The Marvels

For various reasons I don’t go to the movie theater anymore. I’d seen the weird negative reviews of The Marvels, but I liked the Ms. Marvel tv show a lot. So when I finally got to see it I was expecting maybe something I’d like, but with significant flaws of some sort. Instead I saw a movie that I enjoyed through and through, one that I’d put almost on the same lofty pedestal I’d put the Guardians of the Galaxy movies on.

There will be spoilers from this point on. If you have not seen the movie, go watch it. It’s on Disney+ or if you’re like me, you can get in on Blu-ray.

In The Marvels a Cree leader is mucking about with the space-time continuum using the other bangle, the pair to the one that Kamala Khan uses in the Ms. Marvel tv show. This causes the three Ms. Marvels, Kamala Khan, Monica Rambeau, and Carol Danvers to all become entangled. When they use their powers simultaneously, they switch places in the universe.

This ends up being a clever device. It moves the plot along briskly. Characters can impart information quickly because they keep getting yanked from place to place and can tell people what’s happening in different places. It also makes the fighting interesting. If there’s one problem I have with superhero movies, it’s that I feel like the fighting is something I’ve seen a lot and many fights can drag on. Not so in The Marvels where the action scenes are more frenetic and engaging because the combatants keep alternating.

Kamala Khan and her family are a delight to watch. And putting the family into space and superhero-type peril allows for their reactions to it, which are hilarious. The movie utilizes humor well throughout. It’s great to see Samuel L Jackson get the chance to be really funny again. Also the cat(s). I had to pause the movie several times because I was laughing too hard and didn’t want to miss anything.

I also liked the end credits scene a lot. I’ve been wondering how they’re going to introduce the X-Men to the MCU, and it seems like having them in another reality where their backstory can exist is a clever way to go. I also wonder if this has also been developed already, and if I need to move up getting around to watching the Multiverse of Madness movie. When Marvel do introduce the X-Men I hope they can do so without bothering with an origins movie. I think by now our willing suspension of disbelief can accept the concept of superheroes, now make with the weird shit that makes the Marvel mutant stories so interesting.

My only real nitpick with the movie is why when things really were headed south, Nick Fury never calls in other heroes. The realistic answer is because it’s not their story, but from within the movie one starts to wonder with the fate of the universe on the line why he doesn’t get the Avengers on the horn or at least someone. Like a two-minute scene of him going through his contacts and everyone is away on some other universe ending peril would suffice to explain why his address book is suddenly empty.

Overall I loved the movie and find that every suspicion of the review bombing on IMDB and the likes to confirm my worst stereotypes of the sorts of people who feel the need to review bomb movies like this.