The Marvels was directed by Nia Costa, is based on the Marvel comic of the same name, is a sequel to the 2019 film, “Captain Marvel” and is the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film sees Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani & Samuel L. Jackson all return to their respected roles from other MCU properties such as, “Captain Marvel”, “WandaVision” & “Ms. Marvel”. The remaining cast include Zawe Ashton, Gary Lewis & Park Seo-joon. This film takes place following the events of the “Ms. Marvel” spin-off series. The previous film was directed & co-written by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, but Marvel had decided to go in a different direction after the film’s lackluster reception.

In the final episode of “Ms. Marvel”, Kamala Khan (Vellani) inadvertently switches place with Captain Marvel, a.k.a Carol Danvers (Larson). Meanwhile, Nick Fury (Jackson) is working with a crew in space to monitor outer world threats after the events of “Secret Invasion”. Among his crew is Captain Monica Rambeau (Parris) who is an astronaut with the ability to manipulate electromagnetic energy after an encounter with Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a The Scarlett Witch (played in multiple films & shows by Elizabeth Olsen). Carol & Kamala meet with Fury & Monica to discuss their condition, but the reunion is short lived as they informed that a new has emerged by the name of Dar-Behn (Ashton), a Kree warrior & new leader of the empire after the fall of Ronan the Accuser (who was played by Lee Pace in 2 other MCU films). Dar-Behn’s plan is to harness the powers of the 3 women and use them to destroy multiple worlds while simultaneously restoring her own.

I wasn’t a fan of the first film & with the MCU having a string of disappointments in both the movies & the spin-off series, this film can only go up but unfortunately it didn’t. While the comradery & chemistry between the 3 main characters is amazing & entertaining, it’s the rest of the movie that is a big letdown. A very generic plot, an uninteresting villain & a mediocre costume design, this film has more focus on things that aren’t all that appealing. The main villain’s character arc was very similar to “General Zod” from Superman but the performance was not that great. The CGI works for this film rather than being used as a step stool like “Thor: Love & Thunder” or “The Flash”. It works for this type of movie with a sci-fi feel, much like the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy. When I first saw the trailer for this film, my sister told me that, “Is this Marvel’s version of ‘The Powerpuff Girls’?” And now having seen this film, all I can hear is the “Powerpuff” theme song when they fight together.

Overall, this was a lackluster film that focuses on the uninteresting instead of the entertaining aspects. Like I mentioned earlier, Marvel has had a string of disappointments following “Avengers: Endgame”. “Thor: Love & Thunder”, “Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania”, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” were the films & “Ms. Marvel”, “Secret Invasion”, “Hawkeye” & “What If…?” were all very underwhelming. Marvel needs to replicate to their original concept of introducing heroes and let them marinate on their own like the original 6 characters, all they’ve been doing is giving us more spin-offs and unnecessary sequels to characters that who haven’t been around that long. A character from one spin-off is getting their own spin-off. A SPIN-OFF IS GETTING THEIR OWN SPIN-OFF!! Make it make sense. “The Marvels” had an opportunity to help Marvel bounce back but it failed despite having fantastic performances from our 3 main characters. SPOILER ALERT……. The ending of this film did have my interest & the mid-credit scene is a great call back but can easily overlooked by anyone not familiar with the source material or by anyone not paying attention to the timeline. *WINK.