The Marvels (3½ Stars)

I've finally bought "The Marvels" on Blu-ray. After all, I buy every Marvel film on disc. I was disappointed when I saw it in the cinema, but I made an effort to like it today. I made a conscious decision to see the good in it.

A large part of the problems isn't the film itself, it's the way it's been framed. Marvel fans are already used to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films being interconnected, so they have to watch some of the previous films to know what's happening. To me that's acceptable. But "The Marvels" takes it a step further. Important characters were introduced in the mini-series "Ms. Marvel", and background information was given in the mini-series "Secret Invasion". Both of these series were broadcast on Disney Plus. Is it acceptable to expect people to subscribe to a streaming service before going to the cinema? No way! That's probably the main reason for the poor box office figures.

Okay, I'm one of the lucky people who subscribes to Disney Plus. I've got over that hurdle. I can understand the film. So do I like it?

Another problem is that something else is missing. There's an untold story that's often mentioned in "The Marvels", but we've never seen it on screen, not even in flashbacks. At some point in the past, Captain Marvel destroyed the Kree's Supreme Intelligence, leading to a civil war and ecological disasters. She's now called the Annihilator. This would have been an exciting film, if it had ever been made. And it wouldn't have needed any Disney mini-series to prop it up.

The new leader of the Kree is Dar-Benn. Wasn't she a man in the comics? It's also weird that she carries the staff of Ronan the Accuser. In the comics the Accusers were senior officials, acting as judges and executioners, but they weren't the rulers. Or maybe this apparent blunder can be explained as a result of the Kree civil war.

Captain Marvel is now accompanied by two other women, variations of herself. They're Monica Rambeau (who refuses to carry a Marvel-ish name) and Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel from the Disney series). They're linked to one another by some pseudo-scientific cosmic occurrence that I doubt even the scriptwriters understood. I can see where it's coming from: the male Captain Marvel used to swap places with Rick Jones. In a vaguely similar way Captain Marvel and the Mini-Marvels swap places whenever they use their powers. Incidentally, the exchange with Rick Jones was powered by the nega bands that Captain Marvel wore in the comics. In the film they're incorrectly called quantum bands. The quantum bands in the comics are also Kree artefacts, but something different.

Ms. Marvel wears one quantum band, Dar-Benn wears the other. Dar-Benn wants to unite the two bands in order to return the Kree homeworld Hala to its former glory. With only one band, she's forced to create new jump points to suck air or water from other planets and transfer it to Hala. A jump point is a portal from one point in space to another. In the comics jump points were created by the Kree thousands of years ago, but in the films their origins are vague.

The film isn't an absolute disaster. There's a lot of action, interspersed with occasional comedy. For instance, Captain Marvel is married to the leader of a planet in which all communication is carried out by singing. As soon as the Mini-Marvels talk normally, no one understands them.

"The Marvels" isn't a complete disaster like "The Eternals", but it's still the MCU film that made the biggest loss. What's embarrassing was the way the box office flop was explained. Brie Larson claimed that fans stayed away because they were misogynistic and wouldn't accept a female team. What a stupid thing to say! I doubt this was an issue for many fans. Comic book fans, especially young men, like films with sexy women. Doesn't Brie know that?

For me, the most appealing character in the film is Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan. She's such a charismatic teenager, always a pleasure to see on the screen. Brie Larson seems to have been written out of future MCU films, due to her arguments with Marvel Studios. I hope Iman will be used in future films. She has too much talent to be wasted.

I tried to like the film today. I've managed to give it an extra half star. It doesn't deserve more.

Success Rate:  - 1.1

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de