THE MARVELS is here and it's a mashed up film that is totally all over the place. It feels as if this film was edited and chopped into pieces during post and it shows.
Couple things I enjoyed, I did like seeing Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau resolve and acknowledge their relationship, but due to the nature of their characters being straight arrows, it allows Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan to be the audience just as Tom Holland's Peter Parker was in CIVIL WAR. I did not particularly enjoy the MS. MARVEL series, but I can see her being the shoutout for many.
I think the script just touched on the surface of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel herself, so diving into her more is a plus, however the story did her no favors once again and I did feel like she was given like four or five pieces of direction to portray her character compared to the more one-note performance in the first film. Teyonah Parris is commendable. She was the more science-y of the trio.
Samuel L. Jackson just feels inconsistent especially after SECRET INVASION. Feels like this Nick Fury is a variant. He's simply passing through in this film.
Another thing I liked was the incursions (also briefly touched on in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS). We all complained about the lack of planting seeds for the future leading into KANG DYNASTY and SECRET WARS. Finally, this film it at least preps and teases what's to come down the line.
The MCU's villain problem is a long known fact, but here it only cements their problem even further. Now I'm a fan of Lee Pace's over the top performance as Ronan, but Dar-Benn played by Zawe Ashton is literally a copy and paste of Ronan, but female. Nothing new about it. Definitely up there as one of the worst villains in the MCU.
The power swaps were kinda cool so I can give it that. Nia DaCosta does a good job executing the fight scenes, but again as one should expect, VFX is meh. Now if you cringed during the musical note duel between the two Doctor Strange, then wait till you see one segment of the film where it feels like a misplaced musical. Lots of quirky and annoying humor like one should expect in an MCU film.
The Skrulls are in the film and as a fan we always think we can write the better film after watching it, but I just DO NOT understand why this sequel couldn't have been SECRET INVASION(one of the worst MCU Disney shows). SECRET INVASION honestly should have been an Avengers film or at the very least a Captain Marvel sequel co-starring some Avengers, kinda like CIVIL WAR. I personally feel like that dilemma could have furthered Captain Marvel's development due to her involvement with them and how she's equally to blame for not helping them out when she and Fury promised to find them a home. But instead she's stuck with this material.
The mid-credit scene is arguably the best part. Once again teasing things to come. It's stuff that like that, that will maybe still garner interest in the MCU despite its current fall from grace. The end-credit scene is alright. Not particularly jazzed about that promise down the line.
On that note, the recent Variety article published about Marvel Studios talked about their behind the scenes trouble. It was said that Kevin Feige and his creative committee partook in their yearly Palm Springs retreat to regroup and refocus, so here's hoping to next year being more consistent with quality. Seemed like he was spread too thin with the mandate to have more quantity than quality.
THE MARVELS is a season 1.5 for MS. MARVEL and a CAPTAIN MARVEL sequel that we never saw due to the flashbacks and exposition to explain things. And let's be clear, at this point everything feels like homework. That was going to be inevitable moving forward after INFINITY WAR and ENDGAMGE, but especially when Disney was announced making Kevin Feige spread out too thin. But it only feels like homework because everything that has been released is below the standard of what Marvel set up for us.
So to sum it up, while I did find it slightly more appealing than the first CAPTAIN MARVEL and QUANTUMANIA, that isn't saying much. Low expectations definitely helped. Is THE MARVELS one of the worst? No, but it definitely belongs way down below the list.
5/10.
