Marvel's latest cinematic instalment bombed at the box office, and considering the size of the franchise, there's a lot we need to talk about
By Mariana Schuetze
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) recently had a new addition, its 33rd film, The Marvels, released in November and directed by Nia DaCosta. The film stars two “Marvels,” Captain Marvel, or Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson, Ms. Marvel, or Kamala Khan(played by Canadian superstar Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris. In The Marvels, the superpowers of these three superheroes get jumbled together, so every time one of them uses their power, they switch places.
The premise, to me at least, was great. I was sold when I heard the idea. I’m a sucker for platonic relationships and, besides having their powers tangled, they all also have complicated emotional relationships with each other. Kamala is a super fan of Captain Marvel and Carol and Monica are family since Carol and Monica's mom, Maria Rambeau, were together in the United States Air Force.
So, yes, I was quite excited about the film. Yet, the execution of this interesting premise left a lot to to be desired. The film’s strongest moments are when the three super-powered women team up, especially the few times they take a minute to talk about their feelings. Larson continues to portray Danvers as this closed-off strong-willed woman, now with a touch of feelings when she’s forced to interact with her best friend’s daughter who she hasn’t seen in 30 years. Parris’ character adds that touch of emotion to Danvers and gives more life to the character we first saw in WandaVision. Rounding out the trio, Vellani brings an incredibly fresh take to the MCU, playing the super-fan-turned-superhero to perfection (if I had superpowers and got to save the world with my favourite superhero, I’d be acting just like her).
The bad guy in the film, Dar-Benn (played by Zawe Ashton), is going after Kamala’s bangle, so she can have enough power to save her planet. The Marvels continue to touch on the history and future of alien races, Kree and the Skrulls. They have been displaced from their planet since 1995 in Captain Marvel (2019) when Danvers promised to protect them. She is also connected to the reason why Dar-Benn's Skrull planet was destroyed, so more reason for them to be involved.
With so much happening in the MCU by this point, the beginning of the film suffers from over-exposition. To keep the audience in the loop, they have to give context and background to all these new characters, who have all appeared in different projects of the franchise so far, including films and Disney+ shows. Once the plot starts picking up, with some training montage moments and adventures through space, we begin to get a bit more excited about what's going on. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is also present in the film and brings some funny one-liners alongside Kamala’s family (who gets stuck in a spaceship at one point).
However, once we got to the final act, everything seemed rushed. The stakes, once again, are incredibly high and this trio of superheroes that have never worked together before, manage to save the day in probably 15 minutes. The emotional conflicts throughout the film, especially between Carol and Monica; and Kamala and her family, are quickly resolved in a way that makes you feel like you’ve missed something, even if you didn’t leave the theatre room once.
In the end, what I like the most about The Marvels and what gives it rewatch value is how the film made me feel. The three superheroes are loud, fierce and know what they want. As an anxious, insecure people-pleaser, it was so strange yet incredibly valuable to see the three of them never question their own decisions or each others’. They all knew exactly what they wanted to say and do and everyone respected their decisions, recognizing each others’ value. In a world where women a lot of the time don’t even have a space to talk, this felt pretty powerful.
But yet, since the terrible reception of Captain Marvel back in 2019 where bots and men flooded the internet with misogynistic comments and reviews, I don’t think anyone expected this film to do too well (it has three leading women, after all). And, well, guess what? It didn’t. The Marvels just became the MCU's lowest-grossing film at the box office, making a whopping 198 thousand dollars at the global box office. This is six times less than what Captain Marvel made in 2019. This time around, however, The Marvels, didn’t get review-bombed, having received a fresh rating of 61 per cent from critics and an 82 per cent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Considering all of that, I’d say we can't disregard misogyny in the calculation of the MCU's downfall. As the franchise's audience has grown, it's fair to assume so has its female audience. So, in an attempt to captivate more of this audience (and just follow the times, I guess), the MCU has given a bit more space to its female heroes with movies like Black Widow (2021), Captain Marvel, Eternals (2021), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and now, The Marvels, plus giving many of them their own TV shows. Still, even though watching these films makes me feel incredibly badass, they're not the most popular with the fans; why?
Is it a lack of good writing? No, these films have had incredible filmmakers attached to them (see: Eternals, helmed by Oscar-award-winning director, Chloe Zhao)
Is it a lack of stellar performances? No, a lot of these actors are incredibly talented (see: Brie Larson, Natalie Portman, Tatiana Maslany…)
Is it a lack of funding? No, these films are all part of the MCU franchise, they get access to the same resources (see: compare budgets/spending of two MCU films, one male-centred the other female-centred)
Yet, every single female-forward project of the MCU has suffered with setbacks in one way or another. Black Widow didn’t get the theatre release it deserved, Eternals was harshly trashed by the critics, She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel got the same treatment and now, The Marvels’s disastrous box office. So, what does the future of the MCU look like? I fear that with all these female-led superhero films being so trashed by a majority of male fans, we won’t get to see these stories on screen anymore.
However, the MCU is suffering from more than just misogyny and the fear of “what’s woke”. Many of Marvel’s recent projects have been quite off, and certainly not as fiscally successful as we’ve come to expect. In some way or another, I think the MCU is just getting too big. Much like the comic books, all the stories now are deeply connected. To watch one instalment in the theatre and enjoy that collective experience we all long for, you have to come prepared with about 10-20 hours of extra bonus content (and a Disney+ subscription). That can be too much for the majority of audiences.
By the end of 2023, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come out with 33 films and 11 Disney+ shows, having announced another five shows 12 new movies for their end of Phase 5 and the upcoming Phase 6. But unlike Captain America: Civil War (2016) and the Infinity Saga (2018-2019), this time we’ll have to watch over 40 projects to be able to have the best experience in the theatres, instead of the 18 that were out by 2018 when Infinity War first came out. But who has the time to be up to date with all of that today? Is that even sustainable for audiences?
In the end, I think we are all looking for that feeling of sitting down in a movie theatre on opening night surrounded by friends and fellow MCU fans, collectively experiencing the final battle of Endgame, and seeing, one by one, all the characters we’ve grown to love in the past 10 years come out of magic portals. Being there, together, all sharing an experience, all with the same level of understatement, attachment and connection to these characters (because, after all, we all had watched the same films), is something we're all longing for. And so are the studio executives, longing for the big buck these films made. I believe that experience is hard to replicate, and it’s what we’re all looking for. Anything that is that, will do greatly (see: Spider-Man: No Way Home). Anything that is not, will just feel disappointing…