There have been a lot of negative comments about the latest MCU film, The Marvels from the reviewers that I usually listen to or follow. And I understand perfectly that I am more likely to like this than most people considering my background with Marvel. To call me the target audience would not be a stretch. I have also been a fan of almost everything Marvel Studios has put out (I’m looking at you, Secret Invasion).

So going into The Marvels with a little trepidation because of the reviews (even though it is currently at 61% on Rotten Tomatoes, so considered FRESH), I was nervous.

I am pleased to say that I thought this was a lot of fun and that I enjoyed myself watching it. It is definitely messier than many of the other Marvel Studios movies, but, for me, that did not distract from the key of this film.

That key is the three lead women of the film, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel. Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani have such an easy chemistry with each other and they are truly well written. Iman Vellani is a joy and she is charming. She was great in the Ms. Marvel Disney + series and they bring her right into this without skipping a beat. I really believe that Iman Vellani can be the next face of the MCU if done properly. She is a star.

I did enjoy the conflicts that were there between the leading ladies, especially with Carol and Monica. It just felt as if these conflicts were too surface level and could have been deeper and were dealt with too quickly.

They also included Kamala’s family, actors Saagar Shaikh, Zenobia Shroff, and Mohan Kapur, in The Marvels. While it was great to see them again and they did provide some wonderful moments grounding the character bits with Kamala, but they were part of the messy aspects of the film too as Nick Fury brought them aboard the spaceship for some reason.

I have heard a couple critics talk about two major things that were too silly, and ruined the tone of the film. I think a big reason why you may not like this movie is that these two moments bother you. Those who want more serious superhero movies or who may not believe the humor worked well will probably allude to these scenes as the ones that ruin the film. For me, neither of these moments (one deals with cats, one deals with music) bothered me in the slightest, but I have never been opposed to some silliness in my superhero movies.

The villain of The Marvels was Kree warrior Dar-Benn, played by Zawe Ashton, was admittedly weak. There was not a ton of development for her, much like Ronan the Accuser, her predecessor, was in Guardians of the Galaxy. She did have motives that were potentially good, but she was approaching this in too much of a vengeful manner. There have been considerably better villains in the MCU than Dar-Benn.

The special effects of the film were up and down. Much of the CGI was really good, but there were enough moments that stick out to notice.

The last scene of the movie is really like a post credit scene and involves a great cameo that I did not expect to see but was totally welcomed. Meanwhile, the actual mid-credit scene had a cameo that had been spoiled for me, but it opened up a huge area for the MCU.

One problem here is that if you had not watched the Ms. Marvel or WandaVision Disney + shows, you would be more confused than you should be. That is, again, not a problem for me considering that I watch all of these Marvel Disney + shows. However, the normal film goers might struggle at times with the new characters. The film does an okay job of letting us know who these characters are and some details, but it just has a lot to get through considering Monica was involved in 9 episodes of WandaVision and Ms. Marvel had 6 episodes of her own show. I do think that is an issue that Marvel Studios needs to address moving forward.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Iman Vellani was wonderful and I liked both Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris too. There are a lot of Goose the cat (actually the Flerken). The Marvels had its messy moments but it was fun and entertaining.

4 stars