“The Marvels” feels like an episode of a television series. An old television series.
The special effects are fairly simple, the plot is right out of an afterschool special and the acting is, well, cable-level at best.
To make matters worse, there isn’t much for a newcomer to embrace. If you don’t know the backstory on Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), her uber-fan Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) or astronaut Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), this isn’t going to help.
Suffice it to say, the three join forces and take on Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), the ruler of the Kree. She wants a pair of bracelets and, sure enough, one of the Marvels has one of them. You can guess how this spins out.
Normally, these films involve some personal journey but this pretty much stays on track and takes place in a world where bad sets are common. (There’s an odd fantasy world that will make you think twice about getting hooked up with Marvel.)
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) checks in, too, but that could be because he has a long-term contract (not unlike John Ratzenberger’s with Pixar) that allows the company to drop him anywhere. He commandeers the three Marvels (Marvelettes?) but doesn’t say anything about their very bad superhero costumes. (Parris, for one, should have complained.)
While there’s an interesting superhero/fangirl thing going on, it’s never mined for anything worthwhile. Khan’s family is lurking in the wings, but they never seem to question the relationship Kamala has with Carol. (If we could sort out all 33 of the Marvel films, we know something like this happened before.)
Directed by Nia DaCosta, “The Marvels” even gives short shrift to Goose, the orange cat who steals scenes with abandon. Goose is barely around (yet another mistake) or called on to help Danvers claw out of a situation.
Because we know so little about the characters (at least from this film), it’s interesting that we immediately tag Dar-Benn as a villain. Maybe she knows better and the Marvels are the real villains. If that’s one of those extended storylines (ones Marvel doesn’t admit until the final installment), it should have been teased.
No doubt good is good and evil is everyone on the outside.
Larson isn’t given much to do but Parris and Vellani have scenes that should help them come out from her shadow. A villain-fighting trio is interesting but unnecessary.
To her credit, DaCosta gets this wrapped up in under two hours. She takes advantage of the credit sequence, too, and doesn’t waste time with protracted fights.
“The Marvels” is simple, as these things go. But it might have benefited from a little more context. That station Nick Fury heads looks much more interesting.
