Wednesday, November 22, 2023

The Marvels

Today, my sister and I went to the theaters to see “The Marvels,” which came out 12 days ago. Seeing how this is not performing well at the box office and getting above-average reviews on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, how is this latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

With “The Marvels,” Kevin Feige and the team in charge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe proves to fans that the unusual fun of “Thor: Love and Thunder” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” is not going anywhere

Director/co-writer Nia DaCosta’s merging of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) skillfully produces the narrative features of “Captain Marvel,” “WandaVision,” and “Ms. Marvel” with abundant laughs and Marvel’s usual top-notch action – though with some main roughness.

As the trio strangely switches places and thoughts are made by Nick Fury, reprised by Samuel L. Jackson, and the women themselves think about why they’re connected, there’s a strong feeling that scenes have been removed. Edwin Arnaudin said in his review, “But the fan-girling by teenage Kamala at being around her idol Captain Marvel gleefully patches up the storytelling holes, as does the unspoken tension between Monica and her “Aunt” Carol.”

At the center of the protagonists’ link are sneaky attempts by Kree warrior Dar-Benn, played by Zawe Ashton, to restore natural resources to her droughted home planet Hala, whose troubles are technically Captain Marvel’s fault, despite the good intentions around Carol’s actions. Despite this villain not being well-developed, her threat to decimate planets close to Carol is, and that’s enough to insert our protagonists into a series of exciting set pieces.

Arnaudin said, “Throughout these intergalactic adventures, DaCosta proves she can handle the challenges of a big budget production and wisely recruits MCU TV vets Megan McDonnell (WandaVision) and Elissa Karasik (Loki) to help her with the script. Together, they bring viewers to such wondrously goofy places as Aladna, where the native language is song, and make terrific use of Carol’s ginger “cat” sidekick Goose, who’s actually a Flerken that swallows people and other large objects with the aid of multiple oral tentacles.”

The addition of countless baby Flerkens in Fury’s crew’s time of need is particularly inspired, as is the unavoidable fight between Dar-Benn and our three protagonists, whose combination of powers excitingly renders to the big screen. Arnaudin said, “In the process, plentiful humor and heart intertwine to successful ends and, in classic MCU fashion, the tag scenes set up multiple intriguing follow-up chapters.”

As long as these actors and filmmakers are involved in making these future movies, everything will be fine with the MCU.

My sister and I got to the theater late, but when we were buying our tickets, the cashier reassured us that previews should still be playing. When we got into the theater, the screen was blank. Then when commercials started playing, the screen was still black. I and another person had to go to the usher and let him know that the commercials were playing over a black screen. After the commercials were done, it took a little bit before the trailers started to play. I think someone went out to let them know again that there was a delay. I never had this issue before at this theater, so maybe there were just some technical difficulties on this particular day.

I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard at a movie. This film had me cracking up so many times in the theater, that my cheeks were hurting. My sister and I both agreed that this is one of the better MCU movies that we have had in a while. Another one of my favorites. If you hear from people that this is not good, don’t listen to them. This is one of the funniest, action-packed, emotional, humanizing installments in the MCU. Well worth the price of admission. Go see it in the theaters and have a great time.

Spoiler alert: in the mid-credits scene, Monica wakes up to find herself in a different universe where she is being nursed back to health by Hank McCoy aka the Beast, reprised by Kelsey Grammar. This must be a sign that the X-Men are going to be included in the MCU soon. However, I wonder if Disney will be picking up where Fox left off before they were bought or are going to restart the franchise. I don't think they should because some of the Fox "X-Men" movies were really good.

Thank you for joining in on the review tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow when I review my yearly “Thanksgiving Day Movie Reviews.”

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