The Marvels (2023)

[filmlover]

Enjoyable and more engaging than some of the other projects that have rolled off the MCU assembly line recently, but a bit bland and with an overwhelming aura of having been made by committee. A step down from the first Captain Marvel movie. Brie continues to be solid in the role and connects well with Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani (never watched the Ms. Marvel show).

 

That song planet was hilarious though, give me a whole movie set on that. Also, arguably the best use ever of "Memory."

 

B-

[dudalb]

I enjoyed it, but it is not top level MCU.

And, frankly, this is the first MCU film where I felt if you had not seen the connected TV shows you would be confused. The did not even attempt to introduce Ms Marvel and Monica to theater audiences, and I think this hurt the film.

The Planet of Song was fun,(gave Brie a chance to sing) and the use of "Memory" during the Cats/Firkin rampage was a blast.

But though we can debate the film itself, we can't debate the box office. This is a flop and has done  damage to the MCU. They picked the wrong film to od the biggest set up yet with the X men scene.

[Deathlife]

The movie isn't the "train wreck" it was initially made out to be, but it was really, really weird. When Nia DaCosta said the movie was really wacky, she wasn't kidding. It's probably Marvel's weirdest movie.

 

Given what was in the film, I could see why marketing might have struggled with it.

That being said, there were some story telling decisions that were made in the movie that didn't work at all. What Carol did to the Supreme Intelligence and the downfall of the Kree Empire was literally the instigating event of the entire film. Teasing that in a flash back scene didn't make sense at all given its massive impact on the universe and how Carol's action devastated Hala. Not showing this would be like starting "Face-Off" without showing Cage kill Travolta's son, it doesn't make sense given the overarching plot of the film. Dar-Benn's actions were driven by this event, and this would have helped flesh out the villain as well.

 

The movie should have definitely been longer. It should have been at least 2hrs (at the very least) to flesh out the characters. Ms. Marvel came out as most fleshed out because her story started off grounded on Earth with her family (not to mention the actress poured herself into the role). Monica's angst towards Carol wasn't fleshed out enough as well as Carol's regret over what happened to Hala (which interestingly mirrors a lot of current real-world events). Monica in particular hasn't really been fleshed out in any of her outings and she's been used mostly as a plot device.

 

The film's saving grace is that it's pretty much action from beginning to end. The much talked about singing planet scene was pretty short and the film just moved from action sequence to action sequence. All in all, I would give it a B-. It's not the worst MCU film but it's certainly not one of the better ones.

[Torontofan]

Looks like a made for TV movie

 

D 

[Daxtreme]

More accurate title: The Shortcuts (2023).

 

The movie shines in its smaller moments. Except, it would, if only it gave us time to take in those moments. It moves at an incredibly brisk pace, even by Marvel standards.

 

Moreover, many, many things just don't make sense. This movie has no internal logic whatsoever. They're switching, one of them is on Earth, another is in another galaxy. Oh wait, they're all together now, instants later! What? If a character needs to be in a scene, they get there, logic be damned.
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Stunts - 60/100 | The switch shenanigans had massive potential, unfortunately it ended up being more confusing than fun. I could say that for many different aspects of this movie: good idea, terrible execution. The CGI was overall decent, I expected worse from Marvel these days.

 

Narrative - 50/100 | Why reveal Carol's past and motivations so late in the story? Knowing about her guilt early on would be so much better for us as viewers. The first half of the story had no cohesive line, it's just random scenes stitched together. Scene over? Ok, onto the next, gogogogo. We have no idea why anyone does anything. Eventually the story comes into focus, and the core idea of it is certainly adequate enough, but by then it's too late. Oh you're lost? Here's a swarm of cats! Knowing about Carol's past early on would anchor the viewer into… something, at least, early on.

 

Fight Choreography - 69/100 | The fights are surprisingly not garbage, the editing is good. But they aren't great either. I loved the kick-into-switch-teleport into hammer combo. But yeah, it's superhero fights you've seen countless times already. More of the same, no stakes.

 

Enjoyment - 51/100 | The fight scenes editing was decent. The actual narrative editing of the movie was shit-tier. It's just a convoluted mess. The weird planet was the best part (Park Seo-joon!). Brie Larson was just so bland… I blame the writing.

Kamala Khan was, and is, delightful, as I was expecting after watching Ms. Marvel. A shame that the title character ended up shafted though. Or rather, who should have been the title character. Which brings me to…

 

After watching Thor: Love and Thunder and this, my conclusion is that I think they should have stuck with Carol Danvers as the main character here, with someone else providing a supporting role: Thor! They're both on the cosmic side, their few interactions in Avengers: Endgame were fun, I think it would have worked really well. I feel like what happened off-screen between the first movie and this one sounds much more interesting than what we got. Adding in Thor could have ramped up the stakes, the comedic elements (Chris Hemsworth's comedic timing is impeccable), and they work well together as they're both cosmic heroes.

 

Instead we got this. I'm not even sure what the point of the movie was? Kamala Khan stole the show but Carol Danvers shouldn't be grounded to Earth, I think she'd be put to better use introducing many aspects of the cosmic universe, such as The Beyonder (who is no doubt going to come into the picture eventually since Kang seems to be on the way out), the Living Tribunal, and other important cosmic entities relevant to the Secret Wars storyline, which we know they're adapting. Basically, it would help bridge the current state of the MCU, which is aimless, to what's coming so that it doesn't come out of left field later, which I suspect is what will happen if they keep this up.

 

Anyway, end of my rant about my alternate plans for Captain Marvel 2, which instead became The Marvels. I think this movie's biggest sin remains that Carol Danvers is boring. Again. 

 

She shouldn't be!

 

5/10