The Short Take:
All the vibes are immaculate in this fun, cool girl hang. It’s held back by a plot you can’t squint at and an underdeveloped villain.
[SPOILER WARNING: The first section of this will be spoiler free, and then I will issue an additional warning when I’m about to shift into spoiler mode. There will be spoilers for past MCU entries like Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and the Disney+ series WandaVision and Ms. Marvel.]
Image Credit: People
The Long Take:
The MCU has had a complicated history with female superheroes. Fans were reasonably unhappy when Natasha Romanoff did not get a massive on-screen funeral like Tony Stark, even though she also sacrificed her life to save everyone. Many — myself included — have taken issue with how Wanda, who had been portrayed more sympathetically as a grieving wife and mother in WandaVision became a hysterical, uncomplicated monster in Multiverse of Madness. The problem with that shift is not entirely gendered, but you could argue that it is at least partly.
Meanwhile, however, the MCU has tried to assure me that it is a feminist franchise. Avengers: Endgame famously staged a girl boss meet up, with a shot of Pepper Potts, Valkyrie, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel , Mantis, Shuri, Okoye, Gamora, Nebula, and Wasp all standing together, as if to say, “seeeee? Look how many powerful female heroes we’ve made!” I appreciate the intention, but the execution of it felt at best uncomfortably obvious and at worst patronizing. Similarly, in Captain Marvel, there’s an infamous needle drop, in which Carol Danvers begins fighting to No Doubt’s “Just a Girl.” I understand that Captain Marvel was at the time the first female superhero to headline her own movie, but this was a very heavy-handed way to highlight that fact. I enjoy Gwen Stefani’s iconic hit as much as the next 90s girl, but its use pandered to women in an icky way.
I go through all of this to say that it was SO NICE that The Marvels effortlessly and unceremoniously centers its story on three smart, funny, and powerful women. Their dynamic as a team is by far the best part of the film. And there’s something about the way they bond that feels very authentic to my own experiences with female friends. They’re training in their pajamas. They’re sharing secrets, unloading baggage. They’re making fun of one another one minute and hugging each other the next.
The funniest and in many ways most accurate Letterboxd review I’ve seen for this film so far said something to the effect of “Marvel made a good girl sleepover movie and you incels aren’t invited.” This review, as cheeky as it is, explains a lot of what I like about this movie. Iman Vellani, Teyonna Paris, and Brie Larson — but especially Vellani — are so funny and charming that they really could have gone on any space adventure, and I would have had a good time.
Image Credit: We Got This Covered
The adventure they do go on is pretty flawed, however. While I had a lot of fun watching The Marvels, I want to be clear that it is far from a perfect movie. The plot is especially incoherent in the first act, and, if I’m being honest with myself, relies far too much on my memory of the plot of Captain Marvel, which is probably better than most because I have rewatched it in the past 2-3 years.
The basic premise of the film is that these three superheroes with light-based powers have become entangled such that when two of them use their powers at the exact same time, they swap places. And when we’re focused on the pure comedy of those antics, the movie works and I’m entertained. But the plot that generates this premise is actually more about the collateral damage of Captain Marvel taking out the Kree’s A.I. dictator, the Supreme Intelligence. Anytime we dip back inot this story about Kree-Skrull politics, the Supreme Intelligence, Carol Danvers’ erased memories, and essentially the fallout of the events of Captain Marvel as a human who thought she was a Kree, I got confused and/or lost interest.
Realistically, though, Marvel movies are not typically known for their cogent or sophisticated plot lines. So, for me at least, it’s not too hard to let all that Kree-Skrull planet plundering quantum hole jumping mumbo jumbo to wash right over me.
And that’s because of this charming group dynamic anchored in strong, charismatic performances. Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau were exactly what Carol Danvers needed. As one of the most powerful heroes in all of the MCU, she has always been a little stiff, a little too self-serious for me. I haven’t minded her or Brie Larson’s performance at all, but I completely understand if the MCU version of her character is not at the top of anyone’s list. In Captain Marvel, she only had Nick Fury, a funny yet still stoic or stern character, so it was a lot of tough glaring on top of tough glaring. Here, though, she can bounce off Kamala and Monica, who both have very different personalities from her and from each other. Monica is the super brainy, somewhat sassy scientist. And Kamala is the open-hearted and ebullient teenaged super fan.
