Marvel is not dead

FILM REVIEW

Tinashe Kusema

ORDINARILY, I prefer to stay away from social media debate. However, the backlash “The Marvels” has been receiving of late has prompted me to give my take on the discourse.

Is “The Marvels” a good movie?

Well, the answer is yes and no.

By Marvel standards, this is not what we have come to expect from the esteemed production company

In fact, it carries over the recent trend in which the Disney subsidiary seems to be prioritising quantity over quality on the big and small screens.

Both movies and television shows have not been that inspiring but when they are good, they are great, and vice versa.

“The Marvels” is somewhere in the middle.

It could have been a lot better, but it certainly cannot be part of discussions involving movies like “Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania”, “The Eternals”, “Thor: The Dark World”, as some TikTok and X users would like you to believe.

The film, though flawed, is still worth watching.

“The Marvels” is a sequel to Brie Larson’s 2019 release “Captain Marvel” and sees our superpowered heroine Carol Denvers come face to face with a vengeful Kree leader Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), who blames her for the destruction of her home planet, and a civil war that broke out among her people.

Instead of going it alone, like she usually does, Denvers finds new allies in the form of fangirl Kamala Khan, aka Ms Marvel (Iman Vellani), and the daughter of her now-deceased best friend Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris).

The trio have light-based superpowers. A mission in space goes wrong, which then entangles their powers.

Quantum entanglement is the scientific term, I think.

A huge part of the film focuses on the three getting acquainted, sorting out their personal issues and, in the end, learning how to work together as a team.

The chemistry and character dynamics among the three women — Larson, Parris and Vellani — and their characters are the heart and soul of the film.

Vellani is the breakout star of the entire movie as she comes off as authentic, funny and a true star.

Sadly, the same cannot be said about the visuals, which come off clumsy and half-baked at times, and the movie’s one-note protagonist Dar-Benn.

The writers do not really invest enough time into the character’s origins and story.

After 10 or so days of release, “The Marvels” had raked in US$161 million at the box office.

One of the biggest reasons for the movie’s poor performance at the box office has been the cruel and sometimes unwarranted negative reviews it has received from bloggers, self-appointed critics and anyone who has a TikTok or X account.

The negative reviews started way before the actual movie was released.

These prophets of doom have declared that Marvel is dead, and proceeded to say “The Marvels” is testament to this.

The lengths they seem to have gone to make their points include spoiling and leaking the film’s mid- and post-credit scenes.

These scenes have become a common staple of the company, and here see the official introductions of the “Young Avengers” and the “X-Men”.

Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) from the Disney Plus series “Hawkeye” gets recruited by Kamala Khan’s Ms Marvel in a call-back scene to that of Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jnr) in the first “Ironman” scene.

The arrival of the “Young Avengers” opens up many possibilities for Marvel and confirms one of the rumours that has been doing the rounds on the internet.

With Marvel going for R-rated content with the release of “Deadpool 3” and presumably the upcoming “Thunderbolts” movie, the “Young Avengers” will likely cater for Disney’s young fans.

The other post-credit scene, which sees Kelsey Grammar reprise his role as Hank McCoy (Beast) from 20th Century’s “X-Men” movies, appears to have begun to plant the seeds for the next big Avengers endgame events, which are the announced “Kang Dynasty” and “Secret Wars” Avengers movies.

Rumour has it that the 2027 “Avengers: Secret Wars” will be Marvel paying homage and saying goodbye to the two sets of “X-Men” characters and movies.

So, ignore the fake news these prophets of doom and clickbait influencers are peddling.

Marvel is not dead.

“The Marvels” is definitely not the worst Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever made, as many bloggers would like you to believe.