Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is one of the most cherished among the audience worldwide. When The Marvels – the 33rd film is the MCU – was announced with Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani, it was quite exciting. These superheroes and their superpowers were going to save the world once again. The Marvels released in theatres on November 10.
, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is really upset that she destroyed the Supreme Intelligence and set off a war in Hala, the home of the Kree. Hala is slowly dying because of lack of water, air and sunlight. And then a new leader of the Kree world emerges – Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) – and decides to take revenge on Captain Marvel. Dar-Benn also discovers one half of the Quantum bands. The second half of the Quantum bands is with the 16-year-old Captain Marvel fan girl, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani).
With the help of the Quantum band, Dar-Benn creates a wormhole in space, which if anyone touches, put them at another place. Through this wormhole, the powers of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan, also end up getting entangled. How do the three get together and save the world from Dar-Benn?
In The Marvels, you have female power at the core and three women form a bond and come together to fight one enemy. This is quite exciting at the theory level. The three actors – Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani – are talented and have what is required to perform their roles well. What lets them down is the screenplay of this film directed by Nia Dacosta. Dacosta is the first African American woman to direct a Marvel film and while that is to be lauded, the writing by her, Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik, on this film is not befitting a superhero film.
While the female friendship between Darson, Rambeau and Khan has been well-written, some of the scenes meant to evoke laughter just don’t. Take, for instance, the scenes between Vellani and her parents or her repetitive exclaims of ‘oh my god’. One is not sure if the latter was meant for laughs but it soon became a yawn. Moving to the protagonist, Dar-Benn, is just not compelling enough for a Marvel superhero film. When you compare Dar-Benn to the other villains in the Marvel films, Dar-Benn is pretty weak and on the really low end of the villainy scale.
Brie Larson is a talented actor and she brings her best to her role as Danvers/Captain Marvel. Iman Vellani tries to come across as the cute awestruck teenager and succeeds but it is Teyonah Parris who really makes a mark as Rambeau. The cat/s in the film must be mentioned – a cat called Goose that doesn’t lay eggs and isn’t a cat. Die by a cat. Intriguing, no?
“The biggest challenge was finding the balance between my point of view as a director and as a comic book nerd,” said director Nia Dacosta about The Marvels. As Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and others are blasting through space in a pod to seemingly nowhere, the audience is as well. Dacosta hasn’t found that balance with The Marvels, unfortunately.
