The Marvels (English) Review {3.0/5} & Review Rating
THE MARVELS is the story of a group of superheroes coming together for a greater cause. Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), the leader of Hala, retrieves one-half of the Quantum Bands from the planet MB-418. She is searching for another band that she plans to use to save Hala though it will cause destruction elsewhere. Unknown to her, the other band or bangle is with Kamala Khan aka Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani) in Jersey City. Meanwhile, Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) asks Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) to investigate some glitch in the jump point. Monica and Carol touch the glitch-laden jump point at the same time. This results in both of them along with Kamala switching places through teleportation. The trio are unable to understand this phenomenon at first. Meanwhile, Dar-Benn is having a meeting with Emperor Dro'ge (Gary Lewis), the leader of the Skrulls at a refugee colony on planet Tarnax. The teleportation confusion leads them to the Tarnax and they start fighting with Dar-Benn's army. An enraged Dar-Benn destroys Tarnax. Carol, Monica and Kamala now decide to understand how and why they managed to switch, how they can control and what should be done to stop Dar-Benn. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik's story stands out from the rest of the Marvel films. Nia DaCosta, Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik's screenplay is quite fresh and loaded with some fascinating and hilarious moments. The dialogues are entertaining and keep the narrative light.
Nia DaCosta's direction is decent. She doesn't waste time and gets to the story from the first shot. The first 15-20 minutes are very entertaining as the superheroes get transported from one place to another, leading to madness. The Aladna sequence is short but sweet. The bond shared by the three heroes is also worth it. The scene of the flerkens (cat-like creatures) in the pre-climax takes the cake and brings the house down.
On the flipside, THE MARVELS is the shortest film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and one gets a feeling that it gets over soon. One expects more, especially in the climax fight. The villain track is weak. The whole bit about the trio teleporting is complex and the layman might not fully get it. A few developments are bewildering, especially why Carol never failed to repair Hala’s problems all these years. Lastly, the buzz for the film is very limited.
Speaking of performances, Iman Vellani puts up a very entertaining act. The way she fangirls over Captain Marvel might give a déjà vu of Peter Parker's obsession with Iron Man in the SPIDER-MAN films. Yet, Iman adds her cuteness to ensure it doesn’t remind viewers of a similar mentor-protégé track in MCU. Brie Larson delivers a confident performance. Her bit of a goofy act in some scenes is likeable. Teyonah Parris is decent and gets overpowered by Brie and Iman. Samuel L Jackson is dependable as expected and raises laughs. Zawe Ashton is fine while Gary Lewis doesn’t get much scope. Park Seo-joon (Prince Yan) is too good and one wishes that he had a longer screen time. Zenobia Shroff (Muneeba; Kamala's mother), Mohan Kapur (Yusuf; Kamala's father) and Saagar Shaikh (Aamir; Kamala's brother) are fine.
Laura Karpman's music has the trademark superhero movie stamp. Sean Bobbitt's cinematography is appropriate. Cara Brower's production design is rich. Lindsay Pugh's costumes are stylish, especially the non-superhero outfits of the trio. Action is not disturbing at all. VFX is top-class. Catrin Hedström and Evan Schiff's editing is slick.
On the whole, THE MARVELS is a fun-filled superhero saga. But due to limited buzz and immense competition from TIGER 3, it’ll need strong word of mouth to put up respectable numbers.