The Marvels is, somehow, the 33rd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's a direct sequel to one movie (Captain Marvel) and two different TV shows (WandaVision and Ms. Marvel). It features a substantial supporting role for Nick Fury, who's coming in hot from the Skrull uprising in Secret Invasion this past summer.
Almost none of that matters, though. WandaVision and Ms. Marvel are only relevant in that those shows are where two of the three titular Marvels got their powers--the specifics aren't important at all and are never referenced--and Secret Invasion is never alluded to even in a veiled way. And all you need to know from Captain Marvel, which came out 12 movies ago, is that there was some bad fallout from Carol's decision to destroy the Kree's Supreme Intelligence at the end of that film.
That's a huge amount of context to simply strip from the story, and in order for that to work, it has to be both really impressive on a filmmaking level and also show something other than more Marvel stuff. And credit where it's due: For a large stretch of this movie, director Nia DaCosta and co. managed to accomplish both of those things. But while The Marvels works as a dope and fun action movie, those are fleeting pleasures. For a movie that, at a mere 105 minutes, has clearly been stripped of its connective tissue and its substance, being fun can't sustain it.
The story here is a pretty standard Marvel setup. The Kree homeworld is dying after the events of Captain Marvel, and a new warlord named Dar-Benn is committing genocide to try to save it, ripping holes in space using a magic bangle to steal resources from other planets--like the atmosphere from one, the oceans from another, and so on. When Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau simultaneously touch two of these tears in space, their abilities become entangled with each other--as well as those of Kamala Khan, who also has one of those bangles.
From there, whenever any of the three use their powers at the same time, they switch places. It's a ridiculous gimmick that should be impossible to manage, but The Marvels is so well-shot and edited that the switching sequences usually end up being a blast.
Really, the action in The Marvels is very strong, with a James Wan-esque look and an exceedingly pleasing music-video-esque flow to it. The three leads (Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani) are all a lot of fun and have great chemistry, especially when they're being awkward around each other. And they even showed me something I haven't seen before when they visited a planet where everybody sings and dances whenever they talk--our introduction to this place is one of the MCU's best sequences. Ever.
While The Marvels works as a lighthearted action movie for a while, its relentless breeziness and strict adherence to the Marvel formula eventually weighs it down--frankly, I'd probably need some Michael Bay-quality mayhem for this movie to keep working for me once we get into the standard climactic comic book battles in the third act. It's not that good, though, and it certainly can't come close to matching the highs of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever--the peak of the recent MCU. But that Black Panther sequel was also saddled with an egregiously poor subplot that no one liked about Martin Freeman's character, and at least the Marvels isn't dragged down by something similar. It's got a consistent vibe, at least.
But to make matters worse, The Marvels also lacks any of the substance of Ryan Coogler's film, or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, or even Eternals. The Marvels is very much a film that goes down easy, but there's just not much to remember it by. It's a film that will likely be treated by the rest of the franchise the same way it treated the WandaVision and Ms. Marvel shows: as nothing more than the vehicle that put all these characters in the places they need to be for whatever they're in next. The particulars will probably not be important.
The state of the MCU being what it is, though, I don't have a clue where they'll show up next, and I'd be surprised if even Marvel knows for sure. Even worse: I'm not sure I care, since the MCU's complete lack of focus is making that increasingly difficult. But Marvel's The Marvels is fun while it lasts, anyway.
