Anthony's Film Review - The Marvels (2023)

The Marvels continues the magic of the Marvel Cinematic Universe...

The Marvels has the notable distinction of being the Marvel Cinematic Universe film from Marvel Studios that has the shortest running time, at one hour and 45 minutes. Generally, MCU films are a little over two hours, with a few epics being two-and-a-half hours in length. Those movies provide plenty of time for character exploration, not to mention extra action. Naturally, the question is whether a shorter MCU film would suffer because it moves too quickly. Well, now that I've seen The Marvels, I would say not to worry about it. There is still a complete story arc and enough character presentation here.

I'll begin this review of The Marvels with a recap of the three main characters. Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson, was first introduced in the 2019 MCU movie Captain Marvel. She was a U.S. Air Force pilot who became a superhero wielding massive amounts of energy. Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel, played by Iman Vellani, is a Pakistani-American teenage girl in New Jersey. As shown in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, she lives like any other adolescent girl, is a huge fan of Captain Marvel, and can turn light into matter using the powers of a magical bangle given to her by her grandmother. Then there's Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris. She was previously seen in the Disney+ series WandaVision, in case she seems familiar.

What brings these three characters together is an unexplained teleportation phenomenon. Without warning, one of them may suddenly disappear and be replaced by one of the others. This occurs in an amusing action scene where three different fights are occurring in three different locations: the Khan family home and two other places in space. The three fights almost become one, as the heroic fighters briefly leave their original locations and then come back, but enemy combatants also get teleported to places out of their ordinary. After a while, Carol, Monica, and Kamala figure out what's going on and even learn to use it to their advantage, as a team.

The looming threat in this movie comes from Dar-Benn, played by Zawe Ashton. She is a member of an alien race called the Kree, whose home planet Hala, following a civil war, has become harsh for life itself. Dar-Benn seeks a power that would allow her to capture natural resources from elsewhere in the galaxy. From her perspective, she is saving her people, but in the eyes of others, she is a threat to everyone else. In addition, Dar-Benn has a real grudge against Captain Marvel, for an arguably valid reason. This is one of those villains whom you want to defeat even if you have a bit of sympathy for them.

That's pretty much the story in a nutshell: three female superheroes versus one female supervillain. There are other characters to liven things up a little more, like Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and members of Kamala's family. Otherwise, it's all about the dynamics among Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau, particularly the first and third sharing a long-time family connection and the second getting to meet the idolized first. Ultimately, The Marvels, despite its running time, is still a complete MCU movie, and yes, it does have a mid-credits scene worth seeing. (However, there is no post-credit scene. Just a few sound effects at the end of the credits.)

So what's my overall rating for The Marvels? It's a positive one, for sure. I enjoyed it, so at minimum, it's a 7 out of 10. That being said, that's where my rating shall stay. The relatively shorter running time for an MCU movie may not turn this movie into a bad one, but it does prevent it from having a familiar long epic feel. It's not a criticism. It's simply the way it is given the kind of story being told here. The important thing is that I enjoyed the action and dynamics of three powerful heroines. The movie is still... marvelous.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about The Marvels, visit the Internet Movie Database.