THE MARVELS : Tuesday 14th November 2023

I saw the M Rated 'THE MARVELS' this week, and this American superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics featuring the characters Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. It is intended to be the sequel to the 2019 film 'Captain Marvel', a continuation of the 2022 TV mini-series 'Ms. Marvel' and the 33rd film in the MCU. The film is Co-Written and Directed by Nia DaCosta whose previous film making credits take in her debut in 2018 with 'Little Woods' and 2021's 'Candyman'. This film was originally scheduled for an early July 2022 release before being moved back to 11th November 2022, then mid-February this year then the end of July before settling on a release date of 9th November. It forms part of Phase Five of the MCU and is the third entry in this phase following 'Ant-Man and the Wasp : Quantumania' and 'Guardians of the Galaxy : Vol. 3'. The film has polarised critics with it ultimately gaining mixed or average reviews with the three female leads and Nia DaCosta's Direction seemingly the saving grace. As for the Box Office return so far, on a production budget of US$220M it has grossed US$115M and with an opening US weekend tally of US$46M which represents the lowest take of any MCU film ever. 

The film opens up on some desolate planet with the Kree excavating an ancient tomb from far beneath the planets surface. Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) a warrior revolutionary and newly appointed leader of the Kree, orders one of her henchmen to smash open the tomb, so revealing one of the all powerful Quantum Bands which she immediately straps to her wrist, whilst searching among the rubble for the second, but it is nowhere to be found. In the next scene we cut to the bedroom of Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) in New Jersey where she is avidly drawing scenes of her imaginary escapades with Captain Marvel, whom she idolises. As it turns out Kamala is wearing the second Quantum Band that was gifted to her by her grandmother, but she has no idea of the significance of the bracelet. Meanwhile, Dar-Benn harnesses the power of the Band to tear open a jump point in space. The resulting anomaly is discovered by S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division).

Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), now residing at the S.A.B.E.R. (Strategic Aerospace Biophysics and Exolinguistic Response) space station, hosts peace talks between the Kree and the Skrulls. Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) investigates a jump point anomaly near S.A.B.E.R. while Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) investigates the source of the anomaly, where Dar-Benn discovered the Quantum Band. When Rambeau comes into contact with the anomaly, she, Danvers, and Kamala switch places via teleportation. The switching causes the three to fight each others' Kree enemies, leaving Kamala's parents house all but destroyed in their wake. 

In a flash back scene we see Captain Marvel defying the influence of the Supreme Intelligence (an artificial intelligence that is the ruler of the Kree) and destroys it, which leads to a Kree civil war, the desolation of their home planet of Hala, and the results of that conflict rendering the planet barren as it loses its air, water, and sunlight. 

After the three women return to their original places, Fury and Rambeau visit Kamala on Earth at her parents house. As Kamala shows off her powers, she switches places with Danvers. When Danvers flies away having been reintroduced to Rambeau for the first time in years, she switches places with Kamala in mid-air, causing Kamala to plummet to the ground helplessly only to be saved by Rambeau in her first, and somewhat uneasy attempt at flight. Back safely on the ground the group surmises that their light-based powers are linked through quantum entanglement, and that they swap places when the three use their powers simultaneously. 

The three join up at a Skrull refugee colony on the planet Tarnax and meet with Emperor Dro'ge (Gary Lewis) where talks of resettlement have dissolved. Dar-Benn rips open another jump point, which sucks the atmosphere of Tarnax into Hala to try and restore its air, and rapidly destroys the colony in the process. After a hasty effort to evacuate the Skrull, Danvers, Rambeau, and Kamala form a team informally referred to by Kamala as 'the Marvels'. Danvers informs the others of the legend that the Quantum Bands had been used to create the jump point transportation network; the three became entangled due to their mutual contact with its energy when Dar-Benn disrupted it. Dar-Benn's continued rupturing of jump points is causing further instability to the network and endangering the order of the universe.

Dar-Benn reaches the planet Aladna where water covers 97% of its surface. The Marvels have also arrived in advance and are greeted in a fanfare of song and dance as Danvers is considered royalty. There she meets with Prince Yan (Park Seo-joon) where she relays the impending threat of Dar-Benn's arrival. Following an intense battle between the Kree and the Marvels supported by Prince Yan's finest soldiers, Dar-Benn successfully wrests the second Quantum Band from Kamala's wrist and then tears open a jump point to draw the ocean water into Hala. 

Dar-Benn's final plan is to seize Earth's sun to restore that of Hala. The Marvels follow Dar-Benn to her space ship where another fight breaks out, which ultimately sees the Kree leader pinned under falling masonry and feigning death. Captain Marvel removes the heavy lump of stone and metal, at which point Dar-Benn jumps up and uses the power of both bangles to tear open another hole in space. The act destroys Dar-Benn but sees the two Quantum Bands returned to the Marvels. However, is also leaves behind a rupture into the multiverse. After Kamala reclaims the Bands, she and Danvers use their combined powers to energise Rambeau, allowing her to close the hole from the other side, but leaving her stranded there in the process. Danvers flies into Hala's sun and uses her power to restore it. Some months later and Kamala is next seen seeking out other heroes to form a new group, starting with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) - the champion archer.

In a mid-credits sequence, Rambeau comes around in a clinic bed in a parallel universe where she is greeted by an alternate version of her mother, Maria (Lashana Lynch), and the mutant scientist Hank McCoy, aka Beast. Maria has no knowledge of who Rambeau is, and the closing frame sees 'Maria' in her Binary suit.

'The Marvels' is an OK film - its not great but its not that bad either. There's a lot going on in this film with ties back to a number of previous MCU cinematic and television offerings, and much of the plot here doesn't add up to the sum of its parts, including the undercooked villain of the piece in Dar-Benn. That said, Nia DaCosta's Directing is on point and the chemistry between the three leads, and in particular Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel saves the movie from the depths of despair. There are also some genuine laugh out moments, particularly with a newly 'hatched' litter of Flerkens, and the film doesn't take itself too seriously. Whilst the media buzz surrounding this film has been largely less that flattering and the Box Office take underwhelming - the film moves along at a good pace and its swift duration of 105 minutes makes for a welcome change in the MCU canon of over inflated run times.

'The Marvels' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-