Year of Release: 2023
Director: Nia DaCosta
Starring: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson, Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis, Park Seo-joon, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Leila Farzad, Abraham Popoola, Lashana Lynch, Tessa Thompson, Daniel Ings, Alex Hughes
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Amazon
Synopsis and Review
Writer/director Nia DaCosta has followed her successful take on Clive Barker's "Candyman" by embracing a completely different universe, this time around a sequel to the very successful "Captain Marvel", also coincidentally directed by a duo more used to independent filmmaking, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The film focuses on three different characters who come together unexpectedly, but united under the same desire to vanquish a villainous force who threatens to destroy an entire civilization. Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel since her last adventure, has destroyed the AI which led the Kree empire. In doing so, she also left the planet in shambles and with some major issues with natural resources. The new Kree leader, Dar-Benn, is intent on getting her revenge, and in order to do so, she wants to get her hands on a pair of Quantum Bands. She manages to retrieve one, however unbeknownst to her, the other one lies with the young Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel. Dar-Benn's toying with the Quantum Band, as well as Carol and Monica Rambeau's investigations on those anomalies, leads to some disruptive coincidences, as the anomalies cause for Carol/Monica and Kamala to exchange locations the minute they use their powers. The three realize Dar-Benn is targeting planets that are meaningful to Carol, as she's pursuing her vengeance, while also retrieving the resources her home planet needs. The three Marvels unite their powers to prevent further destruction from occurring.
I'll admit to the fact that I have not watched the large majority of Marvel Studios' tv shows (save for Secret Wars, which was not particularly enticing). Most of the characters that populated this film were unknown to me, and the script didn't necessarily provide much in terms of introduction or contextualization as to who they actually were (or are for that matter). And that turns out to be one of the main issues with this film: it doesn't know which tone to adopt or what to focus on. While "Captain Marvel" was a sufficiently well realized adventure film, told from a female point of view, with barely defined characters, this one comes across as a Nickelodeon adventure for children, without even minimally establishing any distinguishable characters, including the main antagonistic forces. This film isn't so much the "Charlie's Angels" of comic books, and even though at times it tries to bring quite a bit of the spirit of "Spider-Man" into the narrative, with the whole friendly neighbor super-hero (courtesy of "Ms. Marvel"), all these lines are tangled in a way that while trying to be funny, it reduces whatever little complexity or nuance the other Marvel films had, to essentially nothing. The films from this studio have recently reached an apex where their contributors and creative teams are so self centered in their own universe, their own limited formula, and the rules they've established for themselves, they seem to forget that a well conceived narrative, well established characters, and coherence in storytelling are fundamental for viewers to actually care about what is happening on screen. Gratuitous visual effects may be wonderful to look at, but they typically should support a well devised narrative, which is not this case. All these lead characters seem to be supporting very different films, and while the juvenile tone of the film may introduce some pedestrian humor, it still can't hide the fact that it doesn't have much to say, and it's a rather vapid exercise. The few highlights the film has go to Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson, both great actors who deserve much better, and also for the production team, particularly Sean Bobbitt's cinematography and Lindsay Pugh's costume design. The problem isn't superhero fatigue, the crux lies with writing better storylines and not being so self indulgent. This film is a pass.
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