As Marvels

The MCU has absolutely overstayed its welcome. Post Avengers Endgame, these projects have been feeling more and more like content than cinema (except the rare surprises like GOTG 3). Superhero fatigue, they call it and this movie does practically nothing but to amp it up to 11.

You watch the trailer, you know what happens. You bet on originality, you end up homeless. There's nothing new for me to say that I haven't already said about any of the other MCU content as of late. It's so generic that I'm confident a year from now, no one would remember this movie even existed. With every new MCU project, the jokes-per-minute ratio keeps getting worse, the villains are a writer's version of a stock photograph (I can't even remember the villain's name in this movie and it hasn't even been a day since I watched it), the CGI is so out there you can almost see the CGI artists' tears on screen, and it's getting more and more difficult to tell each MCU project apart cos they're all just the same.

The only few positives I can identify here are actresses Iman Vellani and Brie Larson (Larson, who seems much more relaxed and settled into her superhero boots), and maybe the flashy action sequences. Otherwise, there's nothing here to watch, nothing here to experience and nothing here to enjoy. What a shame.

Anyone who heard the news about this project knows that the production was a nightmare, and it shows in the final product here. It's like they couldn't figure out what direction to go, so they made 4 versions, and blended them together. Which would explain the high budget, the 5 delays, and the reshoots. Kamala's character was probably the best part of the movie. I promise you, the script did her no favors, but she stood out. Her acting was in line with her character. This was probably an exciting opportunity for her, and she wasn't going to let a bad script, and production problems stop her from giving a great effort. However, the story, the dialogue, the musical gimmick, the weak villain. It just didn't work. I don't think the blame lies solely with the actors, or even the director, who did lack the experience for helming a movie with a budget this size. I think Disney interfered heavily with the production, which almost always yields bad results. I think it was doomed to fail. They put so much pressure on this being successful, they forgot to make it coherent, unique, or interesting.

Unfortunately if you haven't got Disney plus and you don't keep to speed with the tv series, then you this movie won't make much sense as it relies on you knowing what's going on in that universe so far, which I'm not up to date with and involves the Miss Marvels characters which haven't been introduced in the movies. Confusing.

I had hoped that following Guardians 3 it could've get much worse for the Marvel universe, at least Guardians has Rocket😂

It's hard to find any plot to this movie. Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) does throw a lot of people through the roof but the plot is a quantum entanglement mess. The movie is blissfully short but feels longer as it's so bad and some people walked out of the theatre. I was so pleasantly when it ended.

I think it's about to retire the whole Marvel superhero franchise as this phase is going badly.

By far the worst Marvel movie so far, I am extremely disappointed. After the mess that Thor 4 was, I was hoping that Marvel learned its lesson, but it seems not. I am honestly happy this movie did bad at the box office, that's what you get for ruining such a great character (I loved Cpt. Marvel from the comics).

What makes it bad:

• Action moves way too fast from one scene to another
• No character improvement or growth by the end of the movie
• Things just happen with no storytelling
• Not serious enough, too childish for my taste
• Too many goofy moments (singing, really? We've come this low, Marvel?)
• End scenes that try to set the context for next movies seem forced and unnecessary

I also found two good things eventually:

• I liked the villain and her story, sympathized with her a bit
• At least the movie was not long.

These writers should never be hired again.

THE MARVELS is here and it's a mashed up film that is totally all over the place. It feels as if this film was edited and chopped into pieces during post and it shows.

Couple things I enjoyed, I did like seeing Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau resolve and acknowledge their relationship, but due to the nature of their characters being straight arrows, it allows Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan to be the audience just as Tom Holland's Peter Parker was in CIVIL WAR. I did not particularly enjoy the MS. MARVEL series, but I can see her being the shoutout for many.

I think the script just touched on the surface of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel herself, so diving into her more is a plus, however the story did her no favors once again and I did feel like she was given like four or five pieces of direction to portray her character compared to the more one-note performance in the first film. Teyonah Parris is commendable. She was the more science-y of the trio.

Samuel L. Jackson just feels inconsistent especially after SECRET INVASION. Feels like this Nick Fury is a variant. He's simply passing through in this film.

Another thing I liked was the incursions (also briefly touched on in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS). We all complained about the lack of planting seeds for the future leading into KANG DYNASTY and SECRET WARS. Finally, this film it at least preps and teases what's to come down the line.

The MCU's villain problem is a long known fact, but here it only cements their problem even further. Now I'm a fan of Lee Pace's over the top performance as Ronan, but Dar-Benn played by Zawe Ashton is literally a copy and paste of Ronan, but female. Nothing new about it. Definitely up there as one of the worst villains in the MCU.

The power swaps were kinda cool so I can give it that. Nia DaCosta does a good job executing the fight scenes, but again as one should expect, VFX is meh. Now if you cringed during the musical note duel between the two Doctor Strange, then wait till you see one segment of the film where it feels like a misplaced musical. Lots of quirky and annoying humor like one should expect in an MCU film.

The Skrulls are in the film and as a fan we always think we can write the better film after watching it, but I just DO NOT understand why this sequel couldn't have been SECRET INVASION(one of the worst MCU Disney+ shows). SECRET INVASION honestly should have been an Avengers film or at the very least a Captain Marvel sequel co-starring some Avengers, kinda like CIVIL WAR. I personally feel like that dilemma could have furthered Captain Marvel's development due to her involvement with them and how she's equally to blame for not helping them out when she and Fury promised to find them a home. But instead she's stuck with this material.

The mid-credit scene is arguably the best part. Once again teasing things to come. It's stuff that like that, that will maybe still garner interest in the MCU despite its current fall from grace. The end-credit scene is alright. Not particularly jazzed about that promise down the line.

On that note, the recent Variety article published about Marvel Studios talked about their behind the scenes trouble. It was said that Kevin Feige and his creative committee partook in their yearly Palm Springs retreat to regroup and refocus, so here's hoping to next year being more consistent with quality. Seemed like he was spread too thin with the mandate to have more quantity than quality.

THE MARVELS is a season 1.5 for MS. MARVEL and a CAPTAIN MARVEL sequel that we never saw due to the flashbacks and exposition to explain things. And let's be clear, at this point everything feels like homework. That was going to be inevitable moving forward after INFINITY WAR and ENDGAMGE, but especially when Disney+ was announced making Kevin Feige spread out too thin. But it only feels like homework because everything that has been released is below the standard of what Marvel set up for us.

So to sum it up, while I did find it slightly more appealing than the first CAPTAIN MARVEL and QUANTUMANIA, that isn't saying much. Low expectations definitely helped. Is THE MARVELS one of the worst? No, but it definitely belongs way down below the list.

5/10.