The Marvels

By: Malasha Parker

A female-led action-packed, refreshing and delightful ride through space and time, a new installment into the Marvel Universe is here. Director Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels delivers a fun watch for all to enjoy. The upbeat installment brings together Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and the chemistry between the three leads consistently shines throughout the film and allows for viewers to experience a fresh new dynamic in the Marvel universe. 

A Kree revolutionary arises and brings Carol and Monica back together after they’ve been estranged for some time. Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) leads the pack and brings chaos by opening an anomalous wormhole that links Kamala, Monica and Carol together causing them to switch places when their powers are used. The three, with the help of some friends like Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Prince Yan (Seo-Jun Park), work together to save the universe.

Seeing these three dynamic women team up and fight in a film filled with action and movement through space is exhilarating to watch. One of the best parts of this movie lies within the energetic interactions Kamala has with her idol Carol and the way she steals the screen when she gets involved in all the action. Director DaCosta uses this film to really showcase that admiration and what it means to Kamala to be able to team up with Carol. I really liked seeing the dynamic between the three leads. Seeing Teyonah Parris in anything gets an automatic watch from me, but getting to watch Kamala Khan in action and her light and playful nature interacting with the others made me want to immediately watch The Marvels. Also, as a K-Drama fan, it was fun to see Seo-Jun Park in a Marvel film. The entire time the three spent at Aladna was just very well shot. A place where everybody only sings doesn’t sound like that great of a time, but seeing the girls get their suits and crack some jokes while there was actually quite great!

DaCosta’s The Marvels keeps a consistent pace throughout the film. While I do wish we would have gotten to see the girls in some places longer, I don’t believe the fast pacing of the film took away from the enjoyment of watching it in any way. There were many areas that allowed for there to be sensitive and sentimental connections between Carol and Monica, even though I did feel some of these emotional points may seem rushed and not fully-fleshed out before they could be fully processed. Nonetheless, those heartbreaking moments like when we see images of Monica’s mom when her and Carol were all together or when we see Kamala witness the hard decisions her idol has to make when faced with a difficult situation, the movie manages to hit the right emotional notes. One thing about this film is that it didn’t allow space for there to be a ton of background knowledge into the characters. While we did see drawings and flashbacks, those scenes were only used where they were needed and not overly done. This is something that adds to this being a shorter Marvel movie. 

Nia DaCosta continues to showcase women in a beautiful light and show us once again what having a female director can do for a film. If you love seeing the women of the Marvel universe do great action scenes, provide heartwarming moments and just be amazing in a film together, then you should definitely watch The Marvels.  Seeing the trio lined up in a powerful formation and doing superhero stances and landings made for a lively and enthusiastic Marvel movie!