The Meh-vels.

I wanted to like this. I wanted this to be good. Sadly, it ended up being another bland, emotionless Marvel product to add to the roster.

The Marvels had some good ideas that could have contributed to a compelling story. Carol's actions having negative consequences for the Kree could have been effective commentary on repercussions from foreign interventions, and could have shown how overthrowing oppression isn't the end of the issue. It could also have added some depth to Carol's character by showing the guilt that she lives with. Said guilt could have been used to motivate her desire for isolation, which is how she starts off the story, and could have led her to having an arc of learning to forgive herself and accept connections with others. We get hints of some of this, but none of it is developed enough to have any emotion or impact. Monica having conflicted feelings about Carol due to feeling abandoned is briefly addressed, and then resolved. Rather than having a story where our three heroines develop connections with each other over the course of the story, they almost immediately become friends, and have no real conflicts throughout the story. We get one awkward scene where they spout exposition at each other that's supposed to be character development, but it's not earned because it feels forced, and doesn't really match the characters we've been watching up to this point. Because I didn't see them develop or grow very much, I didn't end up feeling anything. You need to show character development, rather than just telling us that it's happening. The ending wants me to feel things, but they didn't give me the opportunity to do that.

The villain, Dar-Benn, is among Marvel's weakest. With her tragic backstory making her the living representation of Carol's mistake, she had potential. But her motivations are shoved into one exposition dump, and then she mostly just acts like a generic bad guy with barely any screentime. Like with the rest of the characters, this film isn't willing to allow us to feel what Dar-Benn's feeling, but rather just tell us about it, and not in a way that allows us to connect to her. It's just a wasted opportunity, like the rest of this story.

Also, this is nitpicky, but there were some shockingly bad technical aspects to this film. I'm used to bad green screening in recent MCU films, but there was a blatant use of ADR near the end that took me right out of the scene. A character is wounded, and goes from speaking through pained breathing to speaking totally fine while off screen for one line of dialogue. There were also blatant continuity errors when it came to the costume design. For example, Carol goes from wearing boots on her bed to putting crocs on, and the boots have disappeared. She's wearing a white tank top, and then decided to wear a black tank top in the next scene for no reason. Both Monica and Kamala are also in different outfits as well, and we don't know why. It also was convenient that Carol had clothes and shoes that fit Kamala, despite her being significantly shorter. I admit that this is nitpicking, but I expect Disney to have more attention to detail.

Were there things that I liked? Yes. I have not seen Ms. Marvel, and the trailers made it seem like Kamala was going to be really annoying. However, I thought Iman Vellani gave the strongest performance. She was charming, likeable, funny, and brought the most energy to every scene she was in. Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris both seemed kind of checked out, but they still succeeded in having solid chemistry with each other and with Vellani. When the scenes were just the three hanging out, despite the lack of character development, I was still entertained. The action sequences were pretty fun, and it's clear that Nia DeCosta is skilled at directing them. Rather than being subjected to repeated fast cuts that make it clear the actors aren't doing the stunts, the camera flows around the environment, and allows us to see the movements clearly. There were also many clever uses of the character's powers that kept the action engaging. There was a sequence on a planet where everyone speaks in song, and I thought it was a lot of fun. I wish we got more of it, rather than the film abandoning the joke relatively quickly.

I thought Captain Marvel was a better made film, but I did think this was more fun than that film. I wish this was better, but this is ultimately more of a product than it is art. I want this to succeed, because I want more female led superhero films, but I also don't want it to, so Disney can potentially consider changing course with how they're making these films. As always, if people had a good time watching this, then I'm glad.

SPOILERS FOR THE MID CREDIT SCENE

Ugh. In addition to ruining an emotional sequence with awkward dialogue and forced humor, we also finally get to see Kelsey Grammer return as Hank McCoy, and he looks awful. The makeup work they did with him in X-Men 3 was amazing, and he did a fantastic job embodying the character there. Here, he's a CGI abomination that looks horrendous. I hope this is not what he's going to look like in his next film appearance.