The Marvels - A Review (with spoilers)

I am not a devotee of the MCU. I've watch some of the films, but not all, and definitely not all the series.

But I did enjoy Captain Marvel and so was will ing to give The Marvels a watch now that it's part of our Disney+ subscription.

I've just watched it and here are some thoughts, and they will include spoilers.

In days of yore a superhero was a fun romp which included exotic locations, improbable events, impossible fights, and pathos induced by risk to a main character, oh, and some humor.

The Marvels delivers. Our three heros, Carol Danvers (Captain America), Monica Rambeau, and Kamal Khan (Ms Marvel) become mysteriously bound together when the film's antagonist - Dar-Benn - uses a quantum band. The three begin swapping locations without warning.

This character swapping is a delightful update of the Hecate Sisters trope, with three sisters representing different aspects of femininity and female power. Here the three need to learn how to work together in a manner which allows them to utilise their interchanging bodies.

When the trio visit the planet Aladna we discover Danvers is 'married' to their Prince Yan, and that it is a planet of song and dance. There is a delightful nod to bhangra which in the Punjab is traditional dance, but in the British Punjabi community developed into an informal upbeat music which fuses traditional Punjab music forms and modern pop styles.

In seeking to revenge her home world from what she percieves is a catastrophe for which Captain Marvel is responsible, Dar-Benn has set about destroying worlds Captain Marvel has a special attachment to. She comes to earth to destroy the sun.
In her attempt she over-reaches and the power of the quantum bands not only destroys her, but creates a rift between alternate realities.

When Monica suggests a plan to heal the rift those of us who have seen such films before knew this would be a one way trip. Carol is slower on the uptake and it isn't until the rift is nearly sealed she realises Monica isn't coming back through. She makes a desperate attempt to prevent it, but is too late. For me the pathos of this moment was overplayed and unconvincing.

In an amusing sub-plot strange brain like objects begin appearing on the SABER space station where Nick Fury is looking after Kamala's parents. They transpire to be Flerken eggs and the space station is soon over-run by these cat like extra-terrestrials whose internal digestive systems seem to be multi-dimensional. The scene where they are induced to swallow the crew of the station to allow for them all to survive is both gently horrifying and amusing.

I dont feel I suffered from having not watched the Ms Marvel series, and could probably have enjoyed the film without having seen Captain Marvel - though there were reference points that helped.

There seems to have been some backlash against the film but, for me, it was 105 minutes of fun escapism and I'd definitely recommend it.

text by stuartcturnbull, art by jcoope12 via Pixabay