The Marvels Is A Clunky Pile Of Fun

Walking into The Marvels I was feeling burnt out on Marvel movies and shows. The last several have been CGI-heavy and sky-goop-centric, with samey villains and a repetitive comedy patter and I just wasn’t excited about this one. The still promo image on the screen looked like it was from a video game, and I just couldn’t bring myself to be excited about this movie. 

Then it started. We open on a comic book drawn by Kamala Khan, Ms. Marvel, where she and Captain Marvel are BFF’s. The animation is simple and charming but sets a really nice tone for the film and reminds us one of our main characters is a high schooler. As we intercut between establishing vignettes for our leads (Kamala from the series Ms. Marvel, Monica Rambeau who acquired powers in Wandavision, and Carol Danvers in what is ostensibly the sequel to her solo movie Captain Marvel), we learn about a weird new hole that’s been punched in the universe by a Kree seemingly bent on revenge, using a bracelet similar to Kamala’s. 

This is where things get interesting — we learn that Kamala, Carol and Monica’s light powers are all intertwined and whenever they use them at the same time, they trade places. Weird. This quirk creates some really dynamic action sequences and a great training montage. The rules of this were somewhat unevenly applied, however. 

Iman Vellani as Kamala made an absolute meal out of this role, as did her entire family. They are thrust into much of the hijinks and spend most of the movie peering over Nick Fury’s shoulder, an enjoyable new challenge for him.

This film is absolutely bonkers — we end up hopping around several bizarre worlds and visiting the Khan family and Nick Fury on a space station. It was actually funny, not the traditional post-Whedon comedy patter but actually funny with jokes. Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is snappy and sharp. There’s a joke in the third act that made me laugh so hard my stomach ached. (It was so stupid I loved it so much.)

This movie seems like a bit of a departure for Marvel — it’s a little less focused on fighting and more team building forward. The movie was fun, but I am not sure I can say it was good. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of it, but kind of in spite of a lot of the clunkiness of the film overall. I still don’t know what Monica’s powers are exactly, and the villain’s idea is fine but she has no development. The plot of the film is disproportionately dark compared to the humor. The CGI is gummy. Kamala is cringe at times and only speaks in Disney movie quotes but hey, no movie is perfect. 

I was laughing a lot. Sometimes from disbelief or cringe, sometimes of joy but I wasn’t ever bored. That’s more than I can say for a lot of the recent Marvel installments. 

I give The Marvels (Marvel Studios; PG-13; 1hr 45mins) a 3 out of 5 as a movie, but 4 out of 5 for sheer enjoyment.

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This was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, many of the characters being cosplayed here wouldn’t exist. Please consider donating to the Entertainment Community Fund here.