a crucial reminder that the franchise’s ongoing expansion doesn’t have to only mean more stakes-raising and interconnected storytelling. It can also mean merely highlighting well-drawn characters and letting their qualities guide the narrative.
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With that said, The Marvels is far from Marvel’s best. The plot is somewhat scattershot and thin, mostly because Dar-Benn is a forgettable antagonist, even among the MCU’s relatively lackluster rogues gallery. Kamala’s family is an amusing presence as normal humans thrust into the comic-book logic of Kamala’s world, but they mostly get shuffled from location to location with little to do. And as much as DaCosta tries to keep things moving, the film has to offer a morsel of backstory for viewers who haven’t watched Marvel’s many other projects. This means clunky sequences of Carol flashing back to moments from Captain Marvel, and scenes from series such as WandaVision getting injected to fill in the blanks.
Still, the film offers enough poignancy to overcome its flaws. It delivers many of the ingredients expected of a Marvel movie—cheer-worthy cameos; cute, fuzzy sidekicks courtesy of the catlike Flerkens, and a truly exciting mid-credits scene that’ll spawn countless speculative blog posts about the MCU’s future—while also keeping a keen focus on its characters. The best superhero films emphasize why superheroes are worthy of their abilities beyond the spectacle of what they can do, and The Marvels illustrates that through its protagonists’ relationships. Carol and Monica figure out what really bonds them beyond their history. Kamala looks up to Carol but gains an essential understanding that no hero can fix everything. The film, then, is about the importance of learning to work together before tackling a greater challenge. That’s a simple, straightforward message—but then again, simplicity is perhaps exactly what Marvel needs right now.