Image Credit: The Boston Globe
Their entanglement is so compelling emotionally because they each have their own tensions and conflicts. Ms. Marvel idolizes Captain Marvel, putting pressure on her to be the perfect hero. Captain Rambeau (who does not yet have an official superhero name), meanwhile, resents Captain Marvel for leaving Earth and never returning to be with her niece, even after Monica came back from The Blip and had to grieve the death of her mother, Carol’s best friend Maria Rambeau. None of these are spoilers for this film because we have learned them from past films and series. I mention them here purely to help get viewers who aren’t as steeped in the MCU as I am up to speed.
Before I do switch into spoiler mood, I would say that while having seen Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and WandaVision — but especially Ms. Marvel — will deepen your experience with these characters, this film is fun enough on its own for you to go into it completely MCU blind. The fight choreography with all the sudden, power-induced switcharoos have a verve and clarity that is a joy to watch. And there are some turns the film takes that are downright weird and goofy in a way that really worked for me. Higher, further, faster? More like shorter, funner, funnier. A good time at 90 minutes is hard to argue with these days.
[SPOILER WARNING: Just let the spoilers eat you. You will be fine. (As long as you’ve seen The Marvels.)]
Image Credit: The Mary Sue
Finally! I get to talk about cat aliens and musicals. I very much wanted to mention those components in the spoiler-free section because they were so fundamental to my enjoyment of the film, but I’d rather preserve that joyous discovery for those who haven’t yet seen it. I mentioned earlier that this film takes two very strange and goofy turns.
Most notably, Goose the flerken lays eggs all over Nick Fury’s ship and when they later need to evacuate, the flerken kittens become the perfect solution to a big problem: escape pods won’t fit all the crew members. The pocket dimensions inside these adorable little fluff balls, however, will. A montage of flerkens chasing down people running and screaming like this is a horror/monster movie is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a minute. There’s an announcement that goes over the P.A. system saying, “Do not run. Let the kittens eat you. You will be fine.” As if that weren’t comedy gold already, they decide to play “Memory,” the signature musical number from the Broadway hit, Cats. It was utterly ridiculous, and it was utterly perfect.
That’s not even where the musical theater goodness ends. There is an entire planet called Aladna, in fact, that our heroes visit because they anticipate Dar-Benn will want to steal its vast oceans for a dried up Hala. Aladna’s inhabitants can only communicate through song, which eventually leads to an entire dance sequence in which Carol waltzes around with Prince Yan, played by K-drama actor and global superstar, Park Seo-joon. Some critics have said that this section fell flat for them and didn’t work, but I disagree. Any awkwardness and uncomfortableness from Carol only made the scenes funnier. Plus, the peanut gallery commentary with Monica and Kamala — complete with a joke about Captain Marvel fan fiction — was the perfect audience stand-in entry point.
Image Credit: The Direct
I don’t want to say that cats, musicals, and the musical cats make this a film more inclusive of women, though the writer in me is tempted to because that would more neatly tie this new point into my earlier discussion of female superheroes. I guess all I will say is that this movie, more so than others, appealed more to sensibilities and interests that I do not normally associate with superhero films or the MCU. I love a good slug fest — I don’t think I’d be covering the Marvel beat if I didn’t — but I also appreciate that the cute cats eating people and all the singing and dancing made me feel like this film was made to include me, a woman in her 40s who spoils her two cats and grew up listening to CDs of Broadway soundtracks on my Discman. I wasn’t a Cats gal necessarily, but there was a point at which I had all the lyrics to Guys and Dolls and The Music Man memorized.
Then again, the flavor and tenor of The Marvels may reflect my love of science fiction space adventures or genre storytelling more broadly. Series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess were famous for their musical episodes, after all. And, as I mentioned on our podcast review of The Marvels, the Aladna episode felt a lot like a Star Trek episode, in which our heroes encounter a society with unusual conditions or cultural norms. To a lesser extent, Doctor Who fits into this space explorer paradigm as well.
As much as I had fun with this film, I cannot escape the MCU discourse machine and as such do not wish to declare that Marvel is “back” as a direct result of my enjoyment of this film. If I put my cynical critic hat on, I can easily perform a meta reading the film’s use of “Memory.” It isn’t just for laughs, and it isn’t merely a literal reference to cats because flerkens look like cats. Perhaps subconsciously, the Cats needle drop acknowledges that, as so many say these days, Marvel’s glory days are behind it. Grizabella, the cat who sings this song in the original show is an aging “glamour cat” who has been ostracized by the other cats. “Memory” is a lament about a bygone era.
All alone with my memory
Of my days in the sun
Image Credit: Time
But the song is also one of hope and renewal.
I must think of a new life
I mustn’t give in
I don’t think Marvel is about to give up.