‘The Marvels’ is really messy and really fun
Kamala Khan just might save the MCU
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[This is a spoiler-free review of The Marvels, which opens in theaters on Nov. 10]
Every so often there’s a bit of casting so perfect it redefines the superhero genre forever. Christopher Reeve’s Superman. Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl. The latest addition to that exhaled canon is Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel—a teen hero so winning she singlehandedly held together a wildly overstuffed Disney+ show.
Both relatable and aspirational, Khan’s Kamala is to the teen girl experience what Peter Parker is to the teen boy one. And she’s once again the biggest draw of The Marvels, or at least the element that gives the movie its heart.
Though ostensibly a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, The Marvels is more so a tapestry that weaves together several disparate threads of the MCU into one female-driven team-up package. Like most of Marvel’s pandemic-era films, much of this one is a goddamn mess—filled with shoddy CGI, flat cinematography, and evidence of a script that was reworked and reshot so many times it barely holds together. But led by Khan’s effervescent performance and some kooky comedic choices from co-writer/director Nia DaCosta, it’s also a pretty undeniably fun time at the movies too.
Indeed, despite its more somber advertising, The Marvels delivers the sort of zippy, character-centric comedy the Ant-Man movies used to before they went full Quantumania. And while it’s hard to unequivocally recommend, given how much it ultimately falls apart in its third act, it’s also worth celebrating the MCU getting some of its old creative spark back too.
Most of that spark comes courtesy of the dynamic between Kamala, Carol Danvers a.k.a Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Carol’s grown-up “niece” Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and the ever-reliable Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Don’t worry too much about the various movies and TV shows where those characters last appeared, The Marvels fills you in on what you need to know. (And mercilessly skips over Secret Invasion entirely.) Plus it’s not long before the inciting incident throws us right into the action: Thanks to a rip in space-time, Kamala, Carol, and Monica find themselves inadvertently swapping places whenever they use their respective light-based powers. One minute Kamala is hanging out in her Jersey City bedroom, the next she’s floating in Monica’s spacesuit, while Carol crashes through her closet.
It’s a great setup that the film smartly uses for both comedic antics and genuine physical stakes. Though all three women have powers, Kamala can’t fly, which leaves her vulnerable if she suddenly swaps places with a mid-air Captain Marvel. (The Marvels delivers the MCU’s most memorable “falling” sequence since Iron Man 3.) Carol and Monica, meanwhile, have to contend with Kamala’s lovably overprotective family, who are just as much scene-stealers here as they were on Ms. Marvel. And there are some complicated interpersonal dynamics at play too. Kamala idolizes Carol with the sort of unhinged devotion that can only come from a fangirl, while Monica and Carol haven’t spoken since the ’90s, when the latter took off with a promise to return that she never fulfilled.
At its best, The Marvels is a delightful buddy comedy about three very different women learning to work together as a team—like the MCU’s more wholesome take on DC’s anarchic Birds of Prey. The hangout vibes are pretty irresistible, whether the central trio are swapping in and out of each other’s fights, practicing their Double Dutch skills, or participating in several very memorable musical moments. Indeed, DaCosta pushes the MCU to some hilarious new comedic limits in a way that works far better than when Thor: Love and Thunder or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania tried to lean into a similar sense of surreal absurdity. This is the most laugh-out-loud the MCU has been in some time.
The trouble comes when The Marvels tries to take itself seriously—both with Kree baddie Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) and with Carol’s guilt over the decisions she made following the reveals of the first Captain Marvel film. While there was probably a way to make a Captain Marvel sequel about vengeance and accountability work, here the attempts at weighty drama just clash with the film’s otherwise sunny disposition. And as with Lee Pace in Guardians of the Galaxy or Christopher Eccleston in Thor: The Dark World, it’s particularly frustrating to watch Marvel take a funny, charismatic performer like Ashton and shove her into a po-faced nothing of a role instead of letting her get in on the fun too.
Given reports about the film’s troubled production process, it’s hard to say whether The Marvels was originally a drama that Marvel reworked into a comedy or if the studio just panicked and tried to inject some pathos into a story it felt was too lightweight. Either way, however, there’s a nagging sense that they gave up too soon. At just one hour and 45 minutes, The Marvels is the shortest MCU film to date; as if everyone involved decided to just cut their losses and move on. And yet it’s not hard to imagine how a little more screentime could’ve allowed the film to blend its comedic and dramatic elements into something much more harmonious.
Still, given the overall messiness of Marvel’s Fourth and Fifth Phases, The Marvels is a breath of fresh air. Unlike Avengers: Endgame, which so clunky tried to deliver a big “the future is female moment” moment, The Marvels much more casually, confidentially earns its feminist credentials. And even its teases for the future feel sharper than they have in recent MCU outings. With Kamala pointedly positioned as a fulcrum point for some brand-new avenues of MCU storytelling, I’m actually excited about the future of Marvel for the first time in a long time.
Grade: B-
For my other Marvel Phase Four and Five takes, I reviewed Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for FOX 5 New York
I also wrote weekly recaps of Hawkeye and Loki season one for The A.V. Club and covered Secret Invasion for Episodic Medium, where I’m currently recapping Loki season two
Coming soon on Girl Culture: I wrap up my Doctor Who rewatch project and review The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Maybe me went in with low expectations because of so much negative hype about this movie, but me not have enjoyed Marvel movie this much since last Spider-Man. It like they suddenly remembered these things can be goofy fun (and ultimately need to be more about engaging characters bouncing off of each other than world-ending stakes).
Also, me have felt through entire post-pandemic/post-Endgame phase that young characters are MCU's best asset right now, to point where me just waiting for this whole multiverse thing to be over so me can get to Kamala/Kate/Shuri/Whatever-Ironheart's-Name-Was/Peter-if-Sony-Allows-It iteration of Avengers, so me happy this movie nudges us closer to that too by establishing Kamala's superhero bona fides.
I was very ambivalent about going to the theater to watch this one, as I absolutely loved Ms Marvel but was a bit worried after seeing the trailer for The Marvels. I'll see if I go to an actual cinema or if I'll wait to stream it, though...