THB #429: Is The Marvels The New "Worst MCU Film Ever"?

I was really hoping that the film would be better than anticipated. But it quickly announces itself as more of a Very Special Triple Episode of a Disney+ MCU show than as a feature film.

If you follow my criticism, you know that I have been complaining about Disney and almost everyone else who makes BIG movies overloading them with visual effects and losing connection to the characters. That is not the problem with The Marvels.

To start, Nia DaCosta who made a decent, but hardly great Candyman reboot, shoots the movie like a tv show. Literally. Close-up… close-up… close-up. There are, ultimately, plenty of wide shots and big effect shots, yes. But this director has no affinity for the use of space at all. Maybe she will evolve. Maybe she will stick to small, intimate dramas in the future. But this outing is an absolute visual disaster, as Marvel has been on this split track of Disney+ shows and features and this looks exactly like what 3 TV epsiodes struck together and thrown on the big screen would look like.

This is distinctly different from more intimate MCU films like the first Ant-Man or the Fox-made Logan in which the directors did understand space on a movie screen and used it judiciously, focusing more on character.

I have no idea what order the film was shot in, but watching it from its start, I was trying to figure out how Kevin Feige looked at the dailies and didn’t either force a major change or fire her as the director immediately. You can see very clearly, in each kind of scene, that the film looks like it was meant to be on a TV screen.

Were they saving money? Maybe. There is a lot that lacks visual intricacy. But if you want to go intimate, really go intimate. When the film is in the Khan home, I swear, it looks like outtakes from the TV series. You have to find a way to differentiate the visual experience of a TV show and a major feature. Fundemental.

Next, who the fuck is Dar-Benn and why is she the big villain in this film?

I didn’t know she existed going into the film… and I have watched the D+ TV shows. And I don’t really know much more coming out of the film.

While I have liked Zawa Ashton in the past, she, in no way, can carry the role of a villanous Big. She’s beautiful and looks tall. But she doesn’t deliver a strong enough personality here to remember. Villains get to chew scenery. She was chewing Nicorette.

Here is a giant note to Kevin Feige… stop trying to make Krees vs Skrulls a thing. 10% of your audience cares.

Here’s another one… pick a lane!!!!

Regardless of his legal status, Jonathan Majors seems to have been intended to be The Big Bad for the next era of the MCU. Or is it all about the Krees and Skrulls? Or is it about The Multiverse? Or is the focus on the quirky comedy of Taika’s Thor and The Guardians and yes, Ms. Marvel on D+.

Why is Spider-Man the only truly hot MCU character leading films at this point? Becuase we understand the story!!! Even when it gets as brilliantly complex as the animated Spider-Verse films, we understand a teen who gets powers beyond his full control maturing into the job while also trying to get laid for the first time and to go to college, etc.

Getting back to this movie…

It’s basically one joke. You know it. The 3 Marvels (one of whom isn’t a Marvel and suffers weak jokes about having no nickname from start to finish) switch places when they use their powers. Once they realize it, they need to figure out how to make this work so they can be a team and save… I don’t really know what they were really out to save… earth… everything… the Skrulls, maybe?

Here’s the problem… the joke barely works at its best. And for most of the film, it is not at its best. It is inconsistent and unclear. Sometimes, the effect happens instantly. Sometimes it happens after 30 seconds of a power being used. The most effective use of the gag is when they try to use the problem as a tool. But that is also when it is the most chaotic visually - way too fast to follow for real - and again, Nia DaCosta doesn’t have the skill set to make it work… almost ever.

For anyone who disagrees with this - small group - please tell me two beats in the film about switching that you found really memorable. I can’t remember one. I remember a bunch of moments when one of The Marvels is vulnerable and another pops in with power. But not a single beat that is really memorable, clever enough or fulfilling enough to remember.

The switching is a gag, not a movie.