Plot Summary – Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. However, unintended consequences see her shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with two other superheroes to form the Marvels.

★★★½ 

Watched 09 Nov 2023

As I see how poorly this film has been received I began to think about how much the goalposts have moved for me. I used to go into an MCU movie expecting a coherent plot, a developed villain, great action scenes, a memorable cast of side characters etc. I went into this movie hoping that it isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I felt kind of bad that the standards changed so much for what used to be something near and dear to me. I watched this with my bestie, Nikhil, who said “We would have lost in Endgame if Captain Marvel wasn’t there” and then five seconds later he was like “Why did I say we?” But that’s the thing, I used to think about those characters as “we”. When they felt something, I felt something.

Preamble aside, this movie was very watchable. They clearly took something that was a lot more morose and somber and hacked it to bits until they got something goofy, light-hearted, and fun. I can’t say that I particularly liked any of the characters other than Iman Vellani as Ms Marvel. She is the superglue that holds this movie together. She was such a fun and passionate presence and whenever she was on screen, the movie radiated with good vibes. I just wish the other characters, especially the villain, were fleshed out as well. It was really sad at times that the stakes had to be explained and you never felt it. They really tried to push the inter-connected relationships of these characters, but it never felt organic. The fight scenes, despite being CGI-heavy, were still really creative, entertaining, and really well edited. My main issue was that there was almost no plot, narrative or character arcs in this movie. It felt like everything remained the same and that really disappointed me.

To be honest, if you’re going into this expecting a good movie, then you’re bound to be disappointed. If you’re going with the intention of having a good time, then this film will do that on some level and for that I had to appreciate it. I liked this so much more than I thought I would.