The Marvel Machine destroys 'The Marvels'
Good actors and characters are left at the mercy of a franchise growing too big.
Much ink has been spilled – or, more appropriately, pixels used – to talk about the critical and box office failure of The Marvels. Its $46 million opening weekend was the lowest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and this past weekend it dropped an abysmal 77%, barely clearing $10 million at the box office. It’s technically “fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes, but 62% is a far cry from the heights of Iron Man, Black Panther or Guardians of the Galaxy. Critics who want to see the MCU finally crash and burn smell blood in the water, and there’s a sense of glee to its struggles that I find a bit off-putting.
I wasn’t able to see The Marvels until this past weekend; I was out of town when we had a press screening and I had other obligations the weekend of its release. I finally took my kids to see it Friday night; the fact that I was willing to wait a week probably shows just how much the MCU is fading in my own esteem. Just a year or two ago, I would have made sure I saw it opening weekend, even if it meant opting for a Thursday night show. Judging by the handful of people in the theater for our Friday night show, it seems the public has quickly moved on from this latest release.
And listen, The Marvels isn’t a great movie by any stretch; I don’t know that I could even call it “good,” from a critic’s perspective. The Marvel machine, which requires that everything be connected and part of a larger overarching story, threatens to eat it alive1. It’s been four years since Captain Marvel, and The Marvels requires that we not only remember the events of that movie but that we also are up to date with Monica Rambeau’s superhero status and family trauma – both of which were only revealed in the Disney+ show WandaVision – as well as acquainted with teenage superhero Kamala Kahn, aka Ms. Marvel, from her own Disney+ series. I never did get around to watching the Nick Fury-led/Skrull-centric series Secret Invasion, and was left scratching my head during a scene involving a cameo by Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, which seems to suggest some Skrull resettlements that must have been explained there.
The Marvels is only 100 minutes long – the shortest film in MCU – and it starts off with the burden of catching the unacquainted up with these characters. On top of that, it also tosses in one of the most anemic and unmemorable villains in the MCU, who is mad at Captain Marvel for destroying her planet in the last fight — which might be interesting if the movie grappled much at all with Captain Marvel’s guilt or gave her some sort of internal tension. Instead, the movie just barrels ahead, generating and solving emotional conflicts in the space of a scene, and spending long stretches where you can almost feel the actors stranded, waiting for that day’s updated script to be delivered.
Nia DaCosta is a talented director who’s had previous success in the horror genre, but the studio machine grinds her up and spits her out. Many of the movie's non-action stretches feel weightless and forced, straining for a laugh or trusting the actors to tread water. Interesting ideas are brought up and then quickly discarded; a mid-film visit to a planet in which everyone communicates in song could have been fascinating. But every few seconds, the scene is undercut with a joke, and just when it feels like the moment is ramping up, it waves its hands with a gag and moves on, as if everyone involved was embarrassed. Captain Marvel’s tension with Monica Rambeau, and her guilt with being known as “The Annihilator” by the villains are brought up and solved in the space of a scene, the quicker to cut away to a sitcom-level gag with Kamala’s family or to let Samuel L. Jackson mug for the camera. Marvel movies have felt weightless and messy before, but this is the first one in which the MCU itself seems embarrassed and disinterested in the entire affair, and eager to just cut to the mid-credits reveal (which, of course, promises more big crossovers and incursions and twists).
And it’s a shame, because there’s a better movie hidden deeply in the mess. The three main characters are a lot of fun, particularly in their scenes together. Yes, Larson seems lost and bored when she has to command an action scene, but the moments in which she, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani are just hanging out aboard her ship or learning how to harness their powers have strong chemistry and hint at a fun movie. The action sequences themselves, which involve a lot of teleporting and nearly farce-like levels of swapping characters into new places, are energetic and fun. There’s a scene set to “Memories” from Cats that is silly and worth some big laughs. And Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel continues to give one of the most enthusiastic and enjoyable performances in the post-Endgame MCU. Whatever mistakes this movie makes, Ms. Marvel is not one of them, and Marvel Studios needs to really be in the Kamala Kahn game and make her a crucial part of this next phase.
I don’t even think The Marvels is the worst of the current MCU crop. It’s more coherent than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and more enjoyable and focused than Wakanda Forever. It’s better than about half of the Disney+ shows. For so much of the blame for the MCU’s struggles to be laid on this movie is a shame; it’s not this movie’s fault, so much as the faulty of Disney and Marvel Studios for forcing this through the machine and robbing it of a chance to be its own fun, weird thing.
We’re about to get a long break in the MCU – the longest non-pandemic-induced break we’ve had since 2010. The only film on the slate next year is Deadpool 3, and I’m not sure of the Disney+ output. Daniel Destin Cretton recently left Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, as did the writers, and there are rumors than Jonathan Majors’ legal woes – and the cool reception to this phase of the MCU – could mean the studio moves on from having Kang at its center, forcing a rethink and new approach, potentially bringing in Doctor Doom from Fantastic Four.
A long break and a new direction might be a good thing. Marvel’s movies are far from the worst movies being produced – and they’re also far from the worst superhero movies of the last 10 years. But I think the constant deluge of movies and TV shows has made people weary, and some time off might be the best thing. Let Deadpool and Wolverine come in and riff on things and let the audiences miss Marvel while also letting the writers and producers figure out how to make it feel fresh and interesting again. This is actually something Kevin Feige is quite good at, as he’s found ways to salvage the Andrew Garfield-led Spider-Man movies and turn Thor: The Dark World into a weirdly integral piece of Avengers: Endgame. I think it’s too early to declare the MCU dead, and when these movies work, they can be a lot of fun. But something is gumming up the works right now, and the machine has to be shut down and re-examined.
It’s just a shame that The Marvels was the one that ground it to a halt.
Some are making the case that The Marvels’ b.o. failure is due to angry, misogynistic and racist dudebros. And while I do think there’s a contingent of angry white men men who like to cheer for the failure of any major property with women and people of color at the forefront, I don’t think that’s solely or mostly to blame for this. The biggest film of the year is Barbie, and both the first Captain Marvel and Black Widow were solid hits for the MCU. While I’m just as tired of the angry white dudes as anyone else, I think there’s more behind the struggles than that in this case.