The Marvels
2023
*½
Director: Nia DaCosta
Cast: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Samuel L. Jackson
A jump point anomaly creates an entanglement, which affects Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan. The three ladies eventually team up to fight Dar-Benn, a Kree leader who seeks revenge on Captain Marvel. In order to make any sense of the main trio, you need to have seen not only Captain Marvel (2019) but also two different Disney+ TV shows, WandaVision (2021), and Ms. Marvel (2022). I have seen them all, but the 33rd MCU feature starts off as a confusing mess, and ends as one of the worst releases in the franchise. The script is useless and DaCosta's movie is in a mad hurry to move forward, which doesn't allow any emotional moment to linger long enough to resonate. The tone is always light and playful, which means that there is a notable lack of danger to the world or the characters. While there is plenty of banter and attempted humour, I don't think I laughed once. The low-point is a visit to Planet Aladna, where the population communicates through song.
