Graphic designed by SC Cassano

On November 10, the Marvel Cinematic Universe added a new installment. The Marvels is the story of three female superheroes that find themselves inextricably connected after an accident joins their powers. Together, they must defeat one of the protagonists’ old enemies by learning how to work together and communicate. 

I will not lie, Marvel did have its peak in movie quality in phase three, which spanned 2016 through 2019 and included 11 films. These included Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, which was the highest grossing movie of the year. After Marvel expanded onto Disney+, they have been producing a lot more content and the quality of their movies and shows started declining. After the Marvel Cinematic Universe expanded onto Disney+ they stopped being as effortlessly funny and started being more unintentionally complicated. To fully understand the background lore of The Marvels, you need to watch WandaVision, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and all of the other movies and shows that are required to understand those movies and shows. However, my mom, who had only seen one Marvel movie before she watched The Marvels, was able to understand and enjoy it as a film even though she didn’t fully understand the backstory. 

The Marvels attempted to incorporate some elements that haven’t been previously seen in the Marvel movies. In addition, there was also a part of the story in which the protagonists travel to a planet where the language of the people is song and there were several scenes that closely resembled a Disney princess movie with lots of singing and dancing. This is not something I was looking for in a Marvel movie and it did not add much to the story except for awkward and forced scenes. I would be willing to overlook a plot line that doesn’t really add to the story if it is entertaining, but the musical planet scenes add absolutely nothing to the plot and are not entertaining at all, therefore being entirely pointless. 

However, The Marvels did have some redeeming qualities. It had lots of the lighthearted, sarcastic humor that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for, and it also had lots of action. It had all the hallmarks of a good Marvel movie and felt like a callback to the phase two and phase three movies. Despite the forced plotline about the musical planet, The Marvels was a generally silly and a good movie. It wasn’t very difficult to understand, which is a common criticism of the newer Marvel movies. The runtime was only 1 hour and 45 minutes which meant that the plot moved along relatively quickly and made the movie more engaging. This is unlike the runtime of the 2022 Marvel film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which was 2 hours and 41 minutes. It was harder to stay focused while watching Wakanda Forever because the plot moved at a very slow pace. 

I am the type of person who just wants to be entertained by a movie and isn’t looking for deeper meanings. The Marvels is a simple yet enjoyable film that is easier and more fun to consume than many of the overly complicated movies within this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  For this reason, I would recommend The Marvels for people who want to watch something that is more silly than serious. And though it has a few forced plotlines and can struggle to capture viewers’ interest because of the complicated backstory, it was a very entertaining movie.