THE MARVELS Review: Nia DaCosta Delivers A Disjointed But Mostly Enjoyable MCU Sequel

THE MARVELS Review: Nia DaCosta Delivers A Disjointed But Mostly Enjoyable MCU Sequel

The Marvels arrives in theaters this weekend, and while it's not exactly the best the MCU has to offer, it's still an enjoyable time at the movies...

Review Opinion
By MarkCassidy - Nov 08, 2023 02:11 PM EST
Filed Under: The Marvels

The Marvels, a direct(ish) sequel to 2019's Captain Marvel and the 33rd Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, arrives in theaters this weekend, and despite pretty much falling apart in the final act, Nia DaCosta's breezy cosmic adventure is an entertaining (if somewhat throwaway) time.

The story picks up with Nick Fury (in surprisingly chipper form after what he went through in Secret Invasion) back on the S.A.B.E.R. Space Station with his team, which includes a now super-powered Monica Rambeau, who set out to investigate a nearby intergalactic anomaly. Carol Danvers, living in another part of the galaxy with Goose, does the same, and (for reasons) these events kick-start the "switching" with Kamala Khan back on Earth.

When Danvers discovers that an old Kree enemy named Dar-Benn has acquired the other bangle (from Ms. Marvel... keep up!) and is seeking revenge by targetting the places that "The Annihilator" holds dear, the three heroes join forces in an attempt to prevent the usual villainous machinations. But first, they'll need to get a handle on their shared abilities and, in Monica and her "Aunty" Carol's case, sort through some emotional baggage.

If any of that sounds confusing, there's a chance you haven't done your homework!

In all seriousness, prior knowledge of the Disney+ shows (WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, in particular) will certainly help, but it's far from required. The movie actually does a pretty good job of bringing us up to speed on previous events (Carol has a very handy Kree memory restoration thing), so while casual fans may not feel as much of a connection to the characters, we can't imagine anyone being left in the dark (at least not until the muddled third act when everyone will be left wondering what the hell is going on).

At this stage, it almost seems pointless to criticise an MCU movie for its over-stuffed or convoluted finale since it's just something we've come to expect (if not accept), but the last half an hour or so of The Marvels borders on the incoherent at times. Bringing one of these movies in at under two hours is all well and good, but is it worth it when the results are so haphazard?

Thankfully, strong performances and compelling character dynamics just about keep things afloat.

Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani are all on top form (the latter is a standout, even if her character's fan-girling does begin to grate), and the trio's burgeoning friendship is a major highlight. One moment which sees the team practising their switching powers to the strains of the Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" is a blast, and there are a few emotional exchanges that are sure to tug on the heartstrings.

DaCosta also includes a couple of pretty wild set pieces (remember those musical number rumors?), which are likely to either win you over with their calculated absurdity or leave you cringing behind your popcorn.

The Marvels is far from the best Marvel Studios has to offer, but it's difficult not to get swept up in its infectious energy... to a point. A disjointed third act lets it down, but a game cast and plenty of fun/funny moments elevate it above more lacklustre MCU fare (we're looking at you, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumnia).

File:3 stars.svg - Wikipedia

"In Marvel Studios’ The Marvels, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as The Marvels.”

The film also stars Zawe Ashton and Park Seo-joon. Nia DaCosta directs, and Kevin Feige is the producer. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Mary Livanos and Matthew Jenkins serve as executive producers. The screenplay is by Megan McDonnell, Nia DaCosta, Elissa Karasik and Zeb Wells.

The Marvels will begin its international rollout on November 8, and was recently granted a China release on November 10, day-and-date with North America.

Do you plan on seeing The Marvels in theaters opening weekend? Drop us a comment down below.

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GhostDog
GhostDog - 11/8/2023, 2:07 PM
Marvel:
IronMan616
IronMan616 - 11/8/2023, 2:16 PM
@GhostDog - Next month is the 10 years anniversary of Broner getting his first ass whipping by Maidana, and all the memes it produced. What a glorious fight it was.
TheClungerine
TheClungerine - 11/8/2023, 4:06 PM
@IronMan616 - I watched that fight.

