Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

A fun popcorn movie that goes too high, too fast, too far, and misses its emotional punch in amongst all the action

Spoiler Warning

So, given the immense amount of criticism The Marvels (2023) garnered on its theatrical release and the subsequent dismal box office, it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I guess there is nothing like sitting down with a glass of wine, a bowl of popcorn and low expectations to watch a movie. 

Normally, as someone who has been invested in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Iron Man (2008), I do try to support the franchise and see films in cinema, however, as someone with CFS/ME, sometimes my health won’t accommodate that.  Such was the case with this movie.  Of course, for anyone online, not seeing a movie first day in the cinema means it is difficult to stay away from spoilers and from the reviews, and the majority of online reviews were not kind to this movie.  Watching it on Disney Plus therefore wasn’t a priority, but on Saturday I finally sat down to watch with the aforementioned wine, popcorn and low expectations.

Some of the criticism the film garnered is definitely warranted (and I will come onto that), but overall this is a fun popcorn movie that I’d definitely watch way ahead of other Marvel movies (note to self: I really should do an MCU ranking).  Among the things to celebrate are the performances of the three main characters.

Iman Vellani is definitely the highlight of the movie.  Her Kamala Khan is just a fabulous ray of sunshine injecting a needed joy and sense of awe about superheroes and the wider Marvel universe that is much needed.  She’s like a breath of fresh air, sweeping away the cobwebs from the stagnant tropes and usual format.  She’s ably supported in that by her on screen family.  Their support, love and protectiveness for Kamala is great to see.

Brie Larson also does a great job in her second solo outing as Captain Marvel.  She anchors the film in a very subtle way as Carol, and she plays Carol as a human being, flawed and vulnerable, yet also competent and capable.  She is the embodiment of a crazy single cat lady left too long alone in space, and who just so happens to have superpowers.

Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, by contrast, handles getting stuck with a lot of the exposition with a stoic competence, delivering lines which make very little sense with confidence.  She provides the steady ‘normal’ counterbalance to Carol’s tough cookie shell and Kamala’s bubbly effervescence – essentially fulfilling the role that the Companion plays in Doctor Who.   

The other aspect I thought was done very well was the fleeting quieter touches of real friendship that peek out in the story; the exchanges between Fury and Carol, Carol and Valkyrie, the flashback scene to Carol and Maria Rambeau talking about cancer and the day Carol took her ill-fated flight which led to her becoming Captain Marvel, and the building friendships between the women.  

I’m also not going to think that the inclusion of more Goose and Flerkens isn’t anything but a good thing.  (I am that single crazy cat lady).    

Given the above, I found the entanglement of the three characters, the need to band together to save the world and wider universe, and the comic and touching moments that all engendered were good fun and made for an enjoyable watch.

However, I cannot deny that I agree with much of the storytelling criticism aimed at the movie.  For me the major flaw of the movie is that the story feels weirdly like an outline rather than a fully formed tale. Perhaps that is because, ultimately, it is trying to do too much.

One of the main threads of the story is the continuation of Carol’s story from the first film.  Her action in defeating the Kree Supreme Intelligence, in setting herself free, has unintended consequences which she has to own and live with.  She creates her own nemesis in Dar-Benn who is intent on rescuing Hala through any means necessary, and if she sticks it to Carol in her choices at the same time, well, that’s a bonus. 

This isn’t a bad story.  It’s a good anchor.  The problem is that it is a serious thread with a lot of pathos, grief and anguish – for both Carol and Dar-Benn – which kind of remains as nothing more substantial than an outline, despite Zawe Ashton and Brie Larson both playing to that grief and anguish in a couple of scenes.  It means Dar-Benn suffers from the typical Marvel villain issue of being somewhat two-dimensional and that there is no emotional impact.  For example, contrast the emotional showdowns between Black Widow and Taskmaster in Black Widow (2021) and the showdowns here and…the emotional punch just isn’t here for me. 

Had the movie stuck with its main thread and fully focused on that perhaps it would have been a more serious movie, but it may have been more emotionally satisfying.  As it stands, the movie instead focuses on bringing the three main characters together to save the world and universe.

This thread offers the comedy and fun of the entanglement, of the three women learning to work together and forming friendships with each other, of Monica and Carol getting to know each other as two adults rather than Auntie Carol and Lieutenant Trouble, of Kamala getting to know her hero for real.  It’s a fun and, for the most part, light-hearted romp with the exceptions of the tension between Monica and Carol, and Kamala’s realisation that heroes make decisions that have consequences.  This fun, light-hearted tone becomes the tone for the whole movie overwhelming the more serious thread because there is so much to do in this arc that it makes the story feel overstuffed.

There are introductions to Kamala and Monica because both their powers originate in Disney Plus shows and need explanation; there is Kamala’s hero worship and coming of age story; there is Monica’s anger at Carol and her grief for her mother that need to be resolved; there is the crazy entanglement (the rules of which seem to change depending on the needs of the scene) and its comic sequence of events as they swap back and forth; there is the side-stop of trying to rescue two other places as they put the pieces together of what is going on and learning to work together; there is the sub-sub plot of the SABER station shenanigans with Fury.

It’s exhausting. 

Some parts are done better than others, but nothing is really explored in depth.  This story arc needed both paring down and then for whatever elements remained to be fleshed out fully to better shade the lighter moments of the entanglement with the darker moments (such as the Skrulls’ losing their refuge and the loss of the planet Aladna).  There should have been tears as Carol and Monica mend their relationship or as Monica’s grief for her mother is explored. 

My other main criticism is a little related to that paring down note: the movie would have been better if it had lost one or both of its sillier set-ups; either the singing planet of Aladna or the evacuation from the station via being eaten by Flerkens.  Like I said, I’ll never complain about too many Flerkens so guess which I would have dropped.  These sequences come across as an attempt to match the silliness of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).  I didn’t like the overt silliness in that, and I’m not convinced it adds any value here.  It’s simply more distraction from the already over-packed narrative.

Finally, let’s talk about the ending scene and the end credits scene. 

There is no doubt in my mind that the original plan was to create a Young Avengers team-up through the Disney Plus shows in the same way the original movies created an Avengers team-up.  Kamala approaching Kate Bishop ostensibly to do this in a movie?  Not sure that worked, not least because unless someone watched Hawkeye (2021) they would have no idea who Kate Bishop was.  While I can appreciate the marketing ploy to drive an audience to the streaming service, it might have made more sense to do this with Bishop approaching Kamala at the end of Ms.Marvel (2022).

Similarly, not sure where the end credits scene will go given the whole multiverse saga seems to be hanging in the balance with the wider production shifts around Phase 5 amidst its quality issues, the seeming decision to move on from Kang as the main Big Bad, and the recent signals of a change of direction.  Maybe Monica will get rescued by Deadpool and returned to the MCU, but right now it feels a little pointless. But maybe those wider decisions account for some of the storytelling flaws here.       

In conclusion

Overall, the ‘becoming a team’ arc swamps that serious dark inner thread of ‘the hero’s actions have consequences’ by weaving a colourful ball of fluff around it. I can see why others disliked it, but for me, it’s an enjoyable ball of fluff which I will happily watch again with another glass of wine and bowl of popcorn.