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(For Day 23 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem involving a superhero, so what better inspiration than an actual superhero movie?)

Never meet your heroes,
So the sayings go.
Let them be paragons up on their pedestal,
Marvels, Amazing, Fantastic, Incredible,
Always impressive and never forgettable,
Better the less that you know.

But given the chance to be heroes,
How can we resist?
To get a good look at the celebratory
Defenders of goodness in all of their glory,
The feet made of clay, just a little bit gory,
The things we would rather have missed.
That’s one idol less on the list….
_________________________

MPA rating: PG-13

I think it’s clear to everyone that Marvel has lost much of its former glory. Since Infinity War and Endgame, the MCU has been deluged with more content and yet seems to be suffering from diminishing returns with every new entry. All that said, I’m still 100% along for the ride and have found much to enjoy even in the lesser installments (not Thor: Love and Thunder, though).

The Marvels has clearly been set up over time, bringing together Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers with two characters established in Disney+ series: Jersey City fangirl and mutant Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), who gained Green Lantern-ish abilities from a magic bangle in Ms. Marvel, and former S.W.O.R.D. agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), the daughter of Carol’s Air Force buddy, who gained light-based powers from interacting with Scarlet Witch’s Hex field in WandaVision. Some may balk at the amount of non-movie homework needed on these characters’ backstories, but The Marvels is still a mostly fun romp without that prior knowledge.

For reasons thinly explained, all three of these heroines find themselves suddenly switching places whenever they use their powers at the same time, an inconvenient development since vengeful Kree leader Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) is intent on stealing the resources of other planets to save her homeworld. The character interactions are often the film’s greatest strength, since Carol and Monica have a shared and strained bond through Monica’s dead mother Maria. Meanwhile, Kamala brings the Peter Parker exuberance as a diehard fan of Captain Marvel, giddy to be working alongside her childhood hero.

I won’t deny that The Marvels has glaring weaknesses, mainly in its tonal shifts. It’s full of goofy moments (including a lame scene that feels like a little girl’s fantasy that she convinced the screenwriters to somehow work in), yet the battle with Dar-Benn involves world-ending consequences, making it rather egregious that one planet is written off as doomed and never mentioned again. Dar-Benn herself is quite a generic villain who hardly seems like she should be a threat considering what Carol was capable of in Endgame. And then there’s Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), an always welcome presence yet wildly more lighthearted here compared with the serious version seen in the Secret Invasion series just a few months before this film’s release.

Yet despite its weak plotting and a villain plan ripped straight from Spaceballs, I still am a sucker for Marvel’s brand of superheroics. The idea of characters swapping locations, even across the galaxy, is a fun concept well-utilized for both humor and action. Larson is still only moderately interesting as a protagonist, even with Parris for dramatic support, but Vellani is a joyful addition to inject levity where needed, and I liked how her family was kept around for laughs as well. And while it can border on cringy, the goofiness reaches its crescendo in a marvelously absurd sequence in the climax set to a Broadway showtune that had me giggling uncontrollably.

It is disappointing that The Marvels was such a comparative bomb for the MCU, the only entry to not earn back its budget. It definitely feels like a half-baked effort that could have used more time in development, but it’s still a likable and entertaining comic book movie with a healthy dose of girl power. Others may abandon ship, but there’s enough good still to keep me on board until the MCU finds its footing again.

Rank:  List Runner-Up

© 2024 S.G. Liput
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