Filmmaker Nia DaCosta isn’t a stranger to stories about the power of vengefulness or forgiveness. Her directorial debut “Little Woods” sees its protagonist (Tessa Thompson) trying to create a life when local vengeance gets in the way, while “Candyman” sees artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) get ever closer to folklore’s Candyman, the vengeful spirit of a wrongly murdered man who can overtake your life if you whisper enough times into a mirror. In “The Marvels,” DaCosta once again circles an exploration of the continuum between forgiveness and revenge, this time being used to flesh out the background of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and bring her back to Earth.
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Facing the unintended consequences of superheroics is a common thread throughout Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it is in “Captain America: Civil War” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” as is the villain-with-a-tragic-backstory. However, the simple theme essentially works here. At the core, we have Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and her emerging Kree nemesis Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who seeks the salvation of her family and homeworld at Danvers’ expense through the combination of two formidable weapons, a Kree Universal Weapon used with a Quantum Band (a second ‘bangle’ in Kamala Khan parlance). The Kree antagonist’s grudge against Captain Marvel, whom she exclusively calls The Annihilator, follows the latter’s destruction of the Kree Supreme Intelligence and the host of unintended consequences it wrought. Dar-Benn uses the pair of weapons to create massive holes in space-time in order to repair the environmental ills of her home planet, but these portals have a major unintended consequence: Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau were both in contact with said portals, entangling their light-based powers with Kamala Khan’s (thanks to her own bangle). At random intervals, when the heroes use their powers, they switch locations in space, causing more than a little confusion for The Marvels.
While Dar-Benn’s pursuit of revenge drives the narrative’s villainy, Danvers’ narrative provides the story’s emotional arc as she faces the tragic side effects of both Supreme Intelligence’s destruction and consequent abandonment of Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau. Here, the case of revenge and its effects is nearly too simple to fail, at least at its core. On the one hand, it fills gaps in the life of the MCU’s most powerful hero in a streamlined 105-minute tale, so the breezy simplicity does allow for a largely successful and entertaining outing. It’s also largely handled well enough, though a little shallowly, as far as explorations of the ethics of revenge and forgiveness go, and the film does somewhat suffer for being so thematically close to some of the MCU’s best outings. Additionally, the final resolution of Dar-Benn’s otherwise sympathetic issue (her planet is legitimately dying) is capable of a resolution that’s altogether too easy.
Ashton gives a simple but unremarkable turn as this film’s villain. It’s a fine enough performance of a character that, once again, merely reproduces so much that has gone before. Dar-Benn is a functional Kree baddie boasting two weapons we’ve literally seen versions of before in Ronan the Accuser’s own formidable hammer alongside a second iteration of Kamala’s bangle but with far less memorable an outing as either. Additionally, the combined powers of these rare artifacts are vaguely diluted to a game of “Portal,” and we barely see either weapon’s full potential. Complicating matters is one particular fight sequence where Dar-Benn takes on our three heroes at once, simultaneously fighting all three with only a second Bangle. She holds her own against the trio, and it’s a well-choreographed sequence, but it makes little sense (after all, Captain Marvel alone could nearly defeat Thanos by herself). In short, Ashton gives a capable performance for a character that toes the line a little too closely to what’s come before, and it’s difficult to escape that constant reminder of the past.
Preventing the film from being a solely monotonous cycle of revenge is the delightful scene-stealing Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), whose welcome fangirl zeal provides many of the funniest and most memorable ‘Marvels’ moments. The character’s youth and characteristic excitement are well employed to spark moments of emotional development and well-handled tone shifts, while her family is also incorporated quite capably. Integrating the Khan family is a wise choice, giving the centrality of the character’s family to her life and narrative, as we’ve seen in the MCU so far.
At the same time, Brie Larson’s Danvers here shows the complexity of her solo feature “Captain Marvel,” a potent reminder that the character can be something more than just a Marvel team’s deus ex machina when a villain is too powerful. It’s a film that rounds out our view of both Danvers’ personality and her interstellar exploits, a welcome adjustment to a significant MCU blind spot. Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau fills out the trio, and while her character is often sidelined in the script’s efforts to build Danvers, Khan, and their relationship, she does land a great third act, and it’s a strong set-up for future character adventures while Parris brings considerable gravitas in each scene she’s in.
By and large, “The Marvels” excels at circumventing serious issues that have plagued some of Marvel’s more recent outings. There are moments of levity woven into the narrative, a common event for an MCU title, but they predominantly work thanks to Vellani’s inevitable charm or high-concept humorous set-ups that echo James Gunn’s disarming “Guardians of the Galaxy” exploits. Additionally, the film avoids the tonal mishmash that plagues quite a few moments in “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” While the allegedly rushed VFX of “And-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania” created a world that looked shallow and rang false, “The Marvels” is a visually interesting feature that pops with color, depth, and realism, minus the evident VFX of a small handful of space flight scenes.
At its core, “The Marvels” is a bridge between MCU’s past and future. It’s clearly evolving one of the franchises’ remaining powerhouse characters while building towards all of the Marvel to come (to say more would be to spoil some interesting developments). It’s a brief and lean but mostly successful MCU effort, clearly designed to connect and evolve characters. And the performances and cast chemistry allow that clear motivation to mostly work as something greater than a film that merely moves the narrative goal post towards some Event Film end.
Regardless of the nods to future plans, “The Marvels” is a breezy, often charming entry in its own right, with solid character work and some memorable Marvel moments. That said, while it’s largely successful in what it does, it’s hard to escape a nagging feeling of over-familiarity with a pastiche of a villain audiences won’t remember and a narrative arc cut we’ve seen in other previous installments. It’s a solid, aspirant crowd-pleaser that may not reinvent the wheel, but it proudly boasts a good enough set of them and confidently stays on the tracks. [B]
“The Marvels” hits theaters on November 10 via Disney.