Higher. Further. Faster. Together. And just OK.
It’s hard to believe the current state of Marvel Studios in the little over four years since the release of Captain Marvel (a film I liked more than most). We don’t need to rehash what previously has been reported time and time again, nor do we need to go over the Marvel products released since Avengers: Endgame, with a majority of them having failed to live up to expectations. But The Marvels comes at a time where the studio and Kevin Feige are at a crossroads, creatively speaking. And while there are characters and moments in this film that they can help continue to build upon in future installments to return the studio to its full glory, this 95-minute comic book offering is another throwaway just as we’ve seen throughout Phase 4 and now Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Marvels is neither good nor bad. It’s just OK.
Having been removed from the Kree in her previous solo outing, we find Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) alone in the galaxy doing work for Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). But when a revolutionary uprising begins to shake the fabric of time and mess with other dimensions, Carol must save the day to prevent anything that could mean the end of the world she is currently living in. However, with a wormhole messing with her powers, she becomes entangled with her own abilities similar to those of two others: The daughter of her best friend, Monic Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), who is Ms. Marvel and has dreamed of nothing more than teaming up with her idol Captain Marvel.
The story of The Marvels plays out like a Saturday morning superhero cartoon: An “end of the world” moment presents itself and the superheroes must come up with a plan to work together and save the day. A concept like this is exactly the kind of story Marvel Studios needs to be doing more often instead of having everything feel like an endgame or relying so dearly on the connectivity of its own cinematic universe. However, The Marvels is brought down by the usual things we’ve seen in many of their most recent outings: story decisions without much thought, a rushed third act, bad editing, spotty visual effects, and a throwaway villain (this one with the cliched “you took everything from me” backstory).
RATING: ★★1/2
(out of five stars)