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A Review of “The Marvels (2023)”

 

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I found the first Captain Marvel movie to be relatively enjoyable. I had a lot of gripes with it but it was okay for the most part. However, Marvel Studios has been in a sort of downward spiral since Endgame so my hopes weren’t high for this. So is this a Marvellous entry or another to add to Marvel’s recent dumpster?

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One of the big issues in the first Captain Marvel was how incredibly stoic and bland Captain Marvel was. There was nothing emotionally engaging about her character. The sequel does improve upon this aspect by making her less stoic. She has more of an emotional and some actual proper reaction to things occurring. She also shows a fair amount of emotionally vulnerable moments, especially concerning her relationship with Monica and her mother, Rambeau. There are 2 strong scenes with her. One is a flashback and another where she is opening up is something I wish the film had more of.

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A key element of this movie is that if Captain Marvel or Monica or Ms Marvel use their powers at the same time then they will swap places. The first act of this movie is very entertaining because of this. There is a great action set piece in the first act where all 3 end up fighting in different locations but keep swapping during it. The biggest highlight of this film is Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel. She is extremely likeable and her performance is wonderful. She is enjoying every moment in every scene and it feels like the actor is having fun. It also has a kind of cool mid-credit scene.

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Unfortunately, this is where the praises end. The plot is incredibly paper-thin. The hero has to stop the villain, that is it. There are no layers or depth to anything in the plot or proper character development or arcs. The plot is so bland that the movie adds a pointless side quest that adds almost nothing to the main narrative. We have a planet where everyone sings and it is as stupid as it sounds. It happens and it is just so out of left field. It’s not funny, if anything it is very cringy. I hoped that they would at least do something special with the singing planet, maybe they would fight by singing or have special singing weapons or something. However, they just fight normally, so what was the point? There is also a side plot with the Flerken, the alien cats, that comes out of the left field and is a pointless distraction that has nothing to do with the villain.

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On that note, the villain Dar-Benn might be the worst villain in the MCU. She is the new leader of the Kree as her planet was put into chaos due to Captain Marvel destroying the Supreme Intelligence. This could have been an interesting element as from her perspective, Captain Marvel is the villain that destroyed her planet. If they showed more of her struggles at being a leader, how terrible the planet has become and how she is genuinely doing this at the goodness of her heart for her home, she might have been interesting. Sadly this is not the case, despite having a sympathetic motive, she is just overly aggressive to everyone, including her allies. She is a one-dimensional villain who never becomes much of a real character with any depth. She is also somehow able to fight all 3 protagonists and has a hammer-like Ronan from Guardians of the Galaxy despite having no Power stone which is never explained.

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My biggest disappointment is Monica’s, Ms Marvel and Nick Fury’s role in this movie. Monica doesn’t do much at all apart from spouting exposition and being a MacGuffin. Her now sour relationship with Captain Marvel is only touched upon a bit and barely explored. She just ends up following Captain Marvel for the whole movie and doing some things near the end. This is also the same for Ms Marvel who is also very underwritten. Her being a big fangirl of Captain Marvel is the only reason she is here. She has no character arc or development. This is a shame as she could have been used in more effective ways. She could have been the contrast to Captain Marvel. A naive, idealistic hero vs a battered and burnt-out hero. Ms Marvel could help Captain Marvel to lighten up and be more hopeful again while she learns how it isn’t all fun and games and there are a lot of responsibilities with being a hero. Unfortunately, she is just comic relief and that is it. Nick Fury is just kind of there. The movie is just very tonally inconsistent. We can go from a quite moving scene to something so incredibly dumb and stupid within minutes.

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Overall, what an absolute shame this movie ended up being. It is so gut-wrenching to see what MCU has become since Endgame. All the heart and effort put into their films are nowhere to be seen any more. I do have a small glimmer of hope that they are going to do better in 2024 onwards. They only have 1 MCU movie in 2024 which is making me hopeful that they are slowing down and putting effort into their future project. If Captain Marvel 3 even happens, I hope they write a plot this time.


 

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