The Marvels
I’m late to the party for a lot of reasons, but I finally got to watch The Marvels tonight. I loved it! It’s not in the top tier of MCU movies for me, but solidly in the middle. The main issue is one that’s existed in the MCU for some time – a forgettable villain in Dar-Benn.
However, the interplay between the three leads (Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan, and Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau) makes up for a lot. If anything, the movie needed a bit more space to let them bond. Maybe less flerken shenanigans and more The Marvels, right?
General MCU Musings
Despite being enjoyable on its own, The Marvels did nothing to stop me from feeling that the MCU in Phases Four and Five is directionless. They’ve put out so much content post Endgame, but it has all varied wildly in quality. And with the pivot away from Kang, I have no idea where everything is going. When do we see Shang-Chi again? Moon Knight? Yelena? God forbid, the Eternals? The difference between Phase One and now is we had a very clear path we were treading before – to The Avengers. There are a LOT of heroes in play out there right now, but can they make them into a coherent team? Unfortunately, I think the person who could pull it off has already walked out the door, James Gunn.
In a perfect world, Iman Vellani is headlining a Young Avengers movie, with Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, America Chavez, maybe Yelena in there too. As it stands, things are too muddled, with every show and movie still technically being connected, but not driving towards anything. I know losing their villain has messed things up, but by this point we should have a clear path towards a new Avengers team. We don’t have anything firm right now. I’m still hopeful that things can improve, but they’ve got to show us something soon.
Final positive bit: I *loved* Kamala goofing on Fury’s original Iron Man appearance in Kate’s messy apartment.
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