‘The Marvels’ Doesn’t Deserve All the Hate

by Alexis Gentry · Published November 8, 2023 · Updated November 8, 2023

Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios' THE MARVELS — (L-R): Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, and Teyonah Parris as Captain Monica Rambeau in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.

Check out the quick review for The Marvels on TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube.

Let’s be honest, superhero burnout is real. In the pre-Endgame era, Marvel movies used to be a big event, but the seemingly endless barrage of mediocre Disney+ shows and extra content has flooded the market. Couple that with non-Marvel flops like The Flash and it’s understandable that people might be less than jazzed about the release of The Marvels.

This film sees Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) team up with Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) to fight off Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), your classic generic, forgettable Marvel villain. Dar-Benn is stealing resources from various planets in an attempt to resurrect her own dying civilization and get revenge on Captain Marvel.

Zawe Ashton as Dar-Benn and Daniel Ings as Ty-Rone in Marvel Studios' THE MARVELS — (Center, L-R): Zawe Ashton as Dar-Benn and Daniel Ings as Ty-Rone in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.

Because there’s no nuance on the internet, you’re probably going to hear that this movie is either a shining beacon of representation in media or that it’s “woke Hollywood” trying to push an agenda. The truth is that it’s neither of those things. It’s really just a fine, kind of generic, somewhat fun comic book movie.

Most of the loudest complaining comes from people who are upset that this movie stars three women in the leading roles and has a Black woman at the helm with director Nia DaCosta, who directed 2021’s Candyman.

In reality, while it does have those things, this is very much your standard late-era Marvel product and doesn’t deserve any more hate than the last few movies that came before it. In fact, the CGI looks much better than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the characters are far less annoying than Thor: Love and Thunder.

The Marvels is also one of the few Marvel movies to clock in under two hours with a pace that feels tight and only drags in a couple spots where the tone seems to shift from serious to silly.

Flerkittens in Marvel Studios' THE MARVELS — Flerkittens in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2023 MARVEL.

Those silly moments were highlights for me, giving off a bit of a Guardians of the Galaxy feel, though you could definitely tell they scaled back the weirdness just a bit.

Sadly, we know this movie probably won’t perform particularly well at the box office despite being no worse than the last few Marvel films. We’re at the peak of Marvel backlash and there are already thousands of angry YouTube videos blaming Larson for the downfall of the MCU.

While The Marvels might not be something to rush out to the theater for, it will make for a fun watch once it hits Disney Plus.