The Marvels Reviews Are Mixed: Marvelous Trio Leads “Silly” Captain Marvel Sequel

Does The Marvels soar higher, further, faster than Captain Marvel? According to critics who published their reviews Wednesday for the 33rd installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not quite. The first reactions that surfaced online on Tuesday praised the relatively snappy 105-minute runtime and the entangled trio of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), but the first full reviews that landed on Rotten Tomatoes seem mixed on the sillier tone and a scattershot plot bogged down by The Marvels‘ connections to Disney+ series WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, and Secret Invasion.

“The Marvels is an exemplary example that Marvel’s blockbustersuperhero formula is absolutely still worthwhile, if it is injected withthis much heart, brevity, and trust in its audience,” writes Jenna Anderson in ComicBook‘s review praising the lead trio of Larson, Parris, and Vellani, who make for an ensemble that powers The Marvels to a fun romp.

Despite a weighty final trailer that suggested The Marvels was akin to Avengers: Endgame, critics seem to agree that the Captain Marvel sequel has more in common with the bubblegum silliness of Thor: Love and Thunder despite a star-making turn for Ms. Marvel breakout Vellani and playful performances from Parris and Larson. We’ve rounded up more excerpts from The Marvels reviews below: 

The Marvels Reviews

Variety: “As Taika Waititi established in his Thor films, there’s a place inthe MCU for wackjob silliness. But in The Marvels, the bits of absurdcomedy tend to feel strained, because they clash with the movie’s mostlyutilitarian tone…The leaps in tone would be less jarring if The Marvels weren’t soskittery and episodic. You can weave the plot together in your head, butyou may have a harder time pretending to know why it matters — notwithin the metastasizing mythos of the MCU, but simply on its own.”

The Hollywood Reporter: “As with most MCU offerings, the problem is in the plotting. The Marvelstakes on more than it can responsibly handle in its brisk runtime (awelcome 1 hour and 45 minutes), which means abrupt endings and discardedthreads… still, when it comes to the relationship between the three leads, The Marvels delivers. Larson, Parris and Vellani have a natural and infectious rapport. Theirundeniable chemistry anchors one of the stronger threads of The Marvels.”

IndieWire: “As good as [the leads and humor] are, when stacked up inside an otherwise scattered, choppy, and often incoherent film, they also feel like stinging reminders of what could have been (a better film) and what needs to happen now (a total MCU reset). There are long stretches in The Marvels in which I had no idea what was going on, perhaps because I’m (somehow) not up on every Marvel machination, but likely because the film feels edited and snipped and trimmed within an inch of its life. Moment to moment, scene to scene, beat to beat, there are — there have to be — promising patches of cut material on an editing bay floor somewhere.” 

TheWrap: “It’s silly and makes little sense, but it’s such a fun time at themovies. And isn’t that why we go to see movies in the first place?Vellani is magical and the film captures the pure essence of whysuperheroes are so beloved. Parris and Larson are also good, but theyreally just back up for Kamala Khan to, rightfully, shine. Take thekids, have fun and don’t think too hard about it.” 

Associated Press: “The stakes feel immensely low in The Marvels,and it’s not because this is a movie that spends a fair amount of timefollowing cats or has an out-of-nowhere musical number. It’s possiblythat somewhere along way, Marvel movies just stopped feeling likeevents. And this galactic trifle from director Nia DaCosta does not seemto be the one to make them feel like a must again for anyone who hasnot kept up with all their Disney+ series and who has forgotten whatphase the MCU is in and why it matters.”

The Guardian: “It is all, of course, entirely ridiculous, butpresented with such likablehumour and brio, particularly the Marvels’visit to a planet where everyone sings instead of speaks. On this planetCarol is a princess, a setpiece presumably placed in the story purelyso that Larson can showcase an adorable ‘princess’ outfit, part of thisfilm’s bid for the tween-sleepover customer base. Larson, Harris andVellani are an entertaining intergalactic ensemble.”

USA Today: “Vellani is a welcome sparkplug, Parris gets moreto do than she did in a supporting role on “WandaVision,” while Larsonturns in her best Marvel performance to date. For much of the original [Captain Marvel], Carol bounced between confusion and bravado and didn’t havemuch of a character, whereas in Marvels the actress can really diginto Carol as a loner who needs to hash out old issues with Monica, dealwith fawning fangirl Kamala and also face a regrettable incident fromher past.”

Chicago Sun-Times: “This is a direct sequel to the far superior Captain Marvel and takes place after events in the TV series Ms. Marvel, Secret Invasion and Wandavision, withthe action set primarily off-Earth, on various green-screen ships andplanets that aren’t particularly stunning or original. Even moreregrettably, some of the battle sequences are clumsily staged and attimes come across as only slightly improved updates on the fights on theold [Adam West] Batman TV series, only with CGI enhancement.”

New York Post: “If you thought Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania were low points for the limping Marvel Cinematic Universe, strap in for the ride to abject misery that is The Marvels... the worst MCU movie yet. Is there anything good about The Marvels? Yes, there is. At one hour and 45 minutes, it is the shortest MCU movie ever made.”

NewsDay: “With more than 30 films, nearly 500 series episodes and surelymillions of comics, the shared Marvel universe would seem to be abottomless well. But I have seen the bottom, and it is The Marvels. Despiteall the dopey plots and intergalactic McGuffins, the movies can be funny(Guardians of the Galaxy), charming (the current Spider-Man entries), even moving (Avengers: Infinity War). Not everything hasto be Citizen Kane. But there’s no reason to settle for fan-servicingjunk, either. Sorry, but The Marvels is where I draw the line.” 

Starring Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson,Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-joon, and directed by Nia DaCosta, The Marvels is playing only in theaters November 10.