Kinda sad how much he fell off
Scarilian
Scarilian - 11/8/2023, 4:53 PM
@GhostDog -

"Opening Weekend Range: $35M-$49M"

https://www.boxofficepro.com/weekend-box-office-forecast-the-marvels-and-journey-to-bethlehem/

LOWER, CLOSER, SLOWER.
Gabimaru
Gabimaru - 11/8/2023, 2:08 PM
Not every MCU movie needs a sequel or a trilogy. and this is definitely one of those cases
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 11/8/2023, 2:08 PM
Would be hard to do any worse than Ant-Man 3, sounds like this could be a fun watch.
MarvelZombie616
MarvelZombie616 - 11/8/2023, 3:04 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - It's way worse, trust me.
Quantumania is at least logical and has a build-up.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/8/2023, 4:32 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - I thought Quantumania was a solid movie. Or rather, atleast better than it was made out to be
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 11/8/2023, 5:09 PM
@bkmeijer1 - Meh. To each their own. I thought it was slightly better than Dark World.
mpk1988
mpk1988 - 11/9/2023, 12:13 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Me too. Never got the hate for it. Love and Thunder on the other hand - such a disappointment after Thor's story arc in Infinity War and End-Game
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/9/2023, 1:28 AM
@ModHaterSLADE @mpk1988 - Thor had some pretty mediocre movies as well. Captain America is still the only Avenger with only good movies imo
regularmovieguy
regularmovieguy - 11/8/2023, 2:08 PM
They are very lucky Dune moved to March.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 11/8/2023, 2:17 PM
@regularmovieguy - lol indeed
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 11/8/2023, 3:33 PM
@regularmovieguy - Would it of mattered? This one bought it’s forever home in Flop City.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 11/8/2023, 2:13 PM
The Marvels is the last movie from the Bob Chapek era and Echo is the last show from the Bob Chapek era. Captain America Brave New World will be the first MCU movie outside of the Chapek era so we will see exactly what happens from there. We see that Daredevil is being rewritten and reshot, Blade will be rated R, and Deadpool 3 will be the first R-rated Marvel Studios production. I believe Kevin Feige identified the issues people were having and the wants from the fans and will definitely steer the MCU in a different direction starting with Brave New World.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 11/8/2023, 2:35 PM
@SonOfAGif - all of these products were already in production when Iger stepped down, he was mostly involved with the parks than the media. Stop moving goalposts
MarvelZombie616
MarvelZombie616 - 11/8/2023, 3:06 PM
@SonOfAGif - Unfortunately Captain America 4 is still of the Chapek era, at least in parts.

Deadpool 3 will be the first movie that will be good again.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 11/8/2023, 4:31 PM
Disney’s streaming business lost $387 million in Disney’s Q4.

Disney+ now totals 150.2 million streaming subscriptions, up from 146.7 million in the previous quarter: Core Disney+ at 112.6 million subs and Disney+ Hotstar at 37.6 million.
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/disney-plus-subscribers-150-million-earnings-1235784850/
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/8/2023, 4:35 PM
@SonOfAGif - I think it's kind of a cop-out to just blame it on other. If blame is being passed around, Feige deserves it too as he has always been at the helm.

Kinda reminds me of Kathleen Kennedy. People blame her for the bad stuff, but forgot stuff like Clone Wars S7, Bad Batch, Andor and The Mandalorian were are greenlit by her too.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 11/8/2023, 4:41 PM
@bkmeijer1 - Don't get me wrong. Kevin Feige is definitely responsible for the stories and properties he selected for this saga. But Disney+ was forced on Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm and both divisions had to allocate their VFX resources, writers, and production teams to various projects at the same time. Imagine you have 50 employees under you and your boss says "We are now including a new service to our offerings. I need 25 projects done in 12 months with the 50 people you have reporting to you" it's problematic and as we saw not sustainable. So I blame Bob Chapek for his quantity over quality approach to every division of Disney.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 11/8/2023, 4:58 PM
@SonOfAGif - but was it really forced on Feige by Chapek though? I definitely do see Disney+ meant Marvel Studios had to go into tv, but I'm sure they were more than willing to. It opened a lot of doors for Marvel Studios.

It most likely came from both ways. Chapek asked, and Feige willingly delivered. Both are to blame, and imo Feige just a little bit more because he had to sign off on the stories.
StSteven
StSteven - 11/8/2023, 6:35 PM
@bkmeijer1 @SonOfAGif - My understanding (and this is just understanding based on what I've read and heard here and there) is that Kevin was all for D+ (which Bob Iger launched, as it would give him another avenue by which he could tell more stories and expand the MCU in formats beyond just full-length theatrical movies. Which is totally cool. BUT when Chapek took over for Iger, he's the one who really pushed for more and more content, even if it came at the cost of quality (story, VFX, etc.) and connectivity. It seems like his thinking was that the MCU was so popular (which it was at that time coming off of "Infinity War" and "Endgame") that the fans would eat up anything and everything that was put out.

