Samuel L Jackson stole every scene, and I hope that never stops...

In the grand scheme of the Marvel Universe, it's really not all that bad, and I'd genuinely say it's a fun time overall. The action is pumped-up to the max with some rather interesting choreography in terms of the heroes swapping places during certain sequences, there's some moments that had me properly laughing out loud, and it went in a few directions that I was not expecting in the slightest.

In terms of the story, it's not just a sequel to Captain Marvel, but more of a follow-up to both Wandavision and Ms Marvel as well as the aforementioned Captain Marvel, meaning that there's a lot of catching up to do for the casual viewer. Essentially, there's a Kree revolutionary who creates some sort of wormhole, in search of certain elements to rebuild her world. There's the air from one planet to heal the atmosphere, water from another to fix a massive drought situation, and eventually our own sun to bring back the light.

Meanwhile, Monica Rambeau (Teyonna Parris) and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) are investigating this wormhole, and it causes their powers to become interlinked with not only each other but also with Kamala Khan's (Iman Vellani), and so the three of them form a new team. Together, they must learn to harness each other's powers to their advantage in order to stop Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) from doing any more damage to the universe, otherwise it could be catastrophic for everywhere that Danvers calls home.

It might not be the deepest story in the world, with very little nuance to cover up plotholes, but it gets the job done. You don't really need to think a whole lot whilst watching this one. Just go in, switch off your brain, and go along with it. What helps here is that it's actually one of the shorter Marvel movies, meaning that there's almost no padding to distract from the important stuff. At just an hour and 45 minutes, The Marvels is snappy in its storytelling which is what I'd like to see more of going forward. We don't need every MCU film to be 2 and a half hours long, and this one proves that point.

Where it falters somewhat is the villain. Zawe Ashton portrays Dar-Benn as this cookie-cutter figure who goes around causing chaos with almost zero motivation. She gives a big speech, let's her army do the dirty work, and moves onto the next bit of madness. Of course, we find out later why she's doing all of this, but by that time we're into the third act and it's a little too late to care about it. If they'd given her some more to work with in terms of characterisation, I think Ashton could have given a much better performance, as I know she's capable of great stuff, but instead she comes off as annoying which is a shame.

I'm not going to be the first one to say this, and definitely not the last, but it's worth shining a spotlight on Iman Vellani who outdoes her co-stars in so many ways. She is a miracle bit of casting, playing Ms Marvel as this megafan of everything superhero-related who is suddenly thrust into this situation where she has to fight alongside her idol. She's in awe of everything around her, with all of the sights around her being completely fresh, and it's difficult not to get caught up in her excitable curiosity. Who among us wouldn't squeal with delight when thrown into something like this? Every scene she was in, I was just smiling throughout, and I really hope she appears more in the future, not just Marvel-wise but also in the wider world of cinema.

Larson and Parris unfortunately don't give their all here, taking a little bit of a backseat to everybody else. Both seem to be going through the motions more than anything, and again it's a shame because they can both give seriously great performances when given the right material. If you want to see them at their best, I'd recommend Free Fire and They Cloned Tyrone respectively.

Overall, The Marvels is a fairly solid actioner. Maybe not the cream of the crop, but still worth watching if you want something light and breezy. Nia DaCosta directs this film with an eye for narrative precision, keeping everything short and snappy whilst also allowing room for some character exploration here and there. Some of it's a little on-the-nose in my opinion, however it's all in keeping with the comicbook aesthetic that these movies are moving more towards. You could argue that she might not have been given too much creative freedom with this being ultimately a Marvel movie, but the risks taken are memorable enough to be noticeable.

All in all, I had fun with this, which to me is all that matters with these movies. If you want a superhero project with more substance, watch the second season of Loki which has just wrapped up. It's got wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey shenanigans, Ke Huy Quan gets to spread his charm from episode to episode, and it has one of the most satisfying endings in any of the Disney+ MCU shows. Go watch it, you'll have a great time.