The very first thing you notice when you start watching The Marvels is that it isn't a glaring disappointment like most other Marvel movies. The next thing is that it stars three beautiful stars of different ages and body types - Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel played by the stunning Brie Larson appearing slightly anorexic but still very pretty.
The wide-eyed Ms. Marvel played by the adorable Iman Vellani plays a fit teen with a high metabolism. Finally, a full-figured Teyonah Parris looks amazing next to the other two Marvels.
The Plot of The Marvels
The plot of this MCU movie is not extremely complex like most of the movies of late from the House of Mouse. Darr-Benn the Kree Supremor is out for blood, redemption, and vindication while trying to restore her home planet Kree.
After Captain Marvel went all Gordon Ramsay on the Supreme Intelligence (AI) of the Kree, there was a civil war, which ruined Hala and stripped the planet of its natural resources. So Darr-Benn is out to rob other planets of their resources to put Hala back together.
How Darr-Benn plans to do it involves light energy, superhero magic, MCU mumbo jumbo, and the core of the movie plot.
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The Cast
If you have been following even parts of the MCU including the series you will already be familiar with most of the cast in this series. Darr-Benn is new, however, played by the "weirdly pretty but terrifying" (Kamala Khan's words) Zawe Ashton.
Zenobia Shroff plays a pretty Muneeba Khan who is the mother of Kamala Khan alongside an Indian staple Mohan Kapoor playing Yusuf Khan, the father.
There's also Park Seo-joon whom I didn't know specifically, but do know of K-drama - so there's that. Park plays a prince of a beautiful ocean planet who comes off as a bit androgynous but still quite handsome.
One interesting face I recognized is Daniel Ings who plays Ty-rone the Kree soldier. Ings is someone I remember from Season 1 of Sex Education on Netflix who hooks up with Gillian Anderson playing Dr. Jean F Milburn.
The Execution
Good! The special effects - both CGI and practical were well utilized, with the story and editing done well with good pacing and plot devices. The past few movies of Marvel have been so bad that even an average MCU flick looks amazing next to the joyless movies out there.
I don't know why people didn't go out to see this movie when it came out, is it because MCU kept crying Wolf with their bad movies? or just bad timing? Even some of the possibly cringey moments in this movie were handled surprisingly well.
One of my favorite moments in the movie was seeing the technology Arthur C Clarke talked about in his book "The Songs of Distant Earth." In the book, Clarke tells us how huge blocks of ice are transported through energy beams to build a navigational shield for a spacecraft.
In The Marvels, you get to see how this surface-to-space elevator tech works. Pretty damn cool and not impossible to accomplish in this century. After all, it was Arthur who gave us the idea for a geostationary satellite.
Should You Watch This? Yes! It's Fun and Light!
Don't go into this movie with Endgame level expectations and you should be fine. This movie is a fun little flick that you can watch that is light and breezy - lots of laughs, action, and your favorite superheroes.