From what I understand, while Kevin was a big fan of the IDEA of D+ and its possibilities, he was not a big fan of the quantity over quality approach that Chapek was pushing on him (which I personally believe based on how much we've seen that Kevin cares about the characters and stories and the quality of what they put out). This led to Kevin being stretched too thin having to manage all those projects at the same time (reminds me of the classic "I Love Lucy" episode where she's working at the chocolate factory and the chocolate keeps coming out faster and faster), and I'm sure that he had to delegate some of his duties and wasn't able to be as deeply involved in each project as he had been when it was just the movies, which further affected quality. But we've all been in that situation where your boss s asking too much out of you, but what do you do? Tell them you can't handle it or that quality of the product is going to suffer when you boss doesn't care as much about the quality of the product as the quantity?

That all being said, there are clearly areas when Kevin is more to blame than Chapek which I'm sure he takes responsibility for, such as trying to approach TV shows the same as MCU movies and using the same type of creatives to do so, but overall I tend to blame Chapek more (I'm sure some expose will come out about this after we're well enough past it which will tell the full story). Either way, now that Chapek is out and Kevin presumably has more control again if for no other reason than by virtue of scaling back the sheer number of projects allowing him to be able to focus on each one more, we'll see what happens. Being as it seems that they've already learned from the "TV is not Movies" mistake and have taken measures to correct that, hopefully they're righting the ship. But if quality continues to fall short even with reduced quantity and Iger isn't imposing any restrictions or unreasonable demands on Kevin, I think it will be a lot more clear where the problem is.
marvel72
marvel72 - 11/8/2023, 5:19 PM
@THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - "A lot of fans"

More like a handful.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 11/8/2023, 2:15 PM
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 11/8/2023, 2:16 PM
"Disjointed but mostly enjoyable" reminds me of "Fiery, but mostly peaceful"
Toonstrack
Toonstrack - 11/8/2023, 3:06 PM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - that has.... almost no correlation. Lmfao
mountainman
mountainman - 11/8/2023, 3:07 PM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - Or “safe and effective”.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 11/8/2023, 2:18 PM
Why this world needs movie critics, imagine if all the critics were Visionary and AllIsGood HAHA
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WhateverItTakes
WhateverItTakes - 11/8/2023, 3:27 PM
@bobevanz - we don't need doubleds of this world...sorry I mean allisgood
Izaizaiza
Izaizaiza - 11/8/2023, 2:23 PM
Enlightening review. Not expecting much, but my kids are looking forward to it, and getting a continuation of Kamala Khan's story will be enough for me to enjoy it.
mountainman
mountainman - 11/8/2023, 2:28 PM
Pretty much everyone, even the negative reviews, has praised the three leads. The issue seems to be with the homework behind the backstories, the lame villain, and the place swapping.

Imagine if they had built this movie around a compelling story and villain. It could have actually been a hit.
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 11/8/2023, 8:19 PM
@mountainman - but... but.. but why would you Wana do that?? Stop making sense
mountainman
mountainman - 11/8/2023, 8:38 PM
@MotherGooseUPus - I didn’t think much of the first Captain Marvel. It was ok. Not great not terrible.

They could have made this a really cool cosmic follow up. Full on Kree/Skrull war (which seems to be hinted at). Deathbird and intro to the Shi’ar. Something besides Dar Ben and crazy bangle based location swapping with tons of cats and a singing planet.
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 11/8/2023, 9:08 PM
@mountainman - I thought the first was enjoyable for what it was but it was very middle of the road MCU

Idk what they were trying to do with this movie but I'll probably check it out.. who knows lol
mountainman
mountainman - 11/8/2023, 9:33 PM
@MotherGooseUPus - I’ll watch some day but not in theaters. Now that Dune 2 got moved, the only movie this year that might get me out is Napoleon.
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 11/9/2023, 7:54 AM
@mountainman - Godzilla Minus One is the ONLY movie im def seeing in theaters this year
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