The Marvels Review: The MCU's Preeminent Heroines Are Finally Set Free

At some point while I was watching The Marvels, I scribbled down the phrase "the feminine urge to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders." It started out as something of a joke playing off of a years-old meme, but with each passing moment, it continued to ring true. It's not only a thesis statement for many of the film's characters — namely, its trio of superheroine protagonists — but for the movie itself. The Marvel Studios sequel has emerged out of the billion-dollar-grossing shadow of the first Captain Marvel, into an avalanche of speculation and worry about the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future. In the eyes of some, The Marvels could either be the franchise's nail in the coffin, illustrating that the saga has lost its way as it has gotten bigger and more diverse, or its impossibly pressured savior, thanklessly holding the door open for the next highly anticipated Avengers sequel. At the end of the day, the film is so focused on entertaining its audience that it becomes neither of those extremes — and it is much better off because of it. The Marvels is an exemplary example that Marvel's blockbuster superhero formula is absolutely still worthwhile, if it is injected with this much heart, brevity, and trust in its audience.

The Marvels picks up with Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) years after Avengers: Endgame, as she lives a lonely, but largely content, life in space. Suddenly, a unique predicament emerges, as Carol, her estranged niece Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and superfan-turned-superhero Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) begin to swap places whenever they use their light-based powers. This conflict brings the three women together for a string of hijinks as they try to stop Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), a Kree general with ties to Carol's past, from doing major damage to the galaxy.

What that plot synopsis doesn't mention is just how much of the MCU feeds into The Marvels, with Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Ms. Marvel all dovetailing directly into the film. (Despite having a supporting appearance from Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, The Marvels essentially disregards – and occasionally renders meaningless – the events of his recent Secret Invasion miniseries.) The film tackles all of that narrative baggage (and then some) with ease, getting viewers invested or reinvested in ways that very rarely stall the story at hand. Nia DaCosta's direction zigzags across its patterned tapestry of storylines and ideas, handling canon in a way that feels akin to reading an actual crossover or event comic. At times, the only thing missing when a plot point or character detail is presented to the audience is the comics' yellow text box, with a cleverly written editor's note and a call-to-action of what to read or watch next. That approach shouldn't feel revolutionary, but after some superhero media has been criticized for burning people out or forcing them to do homework, it comes across as a gold standard that Marvel should be utilizing going forward, especially once its future installments get more ambitious and complicated. 

In the meantime, that approach works wonders for The Marvels – especially as it is balanced with an infectious earnestness. The movie does contain some high stakes, and does allow some much-needed space to process grief, trauma, or uncertainty. Those emotions become a throughline for each of our protagonists, as Carol continues to unpack her painful history with the Kree, Monica grapples with the death of her mother and Carol's previous abandonment, and Kamala continues to come of age as a Pakistani-American young woman and a newly minted superhero. At times, the film even tackles the concept of hero worship and the wide array of emotions that can be felt on either side of that equation. But The Marvels also recognizes what people — and especially women — often do in the face of such unspeakable pain: they don't let it define them. They laugh, they dance, they strengthen the meaningful bonds in their lives, and they fight to make the world a little bit better and brighter. The Marvels certainly isn't the first superhero movie to make this point — DC's 2020 sleeper hit Birds of Prey tackled it from a grittier and glitterier angle — and here's hoping it won't be the last superhero movie to do so. 

Either way, it's a joy watching The Marvels explore that feeling, in part because DaCosta injects it with an effective sense of zaniness. The film's shorter run time, which has been debated about and criticized heavily weeks before it even debuted, proves to fit the proceedings very well. Even when the plot is at its most straightforward, it manages to pack in new and distinct things like side subplots, pieces of Marvel Comics canon, or wholly new lore. And if you don't necessarily love one of those pieces — without getting into spoilers, viewers' mileage will definitely vary on the film's visit to Aladna and Prince Yan (Park Seo-joon) — the movie soon introduces something new to enjoy. Sure, it's not impossible to imagine a longer version of The Marvels that maybe expands upon Dar-Benn even further or showcases even more of Carol, Monica, and Kamala's rapport, but the film does not overstay its welcome, and it delivers a satisfying story without feeling like chunks are clearly missing. 

The Marvels just might be the best big-screen character study the MCU has had in a while, as its ensemble cast brilliantly carries things. Despite Larson already playing Carol Danvers for the past four years, a stint that has already included one solo movie, one ensemble movie, and two post-credits scenes, The Marvels often allows us to meet her for the very first time. Much like her beloved comic runs, the movie gives Carol so much more space to be goofy, regretful, and unabashedly kind, and Larson plays her with a spirit that you can (and would want to) see leading the Avengers for the foreseeable future. Parris continues to embody Monica with an excellent pathos, and it's a thrill watching her cement herself in the legacy of women that preceded her. To the surprise of no one who watched the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series, Vellani continues to perfectly embody Kamala's exuberance and heart, but it can not be overstated how effortlessly her performance translates to the big screen. Jackson's latest take on Fury is a comfortable and welcome addition to the film, as are Kamala's family members, and particularly her mother Muneeba, whom Zenobia Shroff plays with a scene-stealing and instantly relatable quality. Ashton and Park are both effective as Dar-Benn and Yan, even if the film leaves them just a little underbaked — but considering the fact that both characters have only had two comic appearances each prior to The Marvels, their impact is still impressive.

On a technical level, The Marvels is very functional and successful, but with some moments of quiet brilliance. The film's power-swapping premise allows for some of the franchise's most creative fight choreography yet, particularly within the initial switcheroo that has been shown throughout the film's marketing. The practical costuming, spearheaded by Lindsay Pugh, is outstanding, perfectly capturing the spirit of Carol, Kamala, and Monica's comic-accurate supersuits while still making them feel fresh. Laura Karpman's score balances the various characters' prior themes well, while injecting some fun and dramatic new cues. Outside of a few small moments, the CGI effectively ties the film together, while also acknowledging the out-of-this-world absurdity of what it's showing you.

The "world outside our window" — both in the MCU and beyond — has changed a lot since Captain Marvel first soared into theaters and grossed over $1 billion in 2019. While things still aren't perfectly balanced, female-led superhero adaptations have become an ever-growing fixture of their respective franchises, as opposed to a bone thrown to viewers every once in a while. Like Carol Danvers herself, and hopefully like many of the movie's viewers, The Marvels seems to understand on an unspoken level that it doesn't have to carry the weight of the world alone. It doesn't have to redefine the entire genre, or represent all of womanhood in less than two hours, or be a perfect segue into the next male-dominated event movie. The movie can just be, in all of the high-octane, silly, sweet, and imperfect glory that that entails. The fact that we've reached that point — and that the MCU still has the ability to effectively tell such a story — is a marvel in and of itself.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Marvels will debut exclusively in theaters on Friday, November 10th.