The Marvels
Year: 2023
Rating: PG-13
Length: 105 minutes / 1.75 hours
The problem with extremely critical and vocal reviews of a movie like The Marvels (2023) is that often the problem is the fans themselves. There’s an amount of misogyny that’s present in fans of comic books that is difficult to ignore here. And with so many people saying this movie is bad just because it’s led by three women, it comes as a bit of a surprise when it’s actually pretty passable. Granted, it still relies heavily on having seen almost everything else in the MCU, but we’ll get to that in a second.
While I’ll admit that I’m still watching these movies because it’s basically a sunk cost fallacy, I found The Marvels to be entertaining. It’s maybe not as goofy as any of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but it has heart based on the characters’ connections. It also has perhaps one of the most underappreciated twists that had me laugh out loud (let’s just say it has to do with an entire planet that can only communicate via singing). If you’re not looking for anything deeper than fun entertainment, then this surely fits the bill.
However, part of the reason I enjoyed this movie as much as I did is that I had already done all the homework. I had seen both WandaVision and Ms. Marvel shows on Disney+, as well as the original Captain Marvel (2019). And while the connections between these characters made sense, it also felt a bit like the top executives not knowing what to do with these characters and just throwing them all in a movie together to “keep the brand alive.” Even I’m tired now of these movies and needing to keep up with everything.
A surprisingly entertaining movie grasping at the end of Marvel’s relevance, I give The Marvels 3.0 stars out of 5.
