This fall, there’s been much ballyhooed hand wringing over the state of the Marvel Union. In the not-so-distant past, each Marvel movie was an easy slam dunk at the box office, with critics, and with audiences, but things have been shaky in 2023, and “The Marvels,” the follow-up to the 2019 film “Captain Marvel” (one of the highest-earning MCU films), has been the recipient of a lot of online ire with regard to the waning days of Marvel madness. The film, directed by Nia DaCosta, has had the bad luck of bad timing, sustaining the one-two punch of this fevered discourse about the glut of Marvel content, and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which hasn’t allowed any of the cast members to even things out with a promotional charm offensive.
It’s unfortunate, because “The Marvels” is quite entertaining for the most part, like all the MCU movies tend to be. Like “Captain Marvel,” it is a decidedly feminine project, which can be a tough sell in a cinematic universe largely aimed at young men. But DaCosta is unapologetic in her approach: “The Marvels” is a movie about female friendship, family, fan-girling and flerkittens, lots of flerkittens.
So, perhaps the emphasis on cats in space and the proliferation of side parts gives “The Marvels” a whiff of the dated millennial (“cringe,” according to zoomers), and that might be its biggest crime. But at an hour and 45 minutes, it skips along with zippy humor and lightness on its feet.
Much of that energy can be attributed to Iman Vellani, who plays Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (you may have seen her on Disney+), whose awe-struck brightness and levity allows her to steal the whole movie out from under star Brie Larson, who reprises her role as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. It helps that Kamala is just happy to be superhero-ing with the big girls; in the sequel, Carol is grappling with the fallout of her actions from the first movie, and the bloom is off the superhero rose for her, which could explain the air of awkward discomfort in Larson’s performance.