Directed by Nia DaCosta, the 2023 fantasy-action film “The Marvels” is a lot like “Thor Love and Thunder” – funny, chaotic, but way more random. The story follows Kree leader Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who gets her hand on a quantum band, an ancient artifact with the power to manipulate space and time. As Dar-Been begins to exploit her newfound powers, it leads to unexpected results, prime among them being Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), discovering that her powers have become entangled with her super-fan Kamala Khan, AKA Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and her niece Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris). The trio bands together to stop Dar-Been from wreaking havoc on planets.
The first 25 minutes of the film are amusingly entertaining, with the lead trio swapping places each time they use their powers, before they eventually realize they are entangled. So, Kamala Khan is just having a regular day, daydreaming in her bedroom when she suddenly finds herself transported to space, while Carol Danvers teleports to Kamala’s room, which is full of Captain Marvel posters. Iman Vellani is exceedingly energetic and cute as Kamala/Ms. Marvel, and she hilariously captures Kamala’s starstruck behavior around Captain Marvel. I don’t understand why Carol Danvers is made to behave like a chirpy Gen-Z teen in the film though, and while Brie Larson manages to pull the part off, it was just weird to see her act like she is in high-school. Teyonah Parris doesn’t have as much screen-time as the other two, and even when she shares the screen with them, she is eclipsed by the other superheroes.
But you know who absolutely steals the show? Goose, Captain Marvel’s pet cat, who is actually an alien species called Flerkens. In this installment, Goose gets plenty of scenes, including a ridiculously funny climactic one with “Memories” playing in the background, the famous track from “Cats” the musical. If you’ve been following all the MCU movies, you’d have seen the cat spew giant tentacles out of its mouth and swallow things bigger than its size. And for those who aren’t fans of cats, well, they’ll have a big reason not to like “The Marvels” either.
The cinematography of this film was a mixed bag. Since the plot involves the Marvels traveling across space to different planets and places, there are a lot of special effects, most of which looked like they were from a fantasy game. The planet Hala, inhabited by the Kree, resembled DC’s Gotham, albeit bleaker and darker due to its sun no longer shining. A new planet called Aladna is introduced in “The Marvels,” boasting the most stunning set in the film. It’s a colorful, beautiful, beach-like planet that could belong to a Disney Princess movie. Park Seo-joon has a small cameo as Aladna’s Prince, which unfortunately is too short and could have been a little longer (like just 2-3 more minutes) to be more entertaining.
Just as the quantum band bends space and time, the writers of ‘The Marvels’ bend logic throughout its 1 hour 45-minute runtime. Here’s the simplest plot hole: in the first fifteen minutes, when the Marvels swap places, Kamala and Monica even swap outfits, but this outfit swapping stops the next few times. Or well, here’s a bigger one: Captain Marvel is referred to as ‘The Annihilator’ by Dar-Benn and other Kree inhabitants due to her fearsome powers. Yet, there are sequences of her battling regular alien soldiers who, ideally, should perish with just one hit. Anyway… the best way to enjoy watching this superhero adventure is to sit back, not question things, and just have fun along the way.
Rating: 6 on 10. You can stream “The Marvels” on Disney Hotstar.
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